PERSONAL SPECIAL................... Meetings are an inescapable part of corporate life.

Meetings are an inescapable part of corporate life.

Managing effective meetings, though, requires many things: a clear agenda, timelines, ideation from all participants and fun and trivia, underscored with the core goal.

1 Have an Agenda The first rule is to have a clear agenda. “It is beneficial to distribute the agenda to all the participants beforehand. This helps everyone come prepared,” says Nitin Pande, vice president, HR, HCL Technologies.

2 Strike a Balance An engaging meeting is a fine balance of anecdotes, instinct and information — too little or too much of any of these is a compromise, says Sameer Wadhawan, vice president, human resources, Coca-Cola India & South West Asia. Also, the leader must find ways to stimulate interaction among the group.

3 Include Breaks Intersperse lengthy meetings with breaks. Take up a physical activity or a short breathing exercise or even a quiz on your company or brands. “An engaging meeting is one where the chair cuts the conversation at the right time. Debate is healthy, arguments are difficult,” says Wadhawan.

4 Pass the Fruit Platter Around Here’s an aside: “Fruits should take precedence over cookies and biscuits in all meetings,” says Wadhawan. Coke boardroom meetings get done over a fruit platter, he says. “Fruits bring in more individuality, and are a very healthy option. But more importantly, we waste far lesser time moving fruits around the table, than we do moving snacks and cookies around,” he says.

5 Be Neutral “While addressing the participants, the leader should be neutral and focus on the process of running the meeting, not shaping the content,” says Pande. The leader should give all the perspectives and welcome opinions; he or she should avoid sharing strong personal opinions, he adds.

Rica Bhattacharyya ET140124