Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning.
Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
Speaker 1: tip is that at the end of any meeting, you
Speaker 1: should go through the action steps everyone needs to take
Speaker 1: before you meet again. This quick and simple step will
Speaker 1: increase the likelihood that you make the progress you plan
Speaker 1: to make between meetings. So, for better or for worse,
Speaker 1: many professional and volunteer teams rely on meetings to create accountability.
Speaker 1: Nobody wants to be sitting across the table from coworkers
Speaker 1: and acknowledge that they haven't completed the tasks that were
Speaker 1: assigned to them, so they generally do of the tasks
Speaker 1: they are supposed to do before the next meeting. Now,
Speaker 1: you might argue that colleagues should be accountable to each
Speaker 1: other even when they are not meeting face to face,
Speaker 1: and that you shouldn't have to waste time sitting in
Speaker 1: meetings when there's nothing to actually discuss, and I would
Speaker 1: totally agree with you. I truly dislike the inefficiency of
Speaker 1: having people sit in meetings just to see that yep,
Speaker 1: everyone is still doing their jobs. But we live in
Speaker 1: the real world, and I know that many workplaces have
Speaker 1: a meeting heavy culture, where scheduling a meeting is the
Speaker 1: way you get your tasks to rise to the top
Speaker 1: of people's priority lists. So if you do work in
Speaker 1: such a place, you may as well make the most
Speaker 1: of this accountability to keep things on track. One way
Speaker 1: to do that is to make absolutely sure that at
Speaker 1: the end of each meeting everybody understands exactly what needs
Speaker 1: to happen before the next meeting. You will probably have
Speaker 1: decided on action steps through the meeting, but at the
Speaker 1: end of the meeting it is still incredibly helpful to
Speaker 1: review them again. As in Caroline, you'll draft the Ford
Speaker 1: proposal and circulate it to the team by next Tuesday,
Speaker 1: and Blake, you will find out from accounting how much
Speaker 1: is left in the reserve account and email the team
Speaker 1: and update you get the idea. Make sure everybody is
Speaker 1: clear on what work they are going to get done
Speaker 1: before the next meeting. Then when you send out the
Speaker 1: meeting follow up notes, it is wise to remind people
Speaker 1: of the action steps you agreed on yet again, and
Speaker 1: when you circulate the agenda for the next meeting, it
Speaker 1: is also not a bad idea to review the action
Speaker 1: steps once more. This creates one last chance for people
Speaker 1: to fulfill their responsibilities before the meeting. If you are
Speaker 1: the one chairing the meeting, you are well positioned to
Speaker 1: set the norm of doing all this. If you are
Speaker 1: the one taking notes or providing support to the meeting,
Speaker 1: you may also be able to build in ways to
Speaker 1: remind people of their action items. But even if you
Speaker 1: are not the meeting chair or assistant, you may still
Speaker 1: be able to make sure that everyone understands what they
Speaker 1: are supposed to do. One option is that if there
Speaker 1: is any sort of any questions moment or anything else
Speaker 1: moment toward the end of the meeting, you can pipe
Speaker 1: up to reflect back what you think the action steps are,
Speaker 1: or at least those that you are responsible for, so
Speaker 1: to confirm I am responsible for finding co chairs for
Speaker 1: the Winter Gala and connecting them with last year's co
Speaker 1: chairs and Jack right. That way, you'll at least know
Speaker 1: that everyone is aligned about what you are doing. Your
Speaker 1: question may prompt others to reflect back what they see
Speaker 1: themselves as responsible for, or the meeting chair may get
Speaker 1: the hint and take the opportunity to recap everyone's action steps.
Speaker 1: Whether we like it or not, that meetings are used
Speaker 1: for accountability. It is wise to make the most of
Speaker 1: the fact that they are confirm exactly what everyone should
Speaker 1: be doing at the end of the meeting and perhaps
Speaker 1: in the follow up notes and subsequent meeting agendas too.
Speaker 1: That way, when you meet again, at least you won't
Speaker 1: waste time rehashing what was supposed to be done. You
Speaker 1: can keep moving forward, or at least we hope you can.
Speaker 1: In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and
Speaker 1: here's to making the most of our time. Hey, everybody,
Speaker 1: I'd love to hear from you. You can send me
Speaker 1: your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just connect with
Speaker 1: me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at Before Breakfast Pod.
Speaker 1: That's b E the number four then Breakfast pod. You
Speaker 1: can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast podcast
Speaker 1: at iHeartMedia dot com. That before Breakfast is spelled out
Speaker 1: with all the letters. Thanks so much, I look forward
Speaker 1: to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartRadio.
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