6 Exercises You Need to Run a Successful Business Meeting

Get the most out of your meetings with these six great tips from global investor and CEO, Hanoi Morillo

There’s nothing worse than attending meetings that go off-track, don’t have an objective, and never seem to end. Avoid these common mistakes by sticking to some tried-and-tested techniques.

Hanoi Morillo (@hanoimorillo) is an investor and CEO of the US-based Fintech company Fivvy. She boasts an impressive CV, having held senior management positions at Google during her 12-year tenure there, and later moving on to become vice president of Digital Banking at Scotiabank. She’s no stranger to the media world either, as one of the Sharks in the famous TV Program “Shark Tank”.

Look to none other than Hanoi Morillo if you want to learn how to hold a productive, concise meeting. Find out more in the video!

How to run an effective meeting

1. Have a clear agenda

Set a clear agenda before the meeting. You need to know who will be speaking and how long they will be speaking for, what they will be speaking about, and why they will be speaking about that topic.

2. Prepare

Never hold a meeting without making sure you are fully prepared. If you can, it’s a good idea to send other participants materials for the meeting before it takes place, or have a chat with them to make sure everything is clear before the meeting begins.

3. Start on time

Always start at the time you originally set out to start at. Time is money, so waiting for latecomers is a cost to the company. But if you decide to start on time without waiting for latecomers, they will know that in future they will have to arrive at the specified time.

4. Set rules

Indicate how you would like to run the meeting at the start. Decide how questions and comments should be processed (for example, there will be 10 minutes for questions and comments at the end).

5. Use an ideas “parking lot”

It’s important to acknowledge good ideas and the interesting avenues your participants may want to follow, but if it’s not strictly part of the meeting’s agenda, park those ideas by noting them down and potentially allocating another meeting to discuss them.

6. How long should the meeting be?

Hanoi Morillo says that 30 minutes is the ideal meeting time. It’s short and sharp, and any longer may risk less attentive participants.

Did you enjoy this tutorial? If you would like to hear more of Hanoi Morillo’s expertise, check out her course, Agenda Organization for Energy and Time Management.

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