Get me to the meeting on time.

[JonPayne]

Online or offline, it’s hard to get everyone to arrive on time for internal meetings. The best leaders know this is essential to make the most of your time together.  What’s the best incentive to get people in the room on time, every time?

*To learn more about this, check out the Maintaining Alignment With Smarketing Meetings lesson via HubSpot Academy. 

[EPitlick]

When is zoom going to add smell? 😆

[CDibben]

I'd be there in seconds @UDAS24 

[LuisUlcueCampo]

We all are kind of emotional about something and we reason out sometimes, so explaining to them that you have other meetings to attend and tasks to perform might help. They'll also be "free" and will go and do what they have to.

Predicting how long a meeting will take to go thorugh it's kind of hard, but what I do when I'm teaching is to plan out my lesson and think of how talkative learners are so I can leave some room for questions that may come up from them.

[CDibben]

Appealing to the emotional side is a good tactic @LuisUlcueCampo. To end meetings on time, I like to:

- Stay on top of conversations which I notice are dragging the meeting in the wrong direction

- Prioritise agenda items in terms of importance, that way if we run out of time and need a hard stop, the most important bits have already been discussed

- Remind the team to be respectful of people's time so that everyone remains focused throughout and don't distract

[JonPayne]

I've just realised these are all tactics you use very subtly on me! Thanks for being so gentle with me!

[MMUNTZ]

Yes, starting meetings on time will set the habit for attendees that they can count on my meetings starting on time and ending on time.

[JonPayne]

Ending meetings on time is a great tip and a habit the best managers seem to have but I find it really tough 😥 Any tips on how to stop my meetings running over @MMUNTZ? 🙏

[MMUNTZ]

I know it can be tough to end on time.

Try sending out an agenda with the topics of conversation and the allotted time in the meeting for that topic.
I send this out a few days ahead of time.

Restate the purpose of the meeting at the beginning of the meeting so that all are reminded of purpose:
Is it an overview
Is it a fact finding mission
Is it a whiteboarding focus group

Thank them for their time and add that you understand they are all very busy.

Reel in one off conversations to keep on point of your meeting
Request emails or phone calls to discuss topics in depth or schedule.


Hope that helps.

[CDibben]

I like to think of myself as a pro reeling in those conversations which go off on a tangent @MMUNTZ 😂 Having the timings for the agenda is a really good way to make sure you're on track throughout - great tip!

[CDibben]

Totally agree with approach! 🙌

[CDibben]

My tip for starting Zoom meetings on time is simply to start Zoom meetings on time.

If you wait for latecomers, you're then setting expectations that you will wait for them when they are late in future. If the meeting starts at 9am, I'm ready to go at 9am and if they come in five minutes late and miss some valuable content, well - that's a lesson learned for next time! 😂

[JonPayne]

The wonderful Meri Williams once told me that the best way to get ANYONE into a meeting on time is to wander through the office with warm pastries 10 minutes before it’s due to start. 

(JP) All your delegates will magically appear - some waft in following the smell of your baked goods and others will arrive shortly thereafter because of herd mentality.

Doesn’t work remotely of course. I’m still struggling with that one, over a year into lockdown!