A bad meeting can suck the life out of your day, but every so often a meeting can inspire you to go out and conquer the world – or at least stop procrastinating on that one project. Here at Rhyme & Reason, I won’t say that we love meetings – honestly, who does? – but I will say that we have begun to master the art of good meetings.

As just about any business book will tell you, meetings are part of the big picture (Traction and Rockefeller Habits are two of our favs). Meetings help businesses set goals, achieve objectives, and keep things running smoothly. Of course, we didn’t need a book to tell us that. We’ve been hosting Monday morning agenda meetings since we first opened our doors (back then it was Sunday evening – ouch) and we’ve had more client meetings than we can count. As of late, however, we’ve been holding more internal meetings. Aghhhhh, you say? Before you run screaming from this blog, hear me out.

Communication Matters

So why are we scheduling more internal face-time? Because communication really does matter. To make a business successful you have to make some plans. At the end of last year, Karen and I started meeting every Tuesday morning for coffee and communication. It sounds silly that we would need to meet once a week outside of the office to check-in, but when you are working on client needs from the moment you step into the office until the moment you leave, there’s not much time to check the pulse of your own business or your business partner. These meetings gave Karen and I just that opportunity. And you know what? They’ve been awesome! We’ve resolved issues, created quarterly goals, put those goals into practice and achieved them. All over coffee outside of the office. Our business is running more efficiently and for the first time ever, we have a plan that isn’t just written down, but actually followed. That’s HUGE!

Team Meetings

Since we’ve seen such great success with our weekly morning coffee chats, we’ve decided to bring our team together for a few. We’ve had a meeting about the development of our quarterly marketing plan and a process meeting, just to name a few. Like the meetings with just Karen and I, we skip the small talk and focus on the big picture. We get out of the office (hello, Little Tart), prepare topics and keep an eye on the time. The results so far have proved to us that meetings not only work, they also matter. We’ve walked away from our meetings with an executable marketing plan, a better understanding of process and a more invested team.

Still not convinced that meetings are right for you? Think about these advantages and then decide.

• Better decisions are made
• Broader buy-in and consensus
• Increased understanding of complex problems and issues
• More complete resolution of conflicts
• Greater likelihood of follow up and follow through

Ready to start meeting for a reason? Be prepared to plan your meeting objectives, stick to the agenda, manage your time, get outside of your space and listen to each other. We’ll be happy to meet up to hear your thoughts on meetings.