Engaging Virtual Meetings

10End Your Meeting on a High Note

Is the end of your meeting awkward? Do your meetings end on a low note? Do you have less energy at the end of your meetings? Do your attendees not know when to log off?

You've done all the work to create an engaging meeting; take the last step and end your meeting on a high note. It's very easy for work-minded people to forget this important step, but for recurring meetings, I think you'll see the benefits of investing in this step. You'll help your meeting establish rhythm and ritual by starting and ending every meeting in the same or similar way.

Erica Olsen, author of Strategic Planning Kit for Dummies, says:

You successfully made it all the way through your strategic planning meeting. You did it! You accomplished everything you intended. You have the key pieces of your strategic plan in place. You're feeling great. Everyone is slowly packing up and heading out the door, but you sense a feeling of exhaustion and maybe a little anxiety. You're wondering why.

What just happened is that you unintentionally ended your strategic planning meeting on a low note. In most cases, you have more to cover in your meeting than you have time for. You end up rushing the last part of the meeting to get it all done.

No matter where you are in your agenda, structuring the last half-hour of the meeting to end on a high note is critical to getting everyone excited about the new strategic direction.

The best way to get people jazzed about the plan is to have ...