Running Effective Meetings For Dummies

Chapter 3

Understanding the Full Meeting Continuum

IN THIS CHAPTER

Cataloguing what to consider before the meeting

Exploring how to facilitate participation during meetings

Identifying ways to hold people accountable as the meeting adjourns

You may think of meetings as an event, and you wouldn’t be wrong. A meeting is a gathering that occurs at a specific time on a specific day and in a specific place, including physical or digital environments. But if you want your meeting to be effective and worthy of the calendar slot it occupies, you need to think beyond the event itself and consider what we call the full meeting continuum.

The full meeting continuum includes what should happen before, during, and after the meeting. The full meeting continuum must be carefully considered in order for a meeting to be successful.

Good meetings have good things that happen before, during, and after the meeting. Bad meetings have bad things that happen before, during, and after the meeting. Most meetings are sort of “meh” (to put it in highly technical terms). They have “meh” things that happen ...