5 tools to optimize work meetings

Meetings are very important for sharing ideas, exchanging opinions and defining business strategies. However, meetings often get too long, so employees spend a lot of time for other tasks. Optimizing work meetings is the goal of many companies and in today’s article we present 5 must-have tools to get the most out of your meetings!

Cloud

Meetings are often intended to make decisions based on information shared across departments. It is essential that documents are made available so that all those involved can access them and can change their content. Using the Cloud to share documents is very important so that in a meeting everyone can contribute to improving information.

Mindmeister

A mind map allows you to have a generic and organized view of the subject being addressed at the meeting. Mindmeister is a tool that allows you to create mind maps on the web and is free for up to three maps simultaneously. This tool is very useful for creating references for developing new business strategies and even for creating new products.

Shared Agenda

For a meeting to be fruitful, it is necessary for all those involved in the theme of the meeting to be present. However, it is not always easy to achieve the availability of all at the same time, which can lead to constant recharges and wasted time. Using a shared agenda is a simple and effective solution, as it is possible to integrate the agendas of everyone involved in the meeting. Thus, it is easier to see when all people have a free time for the meeting, avoiding successive redials that lead to significant time losses.

Skype

Skype is a free tool that lets even people who are away participate in the meeting. Distance is no longer an obstacle to people being unable to be present in the company’s decisions, and being a virtual meeting, there is less tendency to waste time on issues that are irrelevant to the theme of the meeting.

Team Meeting Checklist

This is a very interesting tool as it sets out the 25 fundamental conditions for successful work meetings. It focuses on details ranging from the preparation of the data, the location of the meeting and the goals to be achieved. You can share all the information in the meeting and make it available to all your stakeholders, so everyone knows what topics are going to be covered and their order of approach.

5 essential tools to get the most out of your work meetings

Make your meetings more productive

A working meeting should be as objective as possible, always focusing on the resolution of the situation that originated it. Often, the managers prolong the meeting too much, eventually dispersing and losing the focus of the theme that joined the team. In this article, we’ll introduce you to 5 essential tools to get the most out of your work meetings.

Google Drive

This tool lets you share documents by multiple users. It is a free tool that can be used by anyone who has an email account on Google. Anyone can view and edit documents without having to save the file on the computer and to send later to the whole team. In a working meeting this tool is very useful because all the people can consult the same file simultaneously, being easier the exchange of opinions.

Less Meeting

This tool encourages teams to have more productive meetings because it allows them to check their time and discussion time for each topic. Before the meeting begins, the discussion time for each agenda item is defined and the tool monitors the time that has already been spent, always showing the user if the meeting is reaching its previously established goals.

Team Meeting Checklist

This is a very interesting tool because it establishes the 25 fundamental conditions for a successful meeting. It focuses on details ranging from the preparation of the data, the location of the meeting and the goals to be achieved. You can share all the information in the meeting and make it available to all your stakeholders, so everyone knows what topics are going to be covered and their order of approach.

Free Screen Sharing

It is a very useful tool for online meetings. It lets you participate in meetings where one or more people’s computers are completely shared. Only the selected items will be shared, so the power is always on the side of the person who’s sharing the computer. This tool also allows you to have a chat during the meeting period and send private messages.

Doodle

If you want to schedule a meeting with a lot of people, you will certainly have to deal with the problem of reconciling at all times. This tool helps you with this question and it works quite simply: each member places the schedules that have available and the tool is in charge of finding the ideal time for everyone!

Working meetings are undoubtedly essential for discussions between teams and for decision-making. However, if they are not well planned we run the risk of wasting time and leaving the meeting without any concrete solution. These tools will help you to have more productive and effective meetings!