The Top 10 Actions to Take to Complete Your Meeting

Originally Submitted on 3/21/2001.

Yet another meeting, and you can't wait until it is over so that you can do some real work, right? So when you get to your desk do you immediately start working on the next awaiting project? If you do, the probability is that your meeting is not complete, and that you will therefore not get from it the benefit that you might. What needs to be done after a meeting in order to complete it? If these tasks are left until later they may become tolerations, irritations, unnecessarily bogging down your thinking because you know that they remain undone. Some suggestions to consider:

1. Personal follow-ups

Was there anyone at the meeting who you agreed to meet again? Would like to meet again? There's no time like the present for making the phone call or sending the email or note, while you and they still have each other clearly in mind. They will be flattered that you contacted them so promptly. Who do you need to thank? Thank you notes are an integral part of networking, a way to let someone know that something they did or said was important and positive for you.

2. Send

Did you offer to supply information, background, or other materials to participants at the meeting? How long will you remember it if you don't do it soon? Will they even remember why you are sending it if it is delayed?

3. Enter personal information

Who did you meet for the first time? Do they belong in your Contacts database? Who else gave additional information that you might do well to add? Will you still remember next time you 'have a minute?'

4. Enter actions agreed to by you

What did you say that you'd do? By when? Where do you need to note this?

5. Clarify

Were tasks delegated to others? Do you all have the same understandings on this? Is it appropriate for you to follow up, clarify, and set deadlines?

6. Mend fences

Did disagreement come up? Did anyone (including you) leave the meeting feeling that there had been misunderstandings or that they had not been heard? Are fence-mending or clarification needed so that nothing will fester or negatively affect the long-term purpose of the meeting? Will progress be improved if you take some peace-making action?

7. Mentally integrate

Were you able to think through the important nuggets from the meeting and integrate them into your pre-existing mental picture? Has anything changed? What are the consequences of that change? How does your overall picture of events and plans change as a result?

8. Disseminate

Who needs to know what was decided? Were there absentees who should be informed? Other interested parties? Can be done by circulating minutes, but a specific on-line file accessible to all may be more efficient.

9. Integrate

Is there an existing file on the topic of the meeting? Is just filing new notes enough or does information need to be integrated with what already exists?

10. File

Agendas, handouts, notes, do not need to go on top of the stack on your desk, unless that stack is an in-basket and you have a caste-iron system for dealing with that stack on a regular basis. If you file them now, you will be able to find them whenever you need them. Before filing, discard whatever is irrelevant and make clarifying notes if relevance may not be apparent at a later date.

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