Effective meetings

In the webinar below, Heather Wildman (Saviour Associates) and Tess Howe (AHDB) explore how you can improve your business meetings, with a focus on family farms. We discuss the importance of good communication between everyone involved in your business to build resilience, including:

• Why family meetings need to be structured
• How can you plan and run a family meeting
• What should be on the agenda (and not!)
• Setting objectives and goals
• Tips and resources for communicating with your family

Top tips for effective meetings

1. Preparation is key to achieving results – what is the purpose and desired outcome? Who needs to be there? Set the scene with an agenda prior to the meeting, let people know in advance if they need to provide information and how this is expected to be delivered

2. Comfort is essential for all participants – convenient time, temperature, food, location, everyone understands why they are involved and what is expected of them

3. Summarise outcomes and circulate clear results/actions with all relevant individuals

4. Keep it to time, and give respect and appropriate responsibility to all attendees, to ensure active participation

5. Understand everyone is different – communication methods may differ according to the individual needs of the group, for instance drawings, maps, photos, illustrations, YouTube demonstrations

6. Honesty, consistency and transparency are always the best policy. Have a clear vision that everyone can work to

7. Meetings are an opportunity to review and plan, but also to praise people and recognise their achievements – and they can be fun!

8. No one is a mind reader, don’t assume everyone is on the same page. Make sure you have communicated clearly

9. We have two ears and one mouth, use them proportionally. Turn off phones and laptops. Do not be distracted

10. Not every action, decision or conversation needs to be a meeting – be wise with frequency and duration of meetings. Do not waste people’s time