Whether we like it or not, corporate meetings are an inevitable part of an entrepreneur’s everyday life. During the week we have to deal with meetings of different nature: some are used to solve problems, others to share information or to give directions, still others to consolidate team spirit.
One thing is sure: not all meetings are created equal.
Each business meeting has specific objectives and must be set up differently. In this article we will see what are the 5 main types of meetings, analyzing their characteristics and peculiarities to understand how to best set them. In the next paragraphs we will talk about:
- Training / information meeting
- Decision-making meeting
- Analytical meeting
- Creative meeting
- Motivational meeting
Even though they may not like it, business meetings are an extremely important internal communication tool. To make the most of the time invested in these moments of confrontation and prevent them from turning into a useless waste of time, it is essential to organize everything carefully.
If you are looking for some organizational suggestions this post may be for you: How to organize useful and effective business meetings.
But before you start planning your next meetings, you need to know what kind of meetings you want to set up and what goals you want to achieve.
Training / information meeting
As you can easily guess, the purpose of this type of meeting is to share information. Often these are educational meetings with an approach similar to seminars or presentations, while other times the goal is to inform the public to persuade them to take action.
The main risk encountered in these corporate meetings is to bore the audience. By bombarding the interlocutor with a series of information, one ends up obtaining the opposite effect to the desired one. People want to be involved.
The secret is to keep an active listening: leave room for questions and feedback in order to encourage interaction. Too often these meetings are set up with strictly one-way communication, but it is not always the best strategy. Instead, try to make the presentation dynamic and interactive to keep interest alive and attention high. It is true that you are sharing information, but the opinions of others can always be enriching.
Decision-making meeting
Most business decisions are made in the course of a meeting, especially when it comes to important decisions. The objective of this type of meeting varies depending on the decision that must be taken, but the common denominator is generally the acquisition of the consent of the interlocutors.
Making choices or validating proposals in a group is never easy. How do you make a decision when there are different and sometimes conflicting points of view? Decision making can sometimes be torturous. To clarify your ideas, it may be helpful to include activities such as brainstorming, evaluating available options or a final vote.
The ideal would be to be able to make a decision shared by all participants in the meeting on the basis of the arguments examined. If everyone feels that their opinion has been taken into consideration they will be more willing to make the final choice, even if it won’t be the one they opted for.