Business meetings are a crucial part of a firm. The meetings help you to monitor business processes and activities to meet its goals and objectives. In business meetings, you can gain detailed insights, share ideas, discuss problems and plan things accordingly to make collective decisions.
Regardless of the organization’s size and strength, business meetings are a vital aspect to evaluate and achieve the targeted goals. However, not all business meetings are the same; in fact, there are some types of business meetings that you should know to make it a balanced and productive meeting.
Common types of business meetings
There are six common types of business meetings. Let’s discuss them in detail below:
Status update meetings
Status update meetings, aka progress checks, bring all parties on the table that are involved in a project. They help evaluate progress, challenges ahead, and next steps required for the project.
To summarize, status update meetings give you answer to these questions:
- What has the business achieved since the last meeting?
- What tasks remain to be done?
- What is the next challenge?
Furthermore, this business meeting intends to maintain the project efficiency and ensure all stakeholders are held accountable as per their duties. In such situations, the best and safe approach is to pose relevant questions in a straightforward way. For example, you may ask, “What is impeding the progress on this project?” or “Do you need any resources from higher management to fulfill the task?”
Status meetings can become dull and boring quickly, so keep them relevant and practical. Stay focused, stay on track, and don’t throw surprises that could affect the meeting’s agenda.
Status update business meetings benefits:
- Provide detailed insights about the project’s progress.
- You can review successes, failures, and future challenges.
- Helpful in decision making and to address challenges.
Decision-making meetings
These business meetings are suitable when you and your project team want to discuss and agree on a course of action. These are also suitable for discussing various options before making the final call.
The main agenda of a decision meeting includes:
- Which option is best for business and why?
- Who is responsible for implementing the decision?
These meetings revolve around key business decisions so often have many members. Status update meetings are more suitable for smaller decisions, but important ones are discussed in decision-making meetings.
On the other hand, the decision-making process is complicated, so that several different meetings can be scheduled. All stakeholders come up with key stats, solutions for the problems and agree on the business’s best future move. That is why these meetings are lengthy and include back and forth communication.
In the end, all parties get agreed on the decision and clearly indicate who will manage the next steps.
Decision-making meetings benefits:
- Best way to represent all key points and opinions.
- Encourages team building and offers an in-depth understanding of all the possible options before making the final decision regarding the project.
- Enhance the commitment levels for future steps.
Problem-solving meetings
Like decision-making business meetings, the problem-solving meeting also features a single goal. These meetings help to figure out what are the causes of the problem and how to resolve it. This meeting acts as an “incident response,” where you and your team members are gathered to tackle an immediate solution to a specific problem, or it can be a strategy developing session. Commonly, answers to these four questions are determined in the meeting:
- What are the problems and their causes?
- How to address the issue immediately?
- How to prevent the issue from recurring?
- What will be the course of action and why?
In these meetings, the focus remains on both short-term and long-term solutions. Plus, the key concern is to find the root causes of the problem.
Problem-solving meetings benefits:
- Gives a definite solution or a series of possible solutions for the problem.
- Helps to dedicate responsibilities and represents who will manage which part of the solution.
- Helps to draft a timetable for the execution of the solution(s).
- Determines course of actions to prevent the problem again.
Team-building meetings
Every business meeting encourages team-building, but a dedicated team-building meeting focuses only on developing the mutual understanding between teams and members. These business meetings may include various activities and tasks. Similarly, the meetings can be freeform, allowing the groups and members at their leisure.
These meetings can be formal events or outings for the groups, departments, or the whole organization. Furthermore, the meeting also helps in retaining the employees and helps to enhance their loyalty and engagement. These are perfect for developing a personal and healthy relationship among the employees.
Team-building meetings benefits:
- Enhance trust and loyalty among team members.
- Helps to boost faith in the firm’s mission.
- Increases employee dedication.
Idea-sharing meetings
Information and ideas are shared in all business meetings, but idea-sharing meetings are conducted to educate the members regarding pertinent topics. These business meetings include presentations, training, or debates. However, the point is to keep the participants focused and attentive during the time.
Idea-sharing meetings benefits:
- Allows you to convey your message and goals through visual aids such as pictures, video, etc.
- Encourages healthy debates with questions and answers.
- Includes polls and surveys to get attention.
Innovation meetings
Innovative business meetings, aka brainstorming meetings, are perfect for developing a close relationship among team members while possessing a creative element.
Some common examples of innovative business meetings are drafting ads, creating designs, brainstorming content for advertisement, and developing new business product strategies. To make the business meeting successful, form a welcoming atmosphere while focusing on the key elements.
Innovation business meeting benefits:
- Helps to generate and discuss several ideas for the project.
- Promotes “out there” thinking among teams.
- Keeps the team members inspired and motivated.
- Challenges the limits of the team’s creativity.
Now that you know all about business meetings and their types, manage your meetings successfully. Keep in mind that planning is a must for business productivity, and the more effective business meetings you will schedule, the more your employees and teams will make good use of these meetings.
