Wrap Your Meeting Up Right

You've had a great meeting. A lot has been accomplished, and important decisions have been made. It's time to call it a day. But people are tired and anxious to leave. Especially following an all–day meeting, the tendency is to want to vacate the meeting as quickly as possible. Leaving immediately is not a good idea, however. Taking the time to conduct a formal close to your session will leave your employees with a lasting impression of the meeting's accomplishments and decisions, as well as a pat on the back for their contributions.

A solid closure to an important meeting accomplishes the following:

• Gives participants a complete sense of the amount of work achieved.
  
  
• Reviews and celebrates progress made and recaps critical information.
  
  
• Promotes an understanding of the meeting's principal objectives.
  
  
• Provides participants with a feedback vehicle, allowing them to voice their questions, concerns, related ideas, etc.
  
  
• Gives the meeting facilitator a vehicle to address and diffuse negative emotions, concerns, discomforts, or fears the group may have.
  
  
• Allows facilitators to change or improve future meetings based on feedback.
  
  
• Lets participants revisit/review any action plans that were agreed upon.
  

Back to top

The information contained in this article is only an overview of the subject matter made for general guidance to the reader, and is subject in all cases to limitations and disclaimers set forth in Staples' Legal Terms and Conditions.