How many times have people been late to your meetings in the last month? If you are like me there are cases where punctuality isn’t always respected and quite often there is a good reason for this. It could be somebody misreading the diary or it could be the technology for an online meeting letting users down.
Who usually takes the meeting minutes? Our board meetings always have meeting minutes but quite often less formal meetings do not have audit trails on who said what and when. This lack of documentation can lead to a lack of clarity and accountability.
So what if you could eliminate meetings which did not start in time and you had meeting minutes every time? Well, this is now possible with Sound Branch Gatherings.
Below are the 5 simple steps to create and conduct a just-in-time meeting:
Step 1 – All meeting participants register for a Sound Branch account
Step 2 – Your meeting organiser adds all participants to a private group
Step 3 – A gathering link is sent out as a meeting invite and is added to all participants calendars
Step 4 – And here is the magic – on the date and time of meeting people click the URL to join from their calendar
The advantage of just-in-time meetings is that busy executives can drop in and out whilst listening to all the conversations at a time of their pleasing. In addition, people late to a meeting can catch up by playing the audio that preceded them. This saves the need to repeat back to people what has been going on.
Furthermore, as the meeting overruns some people can drop out and others can stay online if needed. Just-in-time meetings give greater flexibility of diary management.
Once in the gathering all participants using their mobile phone or just a computer microphone record voice messages (voice notes) with their points of view. This works similar to group chat in messaging applications.
Step 5 – Once the Gathering has been completed the chair of the meeting can review the transcript of meeting minutes, make amendments and then circulate.
So, in summary, a Sound Branch Gathering:
- Reduces meeting cancellations and scheduling administration
- Increases meeting participation
- Gives people more time to prepare answers
All this leads to better meeting experiences and higher levels of engagement. From a business continuity, governance and compliance standpoint having meeting minutes available just-in-time is also a tick in the box for boards of directors.
Finally, it is worth noting that face-to-face meetings and live online video meetings have their clear benefits. For run-of-the-mill meetings and certainly meetings held across time zones the just-in-time meeting approach allows people a better way of managing their time, gives everyone a voice and ensures people are kept in the loop.