Destruction? In a meeting? You may come out of the room knowing that you just had a meeting, but if you're left with the feeling that it was just a meeting to fuel other meetings, or that you just spent an hour of your life without getting much done, then you've probably had one of these three destructive forces present in the meeting with you. If you can recognise and spot them, you can have much better meetings in future - ones that people look forward to instead of dread.

Not having an agenda or sticking to it

The worst kind of meeting is one where the planning is poor - there is a general topic to be discussed, but a goal isn't stated, nor are the steps to achieve it. Invitees are just those who are either interested or who can make the end result happen, but the conductor of the meeting isn't particularly selective.

Then, when the meeting starts, there is no agenda, or if there is, it's not stuck to, so people wander off it at will, and sometimes the main topic of discussion gets buried in other issues that are brought to the table. Finally, there is no conclusion, so another meeting gets set because this one didn't seem to produce anything. If this sounds familiar to you - then it's immensely destructive to the purpose of having a meeting, people won't want to attend in the future and crucially, it seems to be a waste of everyone's time.

So how do you improve? It's as simple as having an agenda (not making it up as you go along in the meeting either!) and being quite firm in sticking to it. The meeting should also have a goal, and you need to outline the discussion steps to achieve it. You'll be amazed how much this simple rule can make your meetings much more productive.

Paying no attention to group and individual dynamics

If you are chairing a meeting, then you need to be aware of the group dynamics that a meeting can cause that aren't always prevalent in day to day office life. For example, there may be someone who likes to dominate the conversation and shout other people down, seeing the meeting as their platform to air their views. It's all right to have strong characters contribute to the meeting, but not to have them dominate it and keep other milder characters quiet, because their opinion should be valued, too.

Bringing the quieter people out of their shell to contribute is also another skill concerned with chairing meetings, as is stopping the "sheep syndrome" of everyone agreeing with each other so that they have an easier life, rather than point out flaws or issues in a plan. If you can balance the two sides, then you'll have a much better meeting with even contributions.

The wrong time, place or people

If you suddenly schedule a meeting that it's mandatory to attend when everyone is up against a deadline, they are not going to thank you in the long run and will try avoiding meetings in future. Similarly, if you invite people just to fill the room rather than relevant players to what you're going to discuss, they are going to get bored, feel they can't contribute to the topic, and feel similarly resentful.

Finally, the same attention should be paid to the venue - if it's too cramped, too hot or too cold, then you're not going to get the best out of your meeting invitees to the point where a bad room choice can become destructive in itself. But if you follow this and the other tips mentioned here, you're on your way to chairing much better productive meetings that people look forward to attending.