Effective Engagement

Don’t try to do to much — when planning your meeting, keep the agenda tight and focused. Most people struggle to deal with more than three things at a time. When items get more complex, less is more.

Stay on track — control the meeting and the people in it. It’s your meeting and your outcomes. Gently remind people to stay on track. move unrelated discussions to another forum

Only invite the people who need to be there — this one is sometimes hard especially when a challenging or contentious topic is being discussed. Set a price on inclusion to the meeting — an opinion paper, a presentation, some piece of work that means the price of entry is not free.

Look for signs of distraction — when you see distraction beginning to set in, refocus the meeting or call proceedings to a close. Continuing when you have lost your audience will only yield no result or the wrong result.