For many mangers and employees, meetings are a necessary evil at best. Oftentimes, negative feelings about meetings stem from people having unpleasant experiences with long, unproductive, boring meetings. The reality is that meetings are a critical function of the business world. That said, there are some simple ways to make meetings more efficient and engaging. If you master these guidelines, your meetings will lead to greater productivity, higher morale, and improved workplace morale.

Invite Active Participants

Obviously, when planning a meeting, you need to invite staff members who will be responsible to implement the decisions and plans that are made at them. It’s sometimes also important to “throw a bone” to some rank and file employees and invite them so they will feel like they are involved in the decision-making process. Consider this, however: if some of the people you’ve invited do not participate or contribute, regardless of their position or rank, you would be better served to invite people who are enthusiastic and engaged, regardless of their position or rank. There’s nothing wrong with if you are giving everyone a chance to be considered.

Choose a Productive Location

Instead of taking the time to reserve a conference room and dragging everyone from their desks/office/floors, why not schedule a “pop-up” meeting where everyone agrees to huddle around a team member’s desk? This sets the stage for multiple positive outcomes. The meeting is likely to be short, which helps workplace productivity and morale. Everyone also feels empowered as well.

Send an Agenda

Nothing can kill a meeting before it starts like failing to send an agenda. If participants don’t know what is going to be discussed and what the goal of the meeting is, plan to kiss productivity goodbye. Depending on the scope of the meeting, 1-2 days in advance, send a short agenda to everyone who Is expected to attend. This will help them know what to prepare and save time at the beginning of the meeting.

Follow Up with Action Items (Not Minutes)

Finally, after the meeting is over, resist the urge to send an exhaustive set of minutes that lay our minute technical details. Many organizations need to keep minutes for their records, but for the purpose of promoting productivity, you should plan to send a succinct document of action items, showing which is an employee is responsible for which action to take next.

Meetings should foster productivity, not kill it. Keep these guidelines in mind to keep them efficient and lively.