Running Effective Meetings

Warm-up: The meeting starts with you

2 warm-up questions

• Think about the meetings you attend. What's the most common problem — no agenda, going over time, no decisions?
• First try: it's Monday morning, you're leading the weekly team meeting. Open it — 30 seconds, go.

Reading: What your team is judging

Read a 119-word text about What your team is judging

What your team is judging When you run a meeting, every person in the room is silently asking one question: is this a good use of my time? They judge you on three things. Direction: do you know what this meeting is for, and did you say it in the first minute? Control: when someone goes off-topic, do you bring the group back — politely, but firmly? Closure: does the meeting end with clear actions, owners, and deadlines — or just end? The classic failure is the meeting that drifts: no agenda, one person talks for twenty minutes, and everyone leaves thinking that could have been an email. Today you'll learn a three-move structure that fixes all of it.

Vocabulary: Meeting Vocabulary

7 items

Framework: Open – Steer – Close

Open – Steer – Close, 3 steps

Open – Steer – Close: Three moves that turn you from a person in a meeting into the person running it. Open with purpose, steer the discussion back on track, and close with actions everyone can repeat.

Reading: Three model meeting moments

Read a 197-word text about Three model meeting moments

Three model meeting moments The same three moves — open, steer, close — in the moments where meetings are usually won or lost. Steal any sentence you like. The open (weekly team meeting, two people still missing) “Right, it's nine o'clock, so let's get started — I'll catch Ana and Tom up afterwards. We have three items today: the client feedback, the delivery date, and holiday cover. The goal is to leave this room with a final delivery date. First item — client feedback. Maria?” The steer (a colleague has talked for five minutes, off-topic) “Marco, that's a genuinely useful point about the website — can we table it for Thursday's marketing meeting? I want to make sure we decide the delivery date today. So, back to the timeline: are we confident about the 15th, yes or no?” The close (three minutes left) “OK, we're almost out of time, so to summarise what we've agreed: the delivery date is the 15th, Maria replies to the client today, and Tom — your action item is the updated schedule by Wednesday. I'll send the minutes by end of day. Anything urgent before we finish? ... Great — thanks, everyone.”

Practice: Complete the Meeting Phrases

Gap-fill exercise, 5 items

• Let's ____ started. We have a lot to cover today.
• Before we move on, let me ____ what we've agreed so far.
• We're running short on time. Can we ____ this for the next meeting?
• Let's ____ on to the next item on the agenda.
• Who would like to ____ the minutes for today's meeting?

Practice: Match Meeting Phrases

Matching exercise, 6 items

• Let's get the ball rolling
• We're going off-topic
• Let's circle back to this
• I'd like to hand over to Sarah
• Any other business?
• Let's wrap up

Dialogue: Leading a Team Meeting

Role-play: You're leading a weekly team meeting. Practice opening, managing, and closing the meeting. (11 lines)

• Meeting Leader (You): Good morning, everyone. Thanks for joining. Let's get started.
• Team Member: Sure. What's on the agenda for today?
• Meeting Leader (You): We have three items: project updates, budget review, and next steps. Let's start with project updates. Sarah, would you like to begin?
• Team Member: [Gives a long update that's going off-topic]
• Meeting Leader (You): Thanks, Sarah. That's really helpful. Can we table the vendor discussion for now and focus on the timeline?
• Team Member: Of course. So, the timeline is on track for delivery next Friday.
• Meeting Leader (You): Perfect. Let's move on to the budget review. Before we do, any questions on the project?
• Team Member: No questions from me.
• Meeting Leader (You): Alright, we're running low on time. Let me summarize the action items: Sarah will finalize the timeline, and I'll send the budget update by Friday. Any other business?
• Team Member: Nothing from me. Thanks for running the meeting.
• Meeting Leader (You): Thanks, everyone. I'll send the minutes by end of day. Meeting adjourned.

Discussion: Your mission: run the meeting

3 discussion questions

• Mission: run the opening AND closing two minutes of your next real meeting (pick one from your actual week). Open with the purpose and agenda; close with actions, owners and deadlines. Success = your tutor can repeat the meeting's goal and every action item back to you. (Tutor: play a team member and try to drift off-topic once.)
• Second take: same meeting, but one colleague keeps interrupting with side topics. Steer them back twice without sounding rude — which phrases did you use?
• Compare this with your first opening from the start of the lesson. What's the one habit you're adding to every meeting you run from now on?