Meeting Evaluation Guidelines

Quick Summary
If you think your meetings have problems, they probably do. A simple evaluation questionnaire and process helps evaluate meeting effectiveness and suggest goals for improvement. Two formats accommodate formal or informal meeting environments.

What this is

A simple meeting evaluation questionnaire and scale to solicit opinions on meeting effectiveness from the participants, and to suggest tasks or goals for improvement.

Why it's useful

All too often attendees can leave meetings dissatisfied or regarding that the whole affair was a waste of time. This experience can lead to future poor contribution or engagement in meetings unless it can be corrected. It doesn't really matter what kind of meeting it is; whether it is a longer-term project meeting or an ad hoc type, engaged and fully participating members will increase the chances of success. If you as a team/meeting leader believe that problems exist, they probably do!

How to use it

Detailed discussions of implementation and follow-up are covered in the section devoted to each evaluation. In general:

1. Decide whether your environment is better suited to a formal or informal meeting evaluation and select the appropriate tool. Modify the items in the evaluation to fit your circumstances.
• For an informal evaluation, the meeting leader should go around the table for a minute or two getting rankings from each attendee. Record these rankings on a whiteboard or flipchart. Resist the impulse to discuss rankings on the spot - the immediate focus should be just on seeing where everyone stands.
• For a formal evaluation, the meeting leader or facilitator should distribute copies with meeting materials, to be collected anonymously after the meeting while it's still fresh in everyone's mind.
2. After the meeting, collect and review the ratings received. In addition to looking for obvious cues-items that everyone ranked low-be alert for items where there are wide discrepancies between rankings that may indicate mismatched expectations or people who were shut out of the meeting (or weren't fully present to begin with).


3. For each problem area identified in the review, determine appropriate action items and follow up.


4. Monitor progress on problem areas and be alert for new issues by watching for improvements in subsequent meeting evaluations. Treat these evaluations as a continuous improvement tool, always looking for ways to make the next meeting better.

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