Tips on Business Meetings: Example Groundrules

By Lyndsay Swinton

A top tip on holding business meetings is to use groundrules. You can develop a set of ground rules for a meeting, to ensure that people understand the “terms of engagement” during a meeting. Here are a few example groundrules to get you started.

• Only one person at time talking
• Meetings will start and finish on time
• Confidential information will “stay in the room”
• No jargon or in-talk
• No discussion of ideas until all ideas heard
• Encourage full participation from all attendees
• Keep discussion on topic, and focused
• If you agree to do something, do it.
• If you can’t attend, send a suitable, informed, delegate instead.

You get the idea – you can use some, none or all of these ideas for ground-rules, just make sure they work for the people in the room.

By Lyndsay Swinton
Owner, Management for the Rest of Us
www.mftrou.com

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Citation Information: Swinton, Lyndsay. "Tips on Business Meetings: Example Groundrules." Mftrou.com. 18 December 2005. < http://www.mftrou.com/tips-on-business-meeting-groundrule.html >.