The Ultimate Guide on How to Run an Effective Meeting

You’re attending a meeting where people seem restless—half are unsure why they’re there, while discussions go in circles without any clear outcome. By the end, everyone walks out drained, wondering, “Did we actually accomplish anything? We’ll need to schedule another meeting to wrap this up.” 

Contrast that with an organized, engaging meeting where each person knows their role, contributes meaningfully, and leaves with clear action points. The latter sounds much better, right? Productive meetings aren’t just about sticking to a schedule and ensuring they end on time—they foster focused collaboration that leads to tangible results. 

Discover how to run an effective meeting with best practices for both in-person and virtual settings, plus the tools to ensure every discussion drives action.

How do you run meetings that move your project forward rather than turning out to be another waste of time? Here are some steps for running effective meetings: 

1. Set a clear agenda

A movie without a plot doesn’t paint a very appealing picture. Imagine characters just meandering about, having conversations that make no sense. 

Now, imagine this happening every week or at daily stand-up meetings with your team. It would lead to utter frustration and an unproductive workspace. This is what happens when meetings don’t have a clear agenda. A new survey by Atlassian found that meetings are ineffective 72% of the time. 

Setting a well-structured agenda that outlines clear goals and discussion points keeps things on track and ensures everyone leaves with a purpose. Attendees know what to expect, stay focused, and spend their valuable time wisely.

So, how do you build a clear agenda that turns your meetings into productive discussions? Here are some actionable tips: 

• Start with a single, clear purpose. Ask yourself, “What do we need to accomplish by the end of this meeting?” Whether it’s to brainstorm, problem-solve, update on project progress, or make key decisions, defining the meeting’s purpose helps you decide what to discuss. 

• List specific topics. Ensure your agenda items align with the meeting’s purpose. For instance, if the goal is to review a product launch, topics could include marketing strategies, timelines, and potential customer feedback. 

• Prioritize key points. Structure the agenda to prioritize the most pressing or challenging items first. After 10 to 15 minutes of focused activity, attention spans tend to wane, so it’s wise to address the more complex issues up front when energy is highest.

• Assign a time for each topic. Allocate a specific time frame for each agenda item to help meeting participants manage their input and keep the meeting moving without going over time. Consider limiting discussions to 10 to 15 minutes per topic for a one-hour meeting.

• Limit the agenda to three to five key items. If the list grows longer, host a separate meeting or break down topics into smaller, actionable steps.

Pro tip: Use a screen recorder and video messaging platform like Loom before the meeting to walk through the agenda. 

Sending your team a pre-meeting video lets you walk through the agenda points with annotations for context and visuals, creating clarity before they even join the call. 

Let’s say you’re planning a product launch and need to cover market research data, customer personas, and budget forecasts. You can walk through these points ahead of time by recording a Loom video. You can explain details as you would in person, adding annotations to indicate which data points or strategies matter most.  

Your colleagues can rewatch the video at their convenience, as often as necessary, so they can attend the meeting confident and well-prepared.

2. Invite the right participants and encourage participation 

You’re in a packed meeting, but only a handful of people are speaking. Half the room looks bored, and the other half is checking their phones. Including too many people—or worse, the wrong people—can turn even the most promising meeting into a productivity black hole.

The solution is to invite only the relevant team members directly responsible for or impacted by the meeting’s outcome. For team members who don’t need to participate but must remain informed, sending them a Loom video summary can be a great solution. Highlight key points from the meeting, giving your colleagues a clear, concise overview without needing to sift through lengthy notes.

Once you’ve got the right people, it’s all about creating an environment where everyone feels they can contribute. 

Here are some tips to encourage people to speak up and share innovative ideas:

• Set the tone early: Start the meeting by inviting input. A simple “I’d love to hear everyone’s thoughts” can make a difference.

• Assign rotating roles: For recurring meetings, try assigning different team members to lead discussions or present updates.

• Use “round-robin” style discussions: In this way, each person gets a chance to share, promoting a balanced flow of ideas.

Pro tip: Leverage tools like Loom for asynchronous input. Encourage team members who need time to reflect before speaking to share insights via Loom video responses before or after the meeting.

This will help you include voices that might otherwise get overshadowed in live discussions.

3. Stay on topic

Just under 40% of attendees fall asleep during meetings. Imagine what happens to the other 60%—zoning out, scrolling, or constantly checking the clock. 

Meetings that lose focus can be draining. Staying on topic can make all the difference between a productive meeting and one that puts half the room to sleep.

One way to stay on topic is by assigning a facilitator to keep things on track. The facilitator will monitor the discussion and steer conversations toward the set agenda if they stray. 

For longer, unrelated discussions, use a tool like Loom. If a colleague has insights on an upcoming project’s side issue, they can record a video and share the Loom link afterward. Team members can watch it on their own time, leaving the live meeting focused and on point.

4. Summarize action items

Your meeting went well. Everyone stayed on track according to the agenda and contributed to the discussion. However, momentum can still fade if no one knows what to do next. 

Summarizing action items at the end of each meeting prevents this common pitfall by ensuring everyone walks away with a purpose. 

It involves giving everyone a clear map with tasks, each with a clear owner and timeline. Specific deadlines add accountability and urgency so that tasks don’t get lost or indefinitely postponed.

Pro tip: Use Loom to record your action items and make meeting notes actionable with video. Plus, Loom AI can automatically identify and highlight key action items from your recording. 

Once you finish a meeting, simply press record on Loom and recap the key decisions and responsibilities. As you speak, Loom’s AI picks up on phrases like “Let’s have Taylor draft the outline by Thursday” or “Jessica, you’ll coordinate with the design team.” 

It automatically logs these as actionable tasks, so your team has a clear, AI-generated list of what needs to happen next—no guesswork, no missed details.

How do you get the most out of an in-person gathering? Think of it as setting the stage for a play: A successful meeting requires clear roles, a plot, and no random surprises.

Here’s an overview of good meeting practices for running in-person meetings: 

• Follow up immediately. The meeting doesn’t end when people leave the room. Within 24 hours, send notes or an action plan to reinforce decisions and clarify the next steps. This also keeps the momentum going and helps you quickly turn decisions into actions.

• Assign pre-meeting roles for collaborative leadership. Rather than having one person drive the meeting, assign rotating roles like a “facilitator,” “note-taker,” and “question leader.” Assigning roles gives everyone a sense of purpose and keeps the meetings from going off-topic. 

• Leverage visuals and physical props. Visuals, charts, or props help everyone understand complex points faster while capturing and retaining attention. For example, Amazon’s famous “6-pager memo” system encourages using clear visuals and data instead of lengthy verbal explanations.

• Break up long meetings with micro-breaks. For longer meetings, integrate micro-breaks every 45 minutes or so to help your team refresh their focus. For example, give them two minutes to check their devices or stand up and stretch. This practice sustains energy levels and enhances engagement.

• Use Loom to replace nonessential meetings with asynchronous updates. Not every brief update or progress report requires a full meeting. Recording a quick Loom video is a great alternative for sharing updates or walk-through reports, reducing the number of in-person meetings while keeping everyone informed. 

Virtual meetings have their fair share of pitfalls, including endless audio lag, mysterious echoing, or “Can you hear me now?” struggles. It doesn’t have to be this way. 

With a few tweaks, virtual team meetings can be just as productive and even more convenient than in-person meetings. Here’s how to get it right:

• Use interactive features for engagement: Virtual meetings lack the advantage of in-person cues. However, you can still keep attendees engaged by using interactive features like polls, screen sharing, and breakout rooms to make the meeting feel more dynamic.

• Leverage tools like Loom for pre-meeting prep: Send a Loom video before the meeting to share issues with your team beforehand. Loom videos make it easier to break down complex points in advance, reducing the time spent on lengthy explanations during the meeting. 

• Start with a strong connection and setup: Nothing derails a virtual meeting faster than technical glitches. Ensure everyone has checked their Wi-Fi, camera, and audio settings beforehand.

Consider these tools for boosting meeting effectiveness. They can also improve team alignment and collaboration practices before and after your meetings.

Loom 

Loom is a screen recording tool that lets you capture your screen, webcam, or both, which makes it perfect for product demos or visual updates. You can skip a meeting but still get all the details and context in just a few minutes—no schedule conflicts, no time wasted. 

Need to walk your team through a project update? Decline the meeting and record a Loom video instead. Send it to multiple team members simultaneously by copying and pasting a quick shareable link or embedding it in email and communication tools like Slack. Team members can watch at their convenience, freeing up live meeting time for real-time collaboration rather than repetitive updates. 

Features: 

• Comments and reactions: Turn passive videos into two-way conversations—viewers can react to the video with emojis and leave comments at specific moments.

• Edit by transcript: Easily edit the text transcript, which will directly update the video content, too. 

• AI-powered summaries and editing: Let Loom AI generate concise video summaries, titles, and chapters automatically. It also helps polish your recordings by removing filler words like “um,” “ah,” and awkward pauses.

Pricing: You can use Loom for free to create up to 25 videos. For more advanced features and unlimited videos, paid plans start at $15 per creator per month when paid annually. 

Miro 

Miro is an online collaborative whiteboard that allows teams to brainstorm, plan, and visually map ideas in real-time or asynchronously. It works as a virtual canvas everyone can see and interact with—making remote meetings engaging and action-oriented. 

Features: 

• Templates for every need: Get a head start with predesigned templates for agile workflows, general brainstorming sessions, project mapping, and more. 

• Sticky notes, diagrams, and mind maps: Recreate the look and feel of a physical whiteboard with ready-to-use elements like colorful sticky notes, tables, and graphs. 

• Miro AI: Leverage AI to create summaries and get feedback on your projects.

Pricing: There’s a free forever plan. Paid plans start at $8 per member per month billed annually. 

Fellow 

Fellow is an AI-powered meeting management tool that helps you set clear agendas, assign action items, and document decisions in one place, reducing the chance of post-meeting confusion or forgotten tasks.

Features: 

• AI meeting transcripts: Capture meeting transcriptions and generate action items and summaries when you sync with Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, and Zoom.  

• Real-time collaborative notes: Get immediate feedback when team members add thoughts and track insights as they happen.

Pricing: Paid plans start at $7 per user per month, billed annually. A free plan allows up to five meeting recordings per user. 

Otter.ai 

Otter.ai is an AI-based meeting note-taker that automatically records and transcribes meetings and creates automated summaries and action items. These records are searchable, making it easy for your team to catch up on key points if they missed the session.

Features: 

• Speaker identification: Automatically identify and tag different speakers, clarifying conversations with multiple contributors.

• Searchable transcripts: Easily find specific details or decisions via keyword with Otter.ai’s fully searchable transcripts.

Pricing: Paid plans start at $8.33 per user per month billed annually.

Meetings don’t have to be the usual productivity drain. By setting clear agendas, inviting the right people, and wrapping up with actionable next steps, your meetings can better align your team and genuinely move projects forward, in-person or online.

Try a new approach to your next meeting: Start with an agenda with clear goals, keep it concise, and use tools like Loom to keep things clear and organized. With Loom’s screen recording features, you can share agendas, follow-ups, or summaries visually.

Ready to enhance your meeting efficiency? Use Loom to create impactful and collaborative meetings. Start a free trial today!