We attend so many meetings every day, and if most of them feel like a waste of time to you, you are not the only one! This is how I learned to make meetings more efficient and productive.1. Circulate your ATA upfront! Agenda, Time Limit, Action Points.Human's mind is a wanderer! We often get swayed away with new ideas every now and then and end-up realising nothing much came out of the meeting. That invites for another meeting and it keeps on going without having any action plans as output. Having these 3 things in place will allow your conversations to remain focused.Share on the email, message these 3 things and check them back at the end of the meetingAgenda: where everyone shares their thoughts direct and to-the-point upfront.Time life: itu2019s important to stick to it so as to respect otheru2019s schedule.Action plan: Note down the action plans and circulate who is responsible for what, and announce that in the meeting itself.Itu2019s important to pass on a message that the meeting was productive and things have happened in last 30-60 minutes. Youu2019ll automatically see their motivation level and engagement level going up.2. Do your homework beforehand and invite everyone to do so.Share all required materials, documents upfront with everyone (if the meeting is very critical) or give 5 minutes before the meeting to allow everyone to think through the problems statements or the meeting agenda. Since now everyone can see others thinking, others will also be doing this so that they donu2019t stay behind (Yes, FOMO thing exists!)3. State your purpose early on in the meetingNow that everyone has done their homework and are prepared in advance, the thoughts would be crisper now. Start off by expressing exactly whatu2019s on your mind and invite everyone to share their PoV upfront rather than waiting for the right time to come. Be direct, honest and to-the-point but in a polite, calm and courteous manner. I found this to be the best way to get the maximum out of group conversations or meetings.4. Create an environment of openness and listen to everyone carefully.Now that you know how to successfully open a meeting, hereu2019s how you can proceed.Often we go into a meeting with thoughts and feelings without any crystal clear starting note points. Hence, we make blunders or inadvertently try to communicate those ideas through gestures, facial expressions, rhetorics or body language. This may result in allowing us to impose a view of superiority, and diminishing otheru2019s interests in contributing. Everyone should speak from his or her Point of view and use personal pronouns u201cIu201d and not u201cyouu201d. for instance: instead of saying - Youu2019re wrongu201d, you could say u201cI disagree with youu201d5. Use the right words - Yes! They matter a lot.Listening carefully is an important part of having a productive meeting. But thatu2019s not all, responding appropriately is also crucial to take the conversation to the next level.You donu2019t want your response to block further discussions - a mistake people do quite often, which sometimes leads to ego issues rather than working towards the main problem. Essentially, you need to find the right balance between making everyone feel comfortable and making your points very clear. yes, It helps to pay attention to sentence structure and language.u201cSlow down, listen to yourself and then think out loudu201d6. Do the Review and hear feedback at the end!Itu2019s helpful to conduct a quality check at the end of the meeting to check the impact of the thoughts and the solutions discussed. You need to make sure your ideas have been fully understood and that everyone is happy with how the meeting went. Productive meetings steps from having the courage to state openly what you want from then.