Business Meetings: Who to Invite

Business meetings can fail for many reasons, and one of the
most common is that the wrong people are in attendance. In
planning your business meeting, here are some questions to
ask yourself before deciding who to invite.

--- Who has information that will be needed for discussion
of the agenda items? Issues that can't be resolved because
the person with the information is not there are a
frustrating waste of time. If there are several items on
the agenda, consider having certain people attend only for
the appropriate items. This respects their time, while
allowing the group to have the information it needs.

--- Who has approval authority for the subject under
discussion? If you have a productive discussion of a plan
of action, but someone who will play a vital role can't
make the necessary decisions without approval from someone
else, you've both wasted time and reduced your chances of
approval. It's much better to have the person with
authority in the room while the subject is discussed in
context so that they can hear firsthand the arguments for
and against the plan.

--- Who has the expertise to comment on proposed actions?
If, for example, you are contemplating a project that will
involve large scale introduction of new software, make sure
you have at your meeting someone with the expertise to
gauge the amount of time and resources the project will
require. This will avoid any nasty surprises afterwards.

--- Who will record the proceedings? A record should be
kept of decisions taken even at informal meetings, and
copies sent as quickly as possible to all attendees.
Ideally, the recorder should be someone who is not actively
taking part in the discussion, as it's difficult to handle
both tasks effectively. A competent assistant is a good
choice for this role.

--- Who will follow up on action items? Depending on the
group, sometimes the assistant who records the meeting can
also be responsible for following up to make sure people do
what they committed to do. In this case, it's a good idea
for the meeting leader to announce at the end of the
meeting that this person has the authority to do this, and
ask for everyone's cooperation. This way, you won't put a
staff person in an awkward position when following up with
relatively senior people.

Avoid inviting people to business meetings just because
they're there. If they have nothing to contribute, or no
need to know the results of the meeting, there's no point
in wasting their time or a seat at the table.

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Helen Wilkie is a professional speaker and author,
specializing in workplace communication. Subscribe to her
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