How do you keep meeting on schedule

Agenda for the meeting should be defined in advance. Facilitator should ensure that the meeting does not extend beyond the scheduled time. This can be done by restricting audience going off the agenda of the meeting. The detailed discussion can be taken 1:1 by them.

It is often the person who called the meeting but not always. I have facilitated meetings called by other people. It will depend on the culture of your organization.

1. Try to estimate a meeting duration which would cover all intended subjects (difficult, I know!)
2. As much as possible, mix of subjects: do not fill the agenda with complex topics only
3. Send out the agenda - already mentioned so many times here :)
4. Ask the participants to be punctual !
5. During the meeting keep the discussion for all participants, do not allow small groups to form and discuss in parallel
6. Keep the participants focused on the subject (even if they are top management; I ve done that in the past and I still have a job!!)
7. If time is (almost) up and you still have topics to discuss, inform the participants and let them know they will have to attend another meeting to conclude
8. Last, but not least: prepare a well structured, clear and not too long presentation

Set practical meeting goals with hard stops. Timebox the meetings.

If issues arise that need to be discussed gather the impacted people in a separate meeting and discuss rather than keep everyone in the meeting listening in.

Hi Vincent,

Well in our team project we use to follow the Rules listed below:

- Define a set of different meetings: Follow up Project 1, Follow up Project 2, Follow up Project 3, Weekly meeting, General weekly meeting, etc.

- An agenda is built at least one day before the meeting and it is shared with all the people that are invited.

- We have as a rule, not talk about a topic that is not included in the agenda and topics related with another project, even if the people in the meeting is the same that will meet after.

- Meetings are time-boxed to 30 minutes, no more, and agendas must be adjusted.

- If a different topic must be treated, the persons involved say "we can talk this offline", and we know that they will touch that topic by themselves and if it is necessary to share the results, the point is proposed for next meeting and included in the agenda.

I concur with Andrew on this.
I normally send out agenda in advance and will allot time for each topic/presenter and during the meeting the time keeper normally warns them at least 1-2 minutes before it runs out.

I find that there is usually one or 2 people that make that happen. Either because they are long winded or don't know an answer and are trying to talk around it. I have needed to isolate those people and discuss with them the need for straight answers. Also, I usually will only ask those people yes or no answers. Open ended questions will put you at risk to go over time when you know there are real talkers.

I keep reminding the people about the time, when we are 30 minutes close to the end, 15, 10 and 5 mins. Then at 0 I interrupt whatever conversation and close the meeting. If something still remains I could decide to prolong this meeting or to invite for a further appointment.

Agenda is important, but you also have to clarify what type of meeting you will have:

1. Informative
2. Exchange
3. Problem solving

Depending of what type of meeting, you have to facilitate it different ways

But again, keeping an agenda with time for each topics as well as keeping time and keeping dicussion on time is the only way

I agree important thing is to have meeting guidelines, agendas and facilitator. You also need to do training with the team on how to run and attend meetings which can be a 15 minute tutorial which should be a required on boarding activity.