Decision-making should never be limited just to meetings, otherwise you slow everything up. So first choose what really needs to be discussed in a meeting, and what can be filtered off to emails and one-to-one chats.

Then go into your meeting with a specific objective or goal. Consider what kind of meeting it will be and what its purpose is. Even if it is a brainstorming session, you need to come away with some concrete results, whether that's 10 workable ideas or a list of tasks that need to be done in order to bring a project forward.

Hosting a meeting around any kind of vague or undefined topic - like “discussing project x” - runs the risk of not producing results, or triggering lots of rambling, irrelevant chat.

Once you have established your topic, keep the discussion focused on solutions, not problems.

“If you can’t bring proposed solutions to the table, save it for next time or bring it up in private conversations,” says Christopher Wink, of US-based start-up Technically Media. Similarly, if someone else brings up a problem or gripe, move quickly to nip it in the bud by suggesting discussing it in private, outside the meeting.

If you're holding a brainstorming session, you should avoid the temptation to jump in and critique every idea - try and let the discussion flow a little. If you deconstruct each idea put forward, you stall the pace and dynamic of the meeting and may discourage others from coming forward with their thoughts.

“There is no judging in brainstorming. Focus on capturing ideas before filtering and critiquing them,” says Wink.

After the meeting, you can pick apart the ideas more thoroughly and choose the ones you want to develop in further detail. Finally, make sure everyone is prepared and share topics up for discussion in advance.

“Nothing happens when everybody attend meetings with a blank slate. So it helps to share topics in advance and never surprise the attendees. Meetings get productive only when everybody who enters the room has ideas to defend,” says career expert Melinda Edwards.

“If all people who attend the meetings look like clueless nincompoops (including the presider himself), then it shouldn’t have been arranged in the first place. Give people time to gather ideas, let them have opinions before you all get ready to rumble. Ideas get better when it is already thought beforehand and just debated during meetings, not when you all start with an empty mind.”

Photos: Rex Features and Getty Images

Words: Anna Brech

Six ways to make your office meetings more productive and less boring, to spark bigger and better ideas