Actions after the Chama meeting play a big role in helping you achieve expected, positive, and constructive outcomes. Your actions following the meeting are very crucial. Often people need a gentle nudge to remind them about completing action items.  Leaders need to check to ensure that action is taking place as agreed.  The check can be an e-mail or phone call to the point person or a meeting devoted to checking on progress. It could also be through automated alerts – either sms or emails  Not checking, may send a message that not much action was really expected. Follow-up at the next scheduled meeting is never enough of an investment to ensure results.  How do you achieve success?

 Minutes

Begin by printing or sending your minutes and action plan within 24 hours. People will most effectively contribute to results if they get started on action items right away. They still have a fresh memory of the meeting, and the discussion. They remain enthusiastic and ready to get started. A delay in the distribution of minutes will hurt your results since most people wait for the minutes to arrive before they begin to tackle their commitments.  Ensure that minutes are produced and promptly distributed to all attendees including guests. Meeting minutes don’t need to include everything everyone said. They do need to include the following:

• Date, time location
• Attendees
• Key points raised and decisions made
• Motions and voting results if votes taken
• Who is responsible for what follow-up action and by when
• Name of the Recorder

Effective Meeting Follow-up

Respecting and observing deadlines and follow-up will help you achieve results from your meetings. The deadline was established during the meeting. Following the meeting, each person with an action item should also make a plan for their personal accomplishment of their commitment,  the individual is responsible for follow-up.  You can improve meeting results by following up with each person who has an action item between meetings. Your goal is to check progress and ensure that tasks are underway. Remember that what you ask about gets accomplished. In tracking the action, individuals report on their assignments including:

• actions were taken since the last meeting
• what has been accomplished including breakthroughs
• blocks or challenges that need to be addressed
• where more focus/effort/help might be needed, one-page summaries of these answers can be very helpful.

 Accountability for Follow-up during the Next Meeting

Have you ever sat in a Chama meeting that consisted of each member telling the group why they were unable to accomplish their commitment? You will agree, the result is not good. Establishing the custom of accountability for results begins early in your meeting cycle. Follow-up by the leader mid-way between meetings helps, but the Chama must make, a failure to keep commitments, unacceptable. Report on progress and outcomes at the next meeting and expect that all will have been accomplished. Alternatively, check progress at the next meeting and if there is a block to progress, determine how to proceed.

Every goal and action item needs a point person.  This person is responsible for reminding everyone of action items connecting people to their work and following up with colleagues to make sure the work has been completed.  The point person also reports on the results

Categorised in: Actions and followups, chama management, Chama meetings, Chama minutes

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