Make Your Meetings More Effective, Ken Okel, Motivational Keynote Speaker, FloridaIf you want to make your meetings more effective, then take some inspiration from Hollywood. The movie industry understands how to put on a big awards show and there are some good lessons from these productions that you can take to your business.

You don’t have to be a movie mogul to produce shorter and more organized meetings at work. Find out how in our latest episode of our Performance Improvement for Leaders series.

Video Transcript for Make Your Meetings More Effective

Want to make your meetings more effective? Think Hollywood. Does it ever feel like you spend too much time in meetings and that you don’t get much done?

Maybe we can make your meetings more effective with some inspiration from Hollywood award shows. There’s three things that I’ve noticed that the shows do well, that I think you can incorporate into your meetings.

The first one is usually before the show starts, there is the runway, where the stars walk down the red carpet. For you, the runway is the time leading up to the meeting. It’s getting people material so that they can read or study ahead of time so that they can hit the ground running when the session begins.

Obviously, you want to make sure that these materials are getting to people so they have enough time to review them before the meeting.

Next, you want to open your meeting, like a Hollywood award show would do, with a big production number. So at the beginning of your meeting, is there something big that you can announce? The employee of the month, some sort of award.

Some sort of big news, where people want to be there. It’s kind of one of those gotta be their moments. See if you can create something like that.

That way people are going to get to the meeting on time. You won’t be having to recap for those who come in later.

Final tip: Think about those acceptance speeches at the award show. Sometimes they can be a little long, a little rambling.

The same thing can happen during the discussion of your meeting. Now discussion is good. You want people to talk about issues, but you don’t want them to go off on too many tangents. That’s like an award speech where someone is basically thanking the entire phone book and it’s a little dull. Makes you feel uncomfortable.

Same thing in your meetings. Make sure that if things go off the topic that they’re quickly brought back on. You want to make sure that this important discussion time is focused on your main issues, there may be other issues that come up, but have those discussions, scheduled for a later time.

Don’t lose focus on the big goal you have for the meeting. I’m Ken Okel. Take care.

About This Video Series

Ken Okel’s ongoing Performance Improvement for Leaders series video series will make you more effective on the job. Every week, you’ll learn a new, easy to understand tip that you can use right away.

Got a challenge at work? Let us know and we’ll feature it in an upcoming episode.

About Ken Okel


As a motivational speaker, Ken Okel works with leaders and organizations to boost productivity, performance, and profits. At conferences, conventions, and company meetings, he engages audiences with new ways to maximize their time at work. To see a sample of his keynote and workshop presentations, visit his video page.