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Meetings are not everyone’s favorite place. Very few meetings in the workplace are fun and productive. There are lots of books that teach how to make meetings useful. Some of them are very good, but most fail to make an impact because the readers tend to focus on the mechanics of meetings: setting the agenda, using a timer, and sending out minutes.

Try this simple rule when you organize your next meeting. Ask yourself, “What is my call to action?” Meaning, what do you want your audience to do? This could be asking them to stop doing something, do something differently, or start doing something.

This simple rule will ensure that you select the right audience, create a simple, focused, and defensible message, and most important, have people’s attention during the meeting.

If your audience is checking their email during a presentation, they most likely don’t need to be there. Don’t ask them to close their laptop, ask them to commit to a decision or take an action. Excuse the egregious offenders, tell them you’ll send them an email to keep them in the loop.