Top Meeting Strategies to Overcome Common Communication Challenges
03.12.2025

Top Meeting Strategies to Overcome Common Communication Challenges

In this blog post, we’ll explore these common communication challenges, and come up with strategies to overcome them, helping your meetings run more smoothly and achieve what you set out to do. Whether you’re a team leader, manager, project manager or HR professional, read on to discover the problems and solutions that’ll help improve your meeting outcomes.

Communication in meetings can often break down due to many things, including unclear objectives and a lack of structure. This in turn can lead to misunderstandings and wasted time, neither of which we are fans of (and you probably aren’t either).

In this blog post, we’ll explore these common communication challenges, and come up with strategies to overcome them, helping your meetings run more smoothly and achieve what you set out to do. Whether you’re a team leader, manager, project manager or HR professional, read on to discover the problems and solutions that’ll help improve your meeting outcomes.

 

Common communication challenges in meetings

1 Unclear objectives

If your meeting is missing a defined goal or objective, this is only going to lead to confusion and unproductive discussions. If no one is clear on the intended outcome of the session, then we can’t expect anyone to take the right steps to get there. The likelihood is that the time spent in the session ends up being a waste of precious time and resources.

However you choose to communicate your specific meeting objective is up to you, as long as you’re confident that everyone is on the same page. Visual tools, like whiteboards, are an effective way to communicate this information. And with a vast range available – from large wall-mounted whiteboards or smaller portable options – there’s something to suit every office space.

 

2 Lack of Structure

A poorly structured meeting is a one-way ticket to wasted time and disengaged participants. Research has shown that only 37%* of organisers say they always use an agenda… that’s a lot of meeting rooms full of confused and unprepared employees.

Structured schedules with an overarching goal, and 3-5 discussion points with time slots allocated to each, are critical for running efficient meetings. They ensure every attendee is clear on the topics to be discussed so they can show up prepared, keeping things on track. If you can circulate them in advance, that’s even better. Giving your associates time to prepare means your session is going to be so much more productive – and isn’t that what we all want? Display your agenda on a notice board during the session so everyone knows what’s happening and when (plus, it’ll keep you accountable for the timings)… and don’t forget your push pins!

 

3 Diverse communication styles

In the same way that we’re all different in the way we look and behave, our communication styles vary, too. You may find that each person in your team has a unique way of expressing their thoughts, concerns and ideas – and that’s OK. It’s important to recognise and accommodate these differences if you want to promote effective interactions across your team.

Colour-insights are a great way to understand your colleagues better. These tools reveal different personality styles so you can tailor communication—brief for “fiery reds,” engaging for “sunshine yellows,” gentle for “earth greens,” and detailed for “cool blues”—to work together more effectively.

Looking for another way to foster an inclusive environment where all voices are heard, and encourage participation from different personality types? Try using collaboration tools during your meeting, like our Nobo Whiteboard Accessories Kit Bag, which ensure you see productive teamwork. Not all employees feel comfortable sharing their ideas in large groups, so giving them the opportunity to collaborate in smaller groups and write down their ideas means you’re more likely to get good input from everyone – and not just your confident extroverts.

 

4 Inadequate Visual Aids

If you’re not using visual tools to communicate information in your meetings, it can make it difficult for participants to follow along and remember key points. This is because certain people are visual learners, and find it hard to make information stick without seeing it.

It doesn’t need to be a complicated PowerPoint presentation. Simply by highlighting your key messages, or summarising more complex points, on a whiteboard or notice board will help your attendees to visualise your ideas and maintain focus. Charts, graphs and infographics can also be a helpful way to show data in a clear, easy-to-digest way.

 

How to tackle common communication challenges in meetings

It may seem like a difficult problem to overcome, but through clear goals, good-quality visual aids, a structured agenda and taking the time to understand the different personality types of your employees, you’ll find your team’s communication and understanding will soon elevate to a higher level.

Efficient meetings really are achievable with the right approach and tools, so refer to this handy guide when you’re planning your next session and see what strategies you can implement – you may be surprised at the improvements you see.