"If you refuse to accept anything
but the best, you very often get it."
– W. Somerset Maugham
Information on implementing meetings
is vast, yet there are too few effective
meetings. Why? There are at least 4
reasons:
- Creating effective meetings
requires preparation and discipline
- The abundance of poorly run
meetings makes people think they are
normal
- Too few people understand that
effective meetings are critical to
reaching goals and energizing
teammates
- Almost unconsciously, participants
keep the status quo in place by
complaining and offering no
solutions.
So, how do you define an effective
meeting?
To borrow from Phil Harkins book, Powerful
Conversations: How High Impact Leaders
Communicate, an effective meeting
results in 2 of 3 elements:
- The relationship between
participants is enhanced.
- There is an ‘ah-ha’ moment, or
a significant discovery is made by
each participant.
- There is an effective action plan
where each person publicly commits
to at least one specific action by a
specific date.
Professional event planners take
great care in preparing all aspects of
the events and for many contingencies.
In business, a relatively small amount
of time put into meeting preparation can
provide the tremendous benefits of more
productivity and energized colleagues.
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How do you achieve an effective
meeting? Plan.
You can increase your chances of having
an effective meeting by reviewing this
checklist that reminds you to pay
attention to important elements of
successful meeting preparation.
Before the meeting:
- Whoever calls the meeting is or
assigns a meeting facilitator &
declares the main objective of the
meeting as communication,
decision-making or other (then
specify)
- Meeting facilitator ensures
distribution of written &/or
verbal invitations, including time
& place, objectives, agenda
items & length of time for each
item
- Each invitee responds to meeting
facilitator by specified date (for
example, within 2 days)
- If invitee cannot attend or stay
for the entire meeting, he/she
notifies the facilitator & sends
a representative or written and/or
verbal communication of his/her
contributions to the meeting.
- Participants prepare themselves
for the meeting (for example, read
relevant materials prior to the
meeting and/or bring relevant
information to the meeting)
- Meeting facilitator ensures all
required materials are in the room
– projector, overhead, flip
charts, pens, refreshments, etc.
- Participants arrive to the meeting
before the start time
- Meeting facilitator identifies who
are the timekeeper and scribe and
defines their roles
During the meeting:
- If possible, the meeting
facilitator takes some time to
‘warm the group up’ with a
light-hearted introduction
(appropriate joke or quote or story)
- Meeting facilitator reviews aloud
objectives & agenda topics &
time allotments, & gets
agreement or revisions
- Each participant treats colleagues
respectfully, and offers
constructive & positive comments
- Each participant is responsible to
keep the discussion on track (“one
minute rule” = if anyone is off
the topic for more than 1 minute, a
participant calls for a
“time-out” & ask to re-focus
on the agenda topic)
- Meeting facilitator manages the
time for each topic
- If non-constructive arguments
occur, the meeting facilitator
mediates the disagreement or tables
it for follow-up outside the meeting
- All participants are responsible
for creating a collaborative
environment, ensuring input from all
participants, and discouraging
non-constructive dominance by any
attendee
- Where appropriate, any participant
should make proposals & call for
votes or consensus
- Spend 5 to 15 minutes to commit to
future action plan written clearly
in view of all participants. Each
person reads aloud their action and
delivery date. State when and how
the action plan will be reviewed
- When appropriate, have an exit
survey that covers topics such as
the overall effectiveness of the
meeting, what was most valuable, and
what needs improvement. Commit to
when the action plan will be
reviewed, how it will be reviewed
& who will review it
After the Meeting:
- Distribute the written action plan
distributed to attendees and others
if appropriate, with a goal of
within 1 working day
- Distribute the written summary of
survey within 3 working days
- Review the action plan per the
commitment made in meeting
How do you spread the behaviors of
effective meetings?
- Exercise authority: You can use
authority and/or influence to
increase effective meeting
behaviors. With authority, the
superior can declare how to run
meetings in the company, and train
colleagues on the companies’
endorsed methods.
- Lead by visible example: With
influence, people lead by example
and spreading the methods as others
become interested.
How do you inspire behavior change
toward effective meetings?
- Publicly recognize and reward
participants:
- Create opportunities to praise
colleagues who demonstrate
behaviors that encourage
effective meetings, including
simply saying statements like
‘thank you for setting the
objective and agenda prior to
the meeting’, written ‘thank
you’ notes or e-mails, and
using your formal recognition
and reward system.
- Publicly and gracefully call
attention to participants who do not
keep a commitment:
- These moments of attention
might include using specific
responses for specific issues.
For example, when someone
arrives after the meeting time,
ask if he/she is committed to
arrive on time and charge $1.00
per minute to be put into a
pool.
- Measure and report progress at
every meeting:
- As Bill Hewlett said, ‘What
gets measured is what gets
done.”
So what can you do right now?
You can make a powerful, positive
difference in your organization by
creating your own guidelines and
introducing them into your and your
organization’s daily practices. Your
colleagues will eventually follow you,
and people interested in increasing the
performance of your organization will
applaud you. When someone says running
an effective meeting is like herding
cats, let them know that herding cats is
easy when you show them the milk.
Rob Kanzer is an Executive
Team Building Coach, Life Coach and a
Certified Mediator. John Westman is President of
Winning Edge Consulting, and has been a
Marketing Executive with Baxter
Healthcare and Decision Resources, Inc.
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