Effective Meetings
Transcript of Effective Meetings
“If a problem causes many meetings, the meetings eventually
become more important than the problem”
“If you cannot convince them, confuse them”
“The efficiency of a committee meeting is inversely proportional to the number of
participants and the time spent on deliberations”
“Never argue with a fool at a meeting. People might not
know the difference.”
Meetings - A Practical Alternative to Work?
Julia ZivanovicKnow l’edge
www.knowledgesolutions.com.au
Overview
The 5 stages of meetings.
Great meetings don’t just happen.
Different conversations.
5 ingredients of successful meetings.
Facilitating a meeting.
Helpful tips/Toolkit items.
Meeting audit questionnaire.
Why Meetings FailUnnecessary.
Held for the wrong reason - power, private agenda, habit..
Unclear objective/purpose.
Wrong people are present.
Lack of proper control.
Disagreeable environment.
Poor timing.
Poor decision making.
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The 5 stages of meetings
Ritual Reporting Ideas
Problem Solving
Sharing
Great meetings don’t just happen
They are designed!
Think about it....
Plan it....
Focus on people and processes.
Change the culture - meetings are work!
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Different conversations
Different meetings require different conversations...
Conversation for:
Possibility.
Opportunity.
Action.
Make sure people understand what type of meeting it is.
5 ingredients of effective meetings
Common focus on content.
Common focus on process.
Roles & responsibilities clearly defined and agreed.
Someone to:
manage an open and balanced conversation flow.
responsible for protecting individuals from personal attack.
Facilitating a meeting
A good facilitator will be able to do 3 things....
Utilise excellent interpersonal skills.
Employ a variety of suitable group processes.
Manage participants with various needs and personalities.
What type are you?
Hierarchy
Cooperative
Autonomous
But wait there’s more
Follow up in the meeting and after it, is essential.
Meeting Maintenance Check.
How well is the group working together?
How can the group improve its effectiveness?
Are there things we should stop doing?
What should we do more of?
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Meeting audit questionnaire
Results
What worked, and why?
Identifying areas for improvement.
Resolving:
What to do more of?
What to do less of?
What to do differently?
What Worked
Agenda
Opportunities to influence agenda items.
Participation is encouraged.
Generally meetings are useful
Need Improvement
Participants do not feel able to express their real feelings about issues.
Important discussions should be recorded, even if a decision is not reached.
Not taking time to assess how things are going as a group.
Resolution
How can people be made to feel able to state their true feelings?
How are discussion outcomes to be captured, without a decision?
How do we assess how we are going as a group?
Helpful tips/Toolkit items on the CD of the book, The Research Practitioner’s Guide to Research Consulting
See http://blogs.murdoch.edu.au/researcherconsultants/
Meeting Audit Survey.
Meeting Necessity Checklist.
Meeting Planning Checklist
Group Memory and Action Plan.
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ReferencesJohn Heron, Facilitators Handbook 1989.
Fast Company, You have to start meeting like this, 1999.
Tom Hampstead, Putting people and processes into meetings.
Dorothy Wardale, Facilitating Effective Meetings