Effective Meeting Management
Taking the Pain out of the
Meeting
Few things
are as powerful as a group of
dedicated people with a common
cause.
Law of Success: When in trouble, use the
group to solve the problem.
Your job: harness
that potential and make it productive.
Know
the Big Picture
How to conduct a
meeting for success - begin with a plan. Incorporate the
7
tips to a great meeting, followed by some key lessons learned.
Consider
Various Types of Meetings
Form follows function.
Why
are you gathering? Simple question, but too often the Monday morning
meeting slithers into a flat repeat of the previous week, with
different data. A plain status report.
Meetings for
a straightforward report of status should be brief OR embellished with
other interesting content that intices those present.
Possible
types of meetings
- -
problem solving
- i- idea generation
- -
clarification of an issue (question and answer or briefing)
- -
information sharing
- - progress
assessment (including team health assessment or how-goes-it)
- -
combination of the above
Shake
it Up a Little
Get the group more involved by including an
icebreaker.
Transform
the gathering into a
teaming
opportunity.
Use a tool to assess
what is working and
what is not
to map out actions for change and involve everyone in some continuous
improvement.
Have the facilitator role assigned to someone in
the group.
(See list below for
using a certified professional facilitator or corporate facilitator for
your meeting)
Train the Participants to
Help Out
Award points to participants that take ownership in
making the meeting pointed and well-flowing. Listen for productive
statements like:
It
sounds like we have reached a conclusion.
We
just heard several ideas for solving this. Can we write those on the white
board?
I have heard the same
thing 3 times. Let's acknowledge that and move on.
We
are onto a tangent from the objective of this meeting. Let's capture
that as a "parking lot" issue.
In
the remaining 10 minutes that we have ...
I
hear an agreement among the group. Let's document that.
Where
are we on the agenda?
- What is our desired
outcome of this discussion?
When to Use
an Outside Professional
Critical meetings should
always be facilitated. This leaves the leader free to indulge himself
in the content, without worrying about the process and leaving the
meeting with the objective unaccomplished.
Reasons
to use a
professional facilitator:
- Run
the meeting so you do not have to worry about “process”
- Incorporate
proven techniques that make a meeting productive
- Ensure
desired goals are met during a meeting
- Allow an outside person to play the cop so that internal relationships do not suffer
- Keep the
discussions pointed and managed
- Achieve team
development and real-time coaching by offering insight
- Allow
the team leader to participate and not direct
- Develop
Goal-setting for a team with the help of someone that does it all the
time
- Set expectations within a group
- Communicate
mutual expectations between a team and the people to which they are
accountable
- Re-focus a group on a new task
- Re-energize
a team
- Benchmark a team’s development against other
industries that the facilitator knows
- Manage
conflict between parties
- Apply an organized
approach to a project
- Learn training tips
- To
have FUN!
A well-experienced facilitator
is probably also a business consultant as well as an instructional
facilitator. This can be an incredible bonus - you get real-time ideas
and multi-industry input and ideas on the spot.
Help
with Big Meetings
Meeting and event management consultants
are adept at setting the right forums for offsites and conventions. At
the heart of it, however, should be an experienced professional. (Learn
about
us if you are wanting an outside resource to help or a
corporate meeting planner.)
Event
planning companies should have a solid track record and
provide you with references.