A GOOD MEETING

 

How often have you heard or said that all you seem to do is attend meetings? The implication is that meetings are bad or at best a necessary evil. Actually meetings are nearly essential. I know of people who do work together who have never met. However from the comments I hear, it would certainly be preferable to come together face to face.

 

So what is it about meetings that is so onerous? I suspect it is that we feel that many times they are a waste of time. And many times they are. So what can we do about it? We can insist that the meetings we attend are necessary and well run.

 

In addition to a good meeting agenda, which we covered in the last issue of the IPE, it is important for a group, committee, board, or what ever the assembly’s designation is, to establish norms for how it will function. Norm derives from the Latin word norma, a carpenter’s square, pattern. The group must establish a standard or pattern for how it will function.

 

This is best done at the first meeting. Simply ask the participants how they want to function as a group. What rules do we want to govern how we function? Typical comments will include such things as: we want to start and end on time, we want only one person to talk at a time, everyone should participate, we will use consensus to make decisions, we want cell phones and beepers to be turned off during the meeting, we want to stay on the topic and not wander off the subject, etc.

 

It is important to record these norms and provide a copy to everyone for future reference. It is essential for everyone to abide by them and for everyone to enforce them. Additional norms can always be added as the need arises.

           

Once the agenda and norms are established it is then up to everyone, in particular the leader, to conduct the business with dispatch. It is important to realize that much of what goes on in meetings is information passing. This can be done expeditiously if each person presenting the information is prepared before he/she comes to the meeting.

 

Decision making is also a very important reason for a meeting. When this is the case, it should be made clear that a decision is what is expected. This means participants will listen from a different perspective. Again the presenter must be well prepared to convey the facts and feelings necessary to make an informed decision. And it is only logical that information concerning an up-coming decision, conveyed prior to the meeting, will help save time in the meeting.

 

Many times assignments are the result of a meeting. It is critical for a person to understand and accept the assignment. The meeting should not disband until everyone is clear on what is expected and when the assignment is to be completed.

 

Finally, a meeting should have minutes. This is vital for efficiency. Too often groups end up redoing things that have been done before or forget decisions that were made previously. Minutes can be very simple and can relate directly to the agenda.

 

Here are a few more tricks that will help insure that the meetings you attend will be more productive.

• Provide everyone with a properly labeled folder to store handouts and meeting notes.
• Be sure the meeting room and supplies are prepared ahead of time.
• Adhere to the hundred mile rule (No one should be called from a meeting unless it is so important that the disruption would occur even if the meeting were 100 miles away from the workplace).
• As a leader, use your prerogative to summarize your understanding of where the group is on any subject.
• Actively seek input from those not speaking out in the meeting.
• Try to find areas of agreement in conflicting points of view.
• Use humor to reduce tension.
• Exercise your right during the meeting evaluation to make recommendations for meeting improvement.
• Think about the cost of the meeting in terms of hourly wages, billable time, opportunity costs, space rental, etc.

 

We all have the opportunity and responsibility to see that meetings we attend are needed and productive.