Chapter 9
Effective Meetings

•    Types of Meetings

•    Planning a Problem-Solving Meeting

•    Conducting the Meeting

Effective Meetings

•    Of 90,000 working days, 46% of the time was spent in meetings

•    20,000,000 business meetings each day in the U.S.

•    Unproductive meetings cost U.S. businesses $37,000,000,000 annually

Types of Meetings

•     Information-sharing

–  Beginning-of-shift

–  Weekly-update

•     Problem-solving or Decision-making

–  Most common reason for a business meeting

•     Ritual Activities

–  Example: TGIF gatherings

•    Virtual

–  Teleconferences

–  Videoconferences

–  Online meetings

•    Advantages include:

•   Less expensive    

•   Easier to schedule

•   Take less time     

•   Allows more people to attend

Planning a Problem-Solving Meeting

•    When to Hold a Meeting

•   Is the job beyond the capacity of one person?

•   Are individuals’ tasks interdependent?

•   Is there more than one decision or solution?

•   Are misunderstandings or reservations likely?

•          Setting an Agenda

–       An agenda is a list of topics to be covered in a meeting

–       Three questions:

•        What do we need to do to achieve our objective?

•        What conversations will be important to the people that attend?

•        What information will we need to bring?

Components of a Complete Agenda

ü     Time

ü     Length

ü     Location

ü     Participants

ü     Background Information

ü     Items and Goals

Conducting the Meeting

•    Beginning the Meeting

– Identify the goals of the meeting

– Provide necessary background info

•  Example: Email agenda to participants

– Show how the group can help

– Preview the meeting

– Identify time constraints

•    Conducting Business

– Parliamentary Procedure

– Encouraging participation

– Keeping discussions on track

– Keeping a positive tone

Conducting Business

•    Parliamentary Procedure

– A set of rules for conducting a meeting and making decisions

– Suitable when:

•  a group’s decisions will be of interest to an external audience

•  haste may obscure critical thinking

•  emotions are likely to be strong

•    Parliamentary Procedure

– Order of Business

•  Reading of the minutes

•  Reports (Officer, committee)

•  Unfinished business

•  New business

•    Parliamentary Procedure

– Motions – specific proposals for action

•  Address a single issue

•  Must be seconded to be discussed

•  Discussion

•  Public vote

•  Chairman announces result

•    Encouraging participation

– Member differences lead to unequal access during a meeting

– Use Nominal Group Technique (NGT)

– Give each member a turn to speak

– Use questions

•  Overhead   • Direct    • Reverse   • Relay

Nominal Group Technique (NGT)

1: Each member writes ideas down on paper; leader collects papers

2: All ideas are posted for all members to see

3: Members discuss ideas for understanding, but no criticism is allowed

4: Members rank the ideas privately

5: Group discusses highest-ranking ideas critically and thoroughly

•    Keeping discussions on track

– Remind group of time pressures

– Summarize and redirect

– Challenge relevancy

– Put off good, but irrelevant ideas

•  Ex. New business

•          Keeping a positive tone

–       Clarify by asking questions and paraphrasing

–       Enhance others’ comments

•      Acknowledge merits of ideas

•      Explain concerns

•      Improve usefulness of idea

–       Be culturally aware

Conducting the Meeting

•    Concluding the Meeting

– Close a meeting when…

•  the scheduled closing time has arrived

•  the group lacks resources to continue

•  the agenda has been covered

•    Close a meeting by:

– signaling when time is almost up

– summarizing the meeting’s accomplishments and future actions

– thanking the group

•    Following Up the Meeting

– Build an agenda for the next meeting

– Follow up on other members

•  Ex. “Did you manage to contact the client?”

– Take care of your own assignments