|
Effective Meetings #3
Sugested Meeting Guidelines
|
| We
have found that a key to improving the effectiveness of meetings is
to have a set of agreed on and rigorously enforced guidelines1.
Conversely, without such guidelines, meetings tend to be unstructured
and either under- or over-managed. As a result, such meetings are
not only unsatisfying to the participants and the leader, but they
are usually ineffective as well. |
Consider the Meeting Participants to be Customers |
|
If you are the
Meeting Leader2, we suggest you consider the
meeting as a product you are providing customers, and the participants
are your customers. Consider that the meeting participants are paying
for the meeting results with their time and effort. Your goal would
then be to have each attendee be able to say at the end of the meeting
that the benefit they individually received was worth the cost.
In this article
we suggest a set of meeting guidelines which have demonstrated considerable
value for our clients and ourselves.
|
Enforceable Guidelines |
| •
|
Meeting
Manager: Have one person at each meeting whose only job is
to manage the meeting process for that meeting. This person does not
participate in any content discussion. This "Meeting Manager"
should be perceived to be neutral to the outcome, committed only that
there is an outcome satisfying to the group. For our company staff
meetings, we rotate our Meeting Managers among all participants in
a regular cycle. |
| •
|
Recorder:
Have a person designated to keep a written record of what promises
were made (what, who, and by when), what decisions were made, and
what items were put aside to be addressed at later meetings. This
separation of duties frees the Meeting Manager to focus exclusively
on managing the meeting. For our staff meetings the Recorder for a
meeting is the Meeting Manager for the next meeting. This helps him
or her to be better prepared to manage that meeting. |
| •
|
Operate
with integrity: Once a guideline is made, stick to it. Any
significant overlooking or breaking of a guideline will make that
guideline (and possibly all the other guidelines) ineffective. If
the Meeting Leader or Meeting Manager break a guideline, then that
guideline is potentially rendered particularly ineffective. |
| |
• |
As
Meeting Leader or Meeting Manager, be an example of integrity in your
actions. |
|
• |
No
one is ever perfect. When a guideline is broken, the important behavior
is acknowledging to the group that a guideline was broken (instead
of ignoring it), acknowledging and taking responsibility for breaking
the guideline (instead of giving excuses or reasons as if they were
the equivalent of keeping the guideline), and let the group know that
you will make a greater effort in the future to adhere to it (tell
participants what correction you will make so that the error won't
happen again). |
| •
|
Follow
the agenda: Rigorously follow the agenda, especially meeting
start and stop times and the time allocated to each agenda item. An
agenda item's allocated time can be changed only with the approval
of the entire group, accompanied by resolution of the impact of the
change on the remaining agenda items. |
| •
|
Stick
to the agenda topic: Someone neutral (typically the Meeting
Manager) must be the arbiter of "on topic" or not. Off-topic
issues can be recorded on a "Parking Lot" list. |
| •
|
One
person talks at a time: It is very difficult to listen actively
when speaking. In addition, people consider it rude for others to
whisper while they are talking. In general, each person who speaks
addresses the group as a whole rather than speak to others as individuals. |
| •
|
Documentation
in advance: All documentation for decisions must be provided
to participants sufficiently in advance for everyone to be fully prepared
for the meeting. As a rule-of-thumb, we recommend that documentation
be distributed no less than one week prior to a decision-making meeting.
If the needed documentation is not made available in a timely manner,
the associated agenda item is removed from the agenda. |
| •
|
Decision
process: The process for making decisions, which may vary
from item to item, is always specified on the agenda3.
For example, some items may require consensus and for others, a majority
vote may be sufficient. |
| •
|
Periodic
review: Guidelines are regularly reviewed (approximately every
6-12 months), particularly for periodic meetings such as monthly staff
meetings. Continue to incorporate guidelines that work for you and
either eliminate or change other items, as appropriate. |
| •
|
Post guidelines: Post the current Guidelines in the
meeting room and find opportunities to refer to them often. |
Additional Guidelines |
| In
addition to the above, it may be useful to have guidelines concerning: |
| •
|
Modifying
the agenda after publication or at the meeting. |
| •
|
Authority
of the various meeting roles, such as the Meeting Manager. |
| •
|
Timely
publication of the minutes. |
Unenforceable (and useful) Guidelines |
| •
|
Be
concise. |
| •
|
Everybody
participates. |
| •
|
Listen
with an open mind. |
| •
|
Everyone
is responsible for the success of the meeting. |
Summary |
| As
Meeting Leader, consider the meeting attendees to be your customers
who should leave the meeting feeling that they have received more
value than the cost they paid with their time. Operate with a set
of enforceable guidelines that support that outcome. |
| -------- |
1. See Effective Meetings #2: Getting
Started: Have a Meeting on Meetings.
2. The Meeting Leader is the person who is desirous that the intended
results of the meeting be produced. Typically the Meeting Leader calls
the meeting, designs the agenda, and participates in the content discussion.
The Meeting Manager manages the process of the meeting, stays out
of any content discussion, and is accountable that the meeting agenda
be accomplished. See a forthcoming Effective Meetings article on Meeting
Roles.
3. See Effective Meetings #6: Selecting
a Group Decision-Making Process. |
| |
Article
version 2
© 2003 Frontier Associates, Inc.
Permission is granted to reprint and distribute this article provided
that the copyright and source information are included. |
