Meetings
(Originally published on the OUBS Blog)
Meetings differ in their purpose, expectations, rights and responsibilities and how they should be run.
Briefing meetings are there to instruct people and tell them what is expected of them. They need to understand and be free to ask questions.
Business meetings are decision-making meetings with a more or less formal agenda. Information is shared, issues discussed and decisions made. Common fault is to discuss everything at great length.
Planning meetings take time and are usually better delegated to a smaller subgroup with a clear brief.
Consultation meetings are normally there to get the opinions of the people who are invited to attend. Should be well planned, with clear brief, and they should be chaired by someone with a facilitative style that will elicit information.
Review and evaluation meetings are held to assess how the organisation is achieving its collective and individual goals.
Sometimes things can be done in other ways:
\- decisions delegated to individuals
\- Information passed on in written form
\- Consultation meetings by one-to-one meetings, …
\- Support during individual supervision or paired working arrangements
\- Responsibility allocated to individuals
Advantages
\- involvement � sense of ownership
\- Democratic style
\- Staff skills improved
\- Increased satisfaction
\- Good communication
\- Staff kept in contact
\- Junior staff access to management
\- Decision making improved
\- Managers keep in touch
\- Members stay involved
Disadvantages
\- staff away from other work
\- expensive
\- take longer
\- individual responsibility and initiative dampened � less satisfaction
\- possibly poor decisions
Remember there is no one right way to run a meeting. There are different types.
Adversarial meetings are more likely when members represent many different constituencies and points of view. There is open debate, you lobby for your view, no agreement but a vote and limited trust.
Consensual meetings happen when members have similar values, beliefs and goals. There is open sharing and you are elaborate. You put your self interest below the group and the decisions of the group emerge fitting the needs of the group.
On top of that comes the formal and informal meetings.
Influences on a meeting depend on the underlying values and goals, the attitudes and skills of members and tradition is important.
Opportunities depend on the style. The formal-adversarial meeting encourages individual achievement and requires political skills. It pays to prepare. It also depends heavily on a skilful and effective chairperson.
The consensual meeting places the emphasis on the group effort and the chairperson is less needed. Listening skills, clear, assertive presentation, openness and honesty and respect and interest for others are important things.
You should indentify the culture and style and then you will be more aware of the fit between you and the meeting and might be able to adapt your personal style to fit.
There are different functions at meetings.
For example, somebody needs to be chairing and facilitating which is needed when there are more than 6 people in the team. The style should be appropriate to the type of meeting, congruent with the culture and style of the meeting and consented to by the majority of the ordinary members.
Here are some possible functions of a chairperson
Traditional Chairperson
\- ensure fair play
\- stay in charge
\- stay neutral
\- open the meeting
\- state the purpose
\- introduce all agenda items
\- get through
\- close
\- select speakers
\- ask questions
\- summarise
\- end discussions
\- make people stick to subject
\- arbitrate disputes
\- control interruptions
\- ensure decisions are taken
\- decide when to move on
\- conduct vote
\- ensure responsibilities
\- work by rules
\- act on behalf of the meeting
\- pursue decisions
\- represent groups
Facilitative chairperson
\- have an overview of tasks/goals
\- help group take responsibility
\- help group carry out tasks
\- have little emotional invest.
\- Run though agenda, approve
\- Arrange intros
\- Update latecomers
\- Keep track of time
\- Evaluate meeting
\- Encourage participation
\- Encourage viewpoints
\- Encourage stick to subject
\- Clarify discussions
\- Make it safe for feelings
\- Handle conflict
\- Remind of procedures
\- Look at agreements
\- Test to see agreements
\- Ensure tasks to be carried out
\- Help decisions
You can either let the chairperson learn over time or rotate chairpersons to let everyone learn.
During the meeting it is helpful to receive feedback on how effective you were and what you could do to improve.
The secretary is another task that is needed sometimes. Primary skills are note taking and an important planning role. For example spelling out what the meeting is expected to do will help you avoid problems and help people prepare.
The official record must happen and it is important to be accurate and impartial. Decisions, results and exact wordings of proposals or resolutions are important. Also who was present and such should be there.
Useful is an action column in the margin of the minutes where you put people’s names if they should do something.
The framework of a meeting has both overt and hidden components. This includes the agenda and other papers, the minutes, the room layout, the rules and protocols, the language and the understandings.