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Meetings Below you will find a list of meeting activities and tips.
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Activities to Build Better Meetings
1. The Meeting from Hell-- In this meeting activity ask participants to tell a person next to them about “the worst meeting ever”—the meeting from hell. Relate one or two things that made it the meeting from hell. Share a few of the best examples with the large group. 2. Post Your Ideas-- Give each participant a post-it note and a marker. Have them write down the one thing that they think is the greatest barrier to good meetings. Have them put their post-it notes on a sheet in the front of the room. Once all are posted, summarize the barriers. Ask them to discuss strategies or behaviors that will work to overcome meeting barriers. 3. Accountability Matrix Frequently
when people leave a meeting, assigned action items are placed on “the
back burner” or even forgotten. Below
is a simple chart, the Accountability Matrix, that teams or
committees can use to make sure that action items are not forgotten or
ignored. The chart serves as a
reminder when it is sent out with the minutes.
Meeting facilitators can take a minute or two at the beginning or
end of a meeting to review the Accountability Matrix.
The Matrix serves as a short reminder to get things done.
4. Meeting Attitude Assessment Ask each meeting participant to complete a short meeting attitude assessment (See below) . Discuss group reactions to the assessment and then ask what the group can do to have better meetings. 5. Core Meeting Questions Take a few minutes during your first meeting to answer six core meeting questions... 1. What are the guidelines for attendance and promptness? 2. What are the expectations for active participation? 3. What does it mean to listen and speak thoughtfully? 4. How should decisions be reached? 5. What responsibilities do team members have for getting things done at meetings? 6. How should team members treat each other at team meetings? 6. Why Am I Here? At the start of your first meeting take some time to discuss the value of meetings. This will help the group to reach an understanding of why they need to pull together to make meetings work. Below are four sample discussion questions... 1. Why have meetings? 2. How do meetings work to shape the organizational culture? 3. How do meetings strengthen teamwork and build alliances? 4. What is the connection between quality meetings and quality work? 7. Brainstorming Tips Use part of a meeting to brainstorm for tips to handle the personal meeting concerns listed below. This is a good way to clarify meeting behaviors.
8. Orient New Members Assign a "meeting buddy" to explain to new members the expectations and norms for high performance meetings. 9. Meeting Check On occasion, take a quick timeout during the course of a meeting and ask the participants if they feel the meeting is progressing well. If not, ask them how the group can make better use of its energy. 10.
Take a Stand An emphatic way to test the opinions of a group is to ask them to respond to a set of questions or statements by “voting with their feet.” Use questions or statements that require one of three positions: 1. Mostly negative, 2. Don’t know, 3 Mostly positive (you can change this set of responses to fit your needs). Each position has a designated location in the room. After the facilitator reads a question or statement, participants move to the appropriate location. 11. Defining Terms It is often helpful to allow some time to define terms, particularly with terms or words that are broad or open to interpretation. Frequently, even commonly used words require clarification--words like professionalism, collaboration, engagement, etc. Ask your group to agree on working definitions. 12. Challenges When a group has agreed to take an action , it is beneficial to take some time to challenge it. In other words, try to anticipate objections, concerns, and arguments against the action. This will make it easier for the group to promote the action. 13. Survey After a meeting that included a lively discussion, send a follow up survey to see if members have altered their views. This can be a very short, easy-to-complete survey. This kind of follow up keeps participants thinking about the issues. 14. Meeting Buddies Another meeting follow up idea is to have participants select a partner to meet a few days after the meeting. When they meet they should check to see if they have additional thoughts or questions about the issues. Partners should send their thoughts to the facilitator. 15. Meeting Closure Each meeting must have a beginning, middle, and end. Hence, all good meetings must move toward meaningful closure. Get in the habit of including a formal closure period at the end of each meeting. As a group draw conclusions, summarize what has been accomplished, and move from discussion to doing. Before dismissal, plan post-meeting logistics, next steps, and assign responsibilities, accountability, timetables, and required resources. 16. 4Ps I worked with a CEO who used
what he called his 4Ps for a meeting.
The 4
P’s stood for Preparedness, Purpose, Process, and Payoff. He
introduced it as a checklist to be used in preparation for any group or
team meeting. Here is his
process… 1.
His preparedness
checklist included some of the following: Who should be in the
meeting? Why? What information do they need from me (or others) to be
prepared? By what date should they get the information? 2.
His purpose
checklist helped him think about the value of meetings. Some meetings
ended up being canceled by simply asking the first two questions on his
checklist: Is this meeting important? Why? 3.
When he
thought and talked about process, it was in terms of how the
meeting would be conducted. Often he used it as a way for participants to
not only accomplish important tasks, but to give participants
opportunities to do skill building. For example, he would have people
rotate roles, such as the meeting chair, the scribe, and the timekeeper.
Meeting facilitation training was built into his introduction of the 4
P’s. In other words, he looked for ways to optimize meeting time. 4.
Payoff was
the last P. Here he thought about (and challenged others) to think of this
in three ways: How does this meeting payoff for
others, for the organization,
and for oneself. As a
consultant to the organization, I saw this part of the template alone
increase meeting productivity. 17.
Clarification Statements. Sometimes after a meeting
discussion you may want to clarify participant thinking by asking each
member to write down a summarizing statement or recommendation on a 3 x 5
card. Then ask each
participant to read his or her statement to the group.
You may even choose to form a sub group to go through the cards and draw
some conclusions to be reported to the full group. 18.
The Bright Side It is often a good idea to
take part of a meeting to share things that are positive or to articulate
those things that are working. Odd as
it might sound, the positive often gets lost at meetings. 19.
Stating the Positive Don’t forget to give
meeting members an opportunity to express appreciation for a person, idea,
happening, etc. Affirmation is an important "glue" to hold
groups together. 20.
Group Assessment. On occasion, a group that
meets on a regular basis should set aside some meeting time to take a
self-assessment. The group
should ask itself, Are our meetings productive? What can we do to make
them more productive? 21.
The Best and the Worst. If you are meeting to solve
a sticky problem, you might want to take some time to ask the group to
articulate the worst case scenario and the best case scenario.
This can help define the problem and set the stage for productive
solutions. 22.
Cooling Off. On occasion meetings
can get rather heated. If it
looks like the “battle” is just going to go on and on, call for a time
out or cooling off break to allow for cooler heads to prevail.
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Tips for Successful Meetings We have all been at meetings where we felt our precious time was being wasted. It is after poorly run meetings that we might agree with the wit who stated that “a meeting is an event where minutes are kept and hours are lost.” In fact, poorly run meetings constitute one of the most common complaints in organizations. But meetings are vitally important to an organization. Leaders understand that meetings are not only essential to the productivity of an organization; they are also an important vehicle to perpetuate the organization’s values and culture. Organizational researchers often
remind us that meetings do a great deal to shape an employee’s
attitude toward work. After interviewing dozens of
business and non-profit leaders, the Workshop Exercises team compiled
the following list of tips for successful meetings.
Tips for Meeting Participants There
is nothing worse than a meeting where one person talks and others sit
silently with looks of sullen resignation or detachment.
Participants must make an effort to get involved by doing the
following: o
Commit
to participation o
When
you are unsure about something, ask for clarification o
Probe
for more information o
Accept
and welcome different points of view o
Encourage
brainstorming o
Ask
open-ended questions o
Be
sincere o
Encourage
the input of other participants o
Focus
on the topic, not on the speaker o
Don’t
stray from the agenda o
Maintain
a sense of timing, don’t hog time or ramble o
Use
meaningful examples o
Avoid
long stories that result in minor points o
Be
enthusiastic and animated o
Let
speakers know that you understand what they mean o
Be
aware of what your body language is telling the group o
Avoid
sarcasm, condescension, or other put downs o
Be
aware of how you sound to others o
Expect
to have a successful meeting o
Don’t
interrupt o
Listen,
listen, listen |
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Meeting
Attitude: A Short
Self Assessment The
following questionnaire is designed to get you thinking about your
“meeting attitude.” No
one will see this questionnaire, so take an honest look at your
contribution to your team meetings. Rate
each question using the following scale:
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