14-08-2012, 04:42 PM
30 Minutes … Before a Meeting
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[b]INTRODUCTION[/b]
You are about to chair a meeting. Everybody is arriving
in 30 minutes. How do you feel?
Chairing is one of the most high-profile and challenging
tasks for any manager. An effective meeting makes a
major contribution to an organisation’s success; a poor
meeting can do more damage than not meeting at all.
Think back to the last meeting you attended. Was it a
success? If so, why? Perhaps everybody felt that they
were listened to; that their ideas were respected; that they
genuinely shared responsibility for decisions. You left the
room energised and committed. Everybody looked forward
to the next time.
Or was it a failure? Perhaps people argued over trivia
or went off at tangents. Maybe some dominated and others
faded into the background, or withdrew to lick their
wounds. At times the meeting may have gone out of control;
or it may have been tyrannised by one person. Most
importantly, it probably went on too long. You left exhausted,
angry – and late for the next meeting.
To exchange and evaluate information
We meet to see what others in the team are doing; to
avoid duplication of tasks; to put what we are doing in
context; and to see the bigger picture.
Groups can evaluate information more effectively than
a single person, because they can look at it from different
points of view. This results in fewer gross errors of understanding.
Gathering, exchanging and evaluating information
are important activities prior to making a decision.
A consultation meeting – as part of staff surveys, or
between a consultant and client – is a typical example.
A briefing meeting exchanges and evaluates information
in a particular way. Team leaders communicate decisions
and changes ‘down the line’; in exchange, the team
can evaluate how the changes affect their work, build
their commitment to them and send their responses –
and their own ideas – back ‘up the line’.
To solve problems
Success in solving a problem depends on deciding what
kind of problem it is. A problem tends to be either an obstacle
or a challenge: a gap between what is and what
should be, or between what is and what could be.
If you are about to tackle a problem in your meeting,
ask: ‘Is it an obstacle or a challenge? Something in the
way, preventing us from achieving some other objective?
Or an opportunity to do something new or better?’
To resolve conflict
The obvious example is a negotiation, which aims to find
the source of the conflict, alternative approaches to the
situation and new ways for resolving it.
But conflict can arise in any meeting. Problem solving
and evaluating information can themselves cause arguments
which the meeting must resolve if it is to progress.
And building or repairing people’s morale at a time of
change and uncertainty can often mean resolving conflicts.
To inspire
Humans are biologically gregarious. Very few of us can
get through a day comfortably without interacting with
others. We like to meet, especially if our work tends to
isolate us. Meetings help us to find meaning in our work
by relating it to the work of others; they can support us
through difficulties by allowing us to share problems;
they can energise and motivate us.
So, establish the purpose of your meeting. Your
statement of purpose should revolve around a verb. What
are you going to do – apart from talk?
If you are going to address a number of tasks, they
should be connected in some way. Are they all relevant to
all the members of the group? Is the meeting necessary to
carry them all out? Some tasks might be dealt with more
efficiently in ‘mini-meetings’ before or after the main
meeting.