Meetings: Leadership and Productivity

Lectures Based on Leadership Communication, 3rd edition By Deborah J. Barrett, Ph.D. McGraw-Hill/Irwin

Copyright © 2010 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Discussion Topics  Deciding when a meeting is the best forum  Planning a meeting  Conducting a productive meeting

 Reviewing purpose, end products, and agenda  Establishing roles and ground rules

 Using common problem-solving methods  Managing meeting problems and conflict  Ensuring meetings lead to action

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Deciding When a Meeting is the Best Forum To determine if a meeting is the best forum, ask yourself the following questions:  What is the purpose? What do I hope to accomplish?  Will a meeting accomplish that purpose most efficiently? Most effectively?

 Can I describe exactly the outcome I am seeking from the meeting?  Is our group more productive when we meet?

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Planning a Meeting  Clarify purpose, objectives, and end products  Decide on the following:

 Attendees  Location, equipment, and room layout  Materials needed before and during

 Meeting timing  Decision-making approach  Create the agenda

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Clarifying the Purpose and End Products  Before the meeting or at the beginning, write out and agree on your purpose and objectives.  Align those objectives with the expected endproducts.  For example Objective

End products

 Identify major issues in the case  Determine possible approaches to issues  Assign tasks

 List of five issues  Written approaches or actions to find approaches  Action items with responsibility assigned

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Creating a Planning Guide and Agenda Sample Meeting Planning Guide Meeting called by: Facilitator: Note taker: Objectives:

Attendees:

Major agenda items and timing:

Please read: Please bring: Observers: Additional Information:

Resource persons:

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Conducting a Productive Meeting To conduct a productive meeting, you will need to do the following:  Review your purpose, end products, and agenda

 Establish roles and ground rules  Use common problem-solving methods

 Manage meeting problems and conflict

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Establishing Roles and Ground Rules

Roles

 Leader  Facilitator  Note taker  Timekeeper

Sample Ground Rules  Discussions are to be informal and interactive  Our goal is to have open, nonjudgmental exchange of ideas  No idea is a bad idea  All participants are equal  No sidebars are allowed

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Using Common Problem-Solving Methods* 1. Brainstorming 2. Ranking or rating 3. Sorting by category (logical grouping)

4. Edward DeBono’s Six Thinking Hats 5. Opposition analysis (is/is not, pro/con) 6. Decision trees 7. From/to 8. Force field analysis 9. The matrix 10. Frameworks *See appendix for discussions of some of the methods.

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Managing Meeting Problems Problem

Approach  Create agenda that includes 1. Confused objectives and end products objectives and expectations  Send agenda out ahead of time  Review agenda at the beginning of meeting 2. Unclear roles/  Communicate roles and responsibilities responsibilities before or at the beginning of the meeting

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Managing Meeting Problems (continued) Problem

Approach

3. Confusion between process and content

 Separate leader and facilitator roles

4. Drifting off topic

 Call time outs for process checks

 Stop and review objectives  If digression continues, suggest  Continuing after meeting  Placing topic on agenda for next meeting or in “parking lot”

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Managing Meeting Problems (continued) Problem

Approach

5. Data confusion or overload

Control versions of handouts Create simplified data packs Exclude data not relevant to objectives

5. Repetition/ wheel spinning

Control the discussion by reminding attendees of objectives

6. Time violations

Always start on time Have a time keeper Re-evaluate agenda topics/time limits and build in cushion time

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Managing Conflict High

Level of assertiveness

Competing

Collaborating

Compromising

Low Avoiding Low

Accommodating High

Level of cooperation Source: Adapted from Blake and Mouton, in Deborah Borisoff and David Victor, Conflict Management: A Communication Skills Approach, p. 6.

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Ensuring Meeting Follow-up Occurs  Assign specific tasks to specific people  Review all actions and responsibilities at the end of the meeting

 Provide a meeting summary with assigned deliverables included  Follow-up on action items in a reasonable time

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Discussion Summary  Unproductive meetings may occur if a meeting is not the best forum to accomplish the tasks  Ensuring a productive meetings means you need to plan the meeting carefully and conduct it with skilled facilitation  Meeting problems and conflict need to be managed immediately and not allowed to linger  To ensure needed actions occur following the meeting may require some micro-managing

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Appendix: Some Problem-Solving Methods

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Traditional Brainstorming  Purpose: To generate a lot of ideas  Characteristics:  Each person is expected to contribute an idea  Ideas are not to be evaluated or judged  Ideas must be captured just as they are  Quantity is what is important, not quality  A facilitator’s role is to keep things moving and make sure the scribe captures all ideas  Brainstorming ends when the ideas stop coming or when time runs out

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DeBono’s Six Thinking Hats  Purpose: To encourage open and complete thinking about a problem (parallel thinking)  Characteristics:  Each person figuratively wears a hat of the same color and assumes the characteristics assigned to the color  The colors are as follows:

 Red = Emotions  White = Facts

 Yellow = Possibilities  Black = Devil’s advocate  Green = Creative solutions  Blue = Evaluation of ideas

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The Matrix  Purpose: To evaluate or diagnose problems, establish positioning or approach, or determine level of difficulty in making changes  Characteristics:  The matrix is usually a four box configuration with each axis assigned an evaluative label  An example would be the skill/will matrix: High will

Low will Low skill

High skill

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Force-Field Analysis  Purpose: To explore problems and develop strategies for change  Characteristics:  First, the problem is described, and then the situation as you would want it to be is described.  What emerges are two sets of forces, one driving towards the desired goal and the other pushing in the opposite direction.  When the forces are found to be in equilibrium, no change can occur.

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From/To  Purpose: To establish accurate description of a current situation with a matching list of desired changes  Characteristics:  Particularly useful in a change situation  Helps uncover problems and improvements  Very useful in a team situation or idea generating workshop

From

To

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Frameworks  Purpose: To simplify or make a complex idea more manageable, to capture visually the elements of a complex problem, or to force greater analysis  Characteristics:  Can be original (the best usually are since then they are tailored to the problem)  However, numerous frameworks exist, which can save valuable time and ensure comprehensiveness; thus, they should be part of every facilitator’s tool kit.