Is the Meeting Progressing?
What experiences have you encountered when meetings progressed as scheduled? What went right? When meetings went awry? What went wrong?
Theresa,
Meetings can be key to the progress or a deterrent to ownership to any task When expectations of a meeting are well spelled out and are followed the participants know what to expect. I have had the opportunity to lead many meetings in by life time with boards, school, non-profits etc. You are exactly correct when you set expectations (agenda) and stick to them.
Dr. Gary Carlson
I have always appreciated when a manager can stick to an agenda and not go over scheduled meetings. One thing that is positive about this is that if organized correctly you are able to discuss many topics in one meeting. The negative is when there is specific time allocated for each subject. When your employees feel like they do not have enough time to express their ideas this could cause a negative impact for future meetings. For example, staff may begin to dread attending your meeting calling it a “waste of my time they do not listen to us anywayâ€. I have seen this many times and I would hate to have my employee say that about me.
John,
Organization is important to your ability to move through a meeting. Keeping on task to the point and completing action items is key.
Dr. Gary Carlson
The max count in our meetings is usually 8. Our other groups have their meetings of between 6 and 8. Once a month all groups come together for one big meeting.
Since we are all basically on the same page with minor variations, our large group meetings actually move quite fast.
Lisa,
All brainstorming sessions need to have rules. These rules should be discussed prior to the session starting. There some good rules you can find under the section on brainstorming ideas from researching on Google.
Dr. Gary Carlson
I love brainstorming sessions, as long as everyone understands we are not necessarily looking for the answer, but to be creative and make suggestions. This way of thinking requires people remove their negativity.
Warren,
Small groups are always good for the ownership in the task at hand. When you can get the peer relationships going in the smaller settings there will be more contributions from each individual. Lack of interest is not as prevalent.
Dr. Gary Carlson
I concurr. I have seen this more often then I would like. The reasons are many from unfocused individuals to too much info at one time. Large groups of 18 for instance work better when they are broken down into smaller ones to brainstorm. When department heads are text messaging, what message do this give about the importance of the gathering and what kind of example does this set?
Hermie,
There are many forms of brainstorming methods. One is to go around the room and have each person make a comment or suggestion regarding a topic. No one responds but the suggestion is posted. After the suggestions are exhausted you will go over each one with comments. Some can be combined but this gets the team participating in the solution at hand.
Dr. Gary Carlson
When it comes to brainstorming, having 18 people or more can be very productive. The meeting results to more ideas and a variety of concepts. It becomes a wide range of possiblities and alternatives where members can choose from.
Meetings I have attending which have went awry were caused by the following:
• Individuals playing on his/her cell phone or IPads.
• Side conversations.
• Individuals getting off track.
• Individuals with his/her own agendas
• Interrupting other team members.
• Arriving late/leaving early.
• Cakes, desserts, overall party atmosphere.
These problems could be resolved by:
• Establishing clearly defined ground rules, as an example no cell phones or IPad usage
• Elimination of side conversations.
• The meeting leader show maintain control, not let the members do his/her thing
• The meeting leader should take this course.
Meetings which the above is allowed leads to:
• Misinformation
• Lack of team unity
• Confusion
• The team members feel as though they are wasting his/her time
Mark,
Having well planned meetings save time.
Dr. Gary Carlson
Meetings at my work are on a very tight time constraint so information has to be concise and to the point without adding unneeded formalities. When this happens the meetings are very productive and deemed useful. When too much time is wasted it affects the outcome of the whole meeting, not just the drawn out areas.
Donald,
It always important to be sure to have interactivity with your meetings. Some times the meeting attendance may be to large to produce constructive input. There are many ways to adjust this by holding meetings with smaller groups which the agenda relates specifically to them. Then have an information meeting only with everyone once a month and make sure it is a meeting where the participants are in the need to know category.
Dr. Gary Carlson
I agree. The company I work for has meetings on a regular basis ( 2 every 3 weeks )
We have about 50 Instructors and it seems with that many participants there are way too many opinions and less ideas.
David,
Good meetings just don't happen when you meet. A meeting needs preparation and communication with the participants prior to the meeting. Expectation for the meeting needs to be communicated and all time constraints. When someone falls of the agenda guidelines they need to brought back to the meeting expectations.
Dr. Gary Carlson
Many times are Ed Managers are very good at trying to keep meetings short and productive. They use an agenda and try to stick to it. When no other departments heads are involved they are very succesful. When something goes wrong and time runs out it is usually because a leader or spokeperson from another department joins or has been asked to join our meetings and that person does not fully understand or appreciate how critical time management is to the instructors in the audience. When a meeting runs over for an instructor its not just a loss of time it also means not being available to students before class, not getting classroom fully prepared and sometimes even being late to class. All of which are unaccpetable outcomes.
eileen,
It is very important to explain the outcomes expected from the meeting prior to the meeting. You need to hold to these expectations by putting high priority items first on the agenda. Communication needs to be directly related to the agenda item and make sure their is redundancy with discussion. If an individual is off track they need to know there input does not relate to the subject at hand.
Dr. Gary Carlson
My biggest challenge with my staff meetings are:
1) to make the meetings interesting while still conveying the necessary information. I try to have different people speak so it is not just me giving directions. We are a new program and there are many details which need to be disseminated.
2) I have one person who dominates the meetings - I have spoke with her previously and will have to just interuppt her when she talks too much - my other employees are beginning to call the staff meetings "the Susie show".
