MEETINGS BLOODY MEETINGS
Hints for how to get more out of these daily
distractions
Beverly Brown with John Cleese
April 26, 2010
AGENDA
Current Experience
Video
General Rules
WHAT DO YOU HATE ABOUT MEETINGS?
Poorly organized, not sure why we are here?
 Do you cover the same ground over and over again?
 Exhausting and not productive…
 There is always someone who is a trouble maker
 We never start on time or end on time!
 Why are they needed?

WHY TEAMS (& MEETINGS) MATTER

Improve your promotion prospects!

The leader as leader

Team cohesion

More meetings
+
More temporary teams
=
Need for better meeting skills
TYPES OF MEETINGS
Informational
 Making decisions
 Working on a problem
 Any meeting can have one or more of these
elements in it.

FIVE PRINCIPLES OF GOOD MEETINGS

Plan

Inform

Prepare

Structure and control

Summarise and record
PLAN & INFORM

Is the meeting necessary?

Who should be invited?
•

Development

Knowledge experts

Authority/decision makers
Do they understand:

what will be discussed?

why?

what the meeting should achieve?
AGENDAS

Sufficient detail

Logical order

Appropriate time slots

urgent items
vs

important items
STRUCTURE & CONTROL

Evidence before interpretation

Interpretation before decisions

Keep stages separate

Stop:

jumping ahead

unnecessary back-tracking
SUMMARIZE & RECORD

Summarising – the chair’s job

Summarise each topic

Summarising


helps keep control

makes minute-taking easy
Recording – not the chair’s job
GENERAL RULES

Respect everyone’s time
Start & stop on time
 Stick to agenda


Three phases of meeting
Opening
 Work
 Closing


Meeting order
Share information first
 Make decisions (bring food for best results)
 Solve problems last



No Agenda: NO Attenda
Summarize work outside meetings in Action Items
and cover progress until closed
MEETING ROLES
Leader
 Facilitator
 Scribe
 Contributor
 Expert
 Gate Keeper
 Devil’s Advocate
 Joker
 Cheerleader
 Etc.

community
professional
association
employer
school
family
you
OPTIMUM MEETING SIZE DEPENDS ON
PURPOSE

Decision making
6-8 from relevant stakeholders
 Empowered representatives


Brainstorming
18
 Maximize diversity


Information sharing
1800
 Shortest meetings are in rooms without chairs

BRAINSTORMING

State the problem
Find all perceptions of problem
 Seek to agree on the problem
 Discuss time & scope of problem


Open floor for all (fixed time)
Fixed time (10-15 minutes)
 Scribe all responses
 No judging or editing any idea






Clarify & consolidate similar ideas
Open floor to discussion
Seek to rank the ideas
Select winner(s) (multi-voting)
Assign working group to explore top options
MEETINGS COME IN ALL SIZES BUT THE
SAME RULES APPLY
THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION