Category Archives: meetings

What to Expect in More Complex Meetings?

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blog picThere is a significant difference in how one prepares to facilitate group work to resolve issues, improve processes, agree on directions for change, and commit to action.  Compared to regular team or status/progress meetings, expect:

MORE COMPLEXITY:  Usually a greater diversity of perspectives and views must be considered, balanced and reconciled, before it is possible to generate consensus and commitment.

HIGHER STAKES: The outcomes of such meetings matter to the organization’s goals. Success is important, and so is the downside of not succeeding.

DESIGN MATTERS: Your facilitation must rely on a thoughtful process to help the group achieve desired outcomes. It is essential for you to have the right process framework to follow, and to know where you are in the process. There is a sequence to what questions must be answered before other work can be tackled.

LONGER MEETINGS: As a result of all the above, more time is needed to achieve desired outcomes, extending to several days, and sometimes weeks and months.

 Call to Action: Commit to becoming a more agile and professional masterful facilitator in 2013! Register for one or more of our upcoming classes in advanced facilitation: The Agile Facilitator; The Engaging Facilitator; and The Strategic Facilitator.

Just starting out? These courses will enhance your facilitation confidence and empower you with solid foundational skills:  The Confident Facilitator; The Skillful Facilitator.

Why Are You Meeting?

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“Clarity of meeting purpose is a sweet weapon against confusion.” – Toke Palludan Moeller.”

Groups meet not only to get work done, but also to build relationships and the social capital required for successful collaboration after the meeting. However briefly, this human need for interaction with others should always be factored into your meeting.

Remember though, that the key to focused and productive meetings is the reason you are meeting in the first place. Be clear on your meeting purpose from the start. Generally, most meetings fall under three broad types of purposes:

1. To inform and update participants. (Typical Length: .5 to 1.5 hours).

2. To obtain input and/or generate consensus around issues, problems and plans. (Typical Length: 2-3+ hours; sometimes over several weeks/months).

3. To develop and implement strategy and change. (Typical Length: 1-3 days annually; 1-3 hours quarterly).

As you plan your meeting, ask yourself this question: “Why are we meeting and what do we hope will be different as a result?” Having this clarity will greatly assist you in planning your agenda and facilitation processes.

Start your meeting off with a clear explanation of that purpose to participants, for example: “When you walk out, you’ll be current on the status of our top priority projects; your ideas are essential to the resolution of this issue; and, finally, we need to align on new future directions and the plans to achieve them.” If you do need to meet, then being clear on your meeting purpose is the first step in achieving focused and productive meetings.

Call to Action:

The Masterful Facilitation Institute exists to build your confidence and skills as an effective facilitator so you can design and facilitate great meetings – every time, for any purpose. Read the path to Effective Facilitation to get started now.

Mission and Values

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Strategic Planning often begins with hindsight looking to the past to discover what your organization, business or group historically set out to achieve in its noblest purpose. The foundation of who you are today rests on the journey you have taken so far. Take time to harvest stories that reveal the very best of who you are – therein lies your purpose, core mission and guiding values.

In this first phase of Strategic Planning, several sub-questions are addressed, two of which management guru Peter Drucker has flagged as the most important questions to ask your organization:

* What is our mission? (Drucker’s question #1 – What is our Mission?) At the most fundamental level, why does this organization, business or group exist at all? What is your ‘raison d’être’ describing your noble purpose and your idealistic motivations for doing what you do? As Jim Collins, noted author of Good to Great, comments – your core mission should endure for decades, even centuries, while almost everything else will likely evolve and change over time.

* Who do we serve? (Drucker’s question #2 is: Who is our Customer?) Unless there is clarity at all the levels of the organization around this question, then much confusion, unfocused and even conflicting effort may result. Whether you serve clients, members, customers, patients, or the public – ultimately these key stakeholders justify your existence. Great organizations are relentless in their pursuit of serving their customers over time.

* What do we do? What is our unique work, role or function? What products and services do we provide in carrying out our mission and serving our key stakeholders?

* What guides our work? The core values and guiding principles of your business, organization or group are what distinguish you from everyone else. Like the DNA in a living organism, core values create your unique identity guiding everyone from the Board level to the front line to decide, behave and respond according to a coherent, recognizable set of principles.

Call to Action:

The Masterful Facilitation Institute exists to build your confidence and skills as an effective facilitator so you can design and facilitate great meetings – every time, for any purpose.

If you are an executive, manager, strategic planner, change agent, or any leader seeking to facilitate productive, positive and aligning strategic planning meetings and change initiatives, sign up for The Strategic Facilitator: Aligning Around Vision and Strategy.

You will understand how to guide the entire process of strategic planning, from clarifying why you exist as a group or organization, to assessing your current situation, describing your desired future state, establishing the strategies that will propel you forward, and determining how you’ll know if you’ve succeeded.

Do We Really Need to Meet?

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If meetings have a bad name, it is often because there is not a good reason for scheduling one. As a meeting convenor, your first task is to explore if the desired outcomes could be achieved through a more effective avenue. For information-sharing meetings, here are nine effective meeting tips you might want to consider:

  1. Share written information and documents through email and focus the meetings to questions and reactions, rather than presentation.
  2. Create an on-line group engagement thoughtstream, blog or open-ended survey, inviting anyone to contribute their ideas before the meeting.
  3. Create a recorded or video-taped message to ensure everyone hears the same message.
  4. Determine who really needs to attend. Are you inviting people out of courtesy rather than necessity? Can agenda items be bundled in order that some participants can attend the part of the meeting that is most relevant to them?
  5. Challenge whether that ‘routinely scheduled meeting’ is really adding value. Just because you’ve always met as a team on Wednesday mornings, doesn’t mean the meeting is always required. If there is no pressing need to meet; then pass that week.
  6. Can your status meetings, say in a production shop, be held standing up? You may find as others have that the length of meetings is drastically reduced because most folks don’t like to have to stand for too long. Standing meetings motivate participants to get to the point faster.
  7. Ban all cells, laptops and other distracting devices during the active meeting to ensure participants are focused.
  8. Give participants a couple of minutes before you open up a status go-round, to write down their points. Then invite laser-like, headline contributions only. Details can be provided through Q&A.
  9. Set the timer for the scheduled time, appoint a Timekeeper, and ask for regular cues on time remaining. Start and end the meeting on time.

Call to Action:

The Masterful Facilitation Institute exists to build your confidence and skills as an effective facilitator so you can design and facilitate great meetings – every time, for any purpose. Read about the path to Effective Facilitation to get started now.

Basics to Running Good Meetings

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Answer These Key Questions: 

  1. Do you really need to meet? Determine if a meeting is truly the best strategy for your purpose.
  2. Do you have an agenda? Does it provide a clear, realistic structure and plan to achieve the meeting outcomes? Does everyone have a copy?
  3. Do you have the right people to accomplish the goals outlined in the agenda? Does everyone need to be there for the entire meeting?
  4. Do you have agreement on meeting norms and roles?
  5. Do you have the right facilitation processes to engage participants productively and meaningfully – no matter what the size of group? Are you the right person to facilitate, or is a skilled neutral facilitator required?
  6. Do you have a strategy for staying on topic and on time?
  7. Do meeting participants have the information and understanding they will need to make informed and wise contributions?
  8. Do you have a plan for starting and ending the meeting, including clarity on commitments and follow-up?

Each of these eight points will be unpacked every second week in this blog. On alternate weeks, group process facilitation topics will be explored.

Call to Action:

Knowing the basics of running an effective meeting is a critical leadership competency. Having a list of the fundamentals to conduct a good meeting is the first step.  Every course we offer is grounded in decades of professional facilitation practice and adult education, and is certain to improve your meeting productivity. Read more.

 

 

Secret Meeting Weapons – Clear Roles and a Timer

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(or how Roles & Timers can save your bacon…!)

In our worst nightmares as facilitators, we picture ourselves facing groups with participants who challenge us, act out, and completely derail our sessions.

Fortunately, the good news is that almost every meeting conflict can be prevented before the meeting even begins.

One of the easiest and most powerful ways to avoid problems in the meeting is to ask small groups to self-manage their own process through clear roles. Read More….

Meeting: Who Needs Them?

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We all do!

Whether you are an executive, a manager, supervisor or project team leader, chances are that meetings are a significant part of your day. However, poor meetings may be the norm you are settling for rather than “Great Meetings”.

According to a recent survey of 300 senior Canadian managers, their number one pet peeve with meetings is either that they either start late or finish past the indicated time. Managers also begrudge being brought together when their presence and participation is not key to the meeting outcomes.  The use of PDAs and laptops for non-meeting related activities, along with people interupting one another follow closely in the list of of meeting issues. Accountemps identifies five signs that your meeting could be a time waster, and offers suggestions for how to correct it.  (see Accountemps Survey - Identifies Managers’ Biggest Meeting Pet Peeves).

Despite highly developed technical, professional and specialized skills, most managers do not have the necessary meeting facilitation competencies to design and lead focused and effective meetings. If this is true for you or your staff, have a look at our Masterful Facilitation Institute courses. Our public and in-house facilitation skill building programs are guaranteed to enhance the productivity of your virtual and face-to-face meetings.

Mastering Great Meetings

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Follow the Masterful Facilitation Institute’s Great Meetings Formula to confidently ensure your meeting success …

= Great Outcomes (time-effective, focused, productive, broad buy-in) are the result of

+ Great Process (engaged, focused, creative, good pace/energizing) + that fosters

+ Great Interactions (safe, respectful, positive, builds common ground and learning)

… and attend to these six keys to masterful facilitation:

  • Masterful Agenda
  • Answer Questions on Their Mind
  • Strategies for Functional Behaviour
  • Transform Conflict into Creativity
  • End with Clarity/on Time
  • Report for Follow-Up

Read more about keys to masterful facilitation….

Enhance Meeting Productivity

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Of the 60+ meetings per month attended by professionals, research indicates that over 50 percent of this meeting time is wasted.  That translates to 4 days of lost productivity per professional every month if each meeting is one hour long!  Can you afford not to invest in more effective meetings?  Do the math for yourself. How much could you save with even a 25% improvement in the productivity of your virtual and in-person meetings?

Nearly all organizational leaders, professionals, and managers can greatly benefit from developing competence in facilitating effective meetings, and understanding when to seek facilitation assistance.

Call to Action: Bring our productivity enhancing courses in-house!

 

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Prevent Conflict Before the Meeting

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Here’s some really good news! “Almost all meeting conflict can be prevented by good preparation, clarity about roles, responsibilities, ground rules, expected outcomes, and decision-making methods.” — Facilitator’s Fieldbook

Everyone hates wasting time in meetings. Whether you are facilitating the meeting, attending as a participant, or making arrangements for a client, ensure you are clear about, and agree to, the OARRS. Doing so will go a long way toward creating Great Meetings!

  • Outcomes: Why are we meeting?
  • Agenda: What topics will we address, when, & how?
  • Roles: What will be expected of me?
  • Rules: How will we work together?
  • Scope: What are empowered to do?

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