8 tips to
improve
meetings
1. Decide if the meeting is needed.
2. Find a moderator to manage the meeting.
3. The moderator prepares the meeting.
4. The moderator starts the meeting.
5. People listen to ideas of each other.
6. The moderator manages decision making.
7. People choose what they want to do.
8. The moderator finishes the meeting.
Tip # 1
Decide if the
meeting is needed
Possibility A: Possibility B:
Manager has taken Manager has not taken
a decision a decision
A meeting is not needed
A meeting is needed
The manager informs
about his/her decision
We must keep meetings about decisions.
The only way to do so is to cancel the
informational meetings.
Source: Pittampalli, Al: Read this before our next meeting, location 374.
Inviting people’s input when you’ve already
made up your mind demotivates people.
Source:
Jim Collins. http://bigthink.com/series/70/series_item/4981
Using the word “money” instead of “time”
when scheduling your week, you’ll be more
careful and judicious about whether to
spend your time in meetings or not.
Source
Mr. Robert Kaplan, Harvard Business School.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204642604577215013504567548.html
Every time someone called a meeting, Will Wright,
designer of computer games such as ”The Sims”,
charged that person a dollar.
Although he collected a lot of dollars, this requirement
made people think twice, even though it was only a
dollar.
Source
https://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Governance/Leadership/Why_good_bosses_tune_in_to_their_people_2656
Tip # 2
Find a moderator
to manage the
meeting
Source: http://fac-vid.squarespace.com/bedre-moeder/Ravn%20-%20Bedre%20mder%20gennem%20facilitering.pdf p. 3.
A manager is intellectually so challenged,
that he/she is no longer capable of
managing the process.
Source
http://news.nzzexecutive.ch/arbeitsmarkt/uebersicht/tv_sprecher_sind_eigentlich_keine_moderatoren_1.8140678.html
# 1: A manager # 2: An employee
Moderator
possibilities
# 3: An external moderator
2 reasons why an external facilitator
is the better choice
Reason # 1
Managers and employees show more respect for
an external facilitator.
Reason # 2
People take things more seriously when an external
facilitator manages the meeting.
Source: Ravn, Ib: Facilitering, p. 27-28.
Moderator skills
Take initiative.
Organize, structure, focus on time.
Ask questions, involve people.
Listen.
Restore order when needed.
Summarize.
Communicate using ICT.
Sources
http://www.scribd.com/doc/7102259/How-to-Be-Good-Facilitator
http://www.scribd.com/doc/22065544/7-Skill-4-Effective-Facilitation
http://www.scribd.com/doc/16915436/08-Facilitation-Skills-SelfAssessment
Tan, BCY; Wei, Kwok-Kee; J-E Lee-Partridge:
Effects of facilitation and leadership on meeting outcomes in a group support system environment.
European Journal of Information Systems (1999) 8, 233–246.
http://fac-vid.squarespace.com/bedre-moeder/Ravn%20-%20Bedre%20mder%20gennem%20facilitering.pdf p. 12.
Tip # 3
The moderator
prepares the
meeting
Task A
Define the reason
for / purpose of
the meeting
Source: http://fac-vid.squarespace.com/bedre-moeder/Ravn%20-%20Bedre%20mder%20gennem%20facilitering.pdf p. 3.
Ask yourself why the meeting session is needed.
Defining the reason / purpose of the meeting may
be the key to solving the problem.
Source: http://www.iaf-methods.org/node/5106
Task B
Make the agenda
To help people be fully engaged in the meeting,
plan the meeting in 10-minute sessions.
Source
http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/03/how_to_conduct_a_virtual_meeti.html
”If people have a chance to look over the agenda
[prior to the meeting], they will be more likely to
have something to contribute to the discussion.”
Source
Simple Facilitation Ideas to Keep Peace at Partner Meetings.
Law Office Management & Administration Report; Apr 2004
Task C
Invite competent
meeting participants
Step # 1
Find people who have knowledge and will to
contribute competently.
Invite only the people who are absolutely necessary
for resolving the decision that has been presented.
Source
Pittampalli, Al: Read this before our next meeting, location 308.
Step # 2
Involve maximum 10 people in the meeting.
Step # 3
Focus on results - including involving a person to the
meeting who has power to make decisions.
Source
http://newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/podcasts/ciscocast_morten_hansen_110909.html
http://www.businessinsider.com/this-is-how-larry-page-changed-meetings-at-google-after-taking-over-last-spring-2012-1
How do you decline a meeting you won’t add value to?
”Hi Keyvon, After reviewing your meeting agenda,
I have decided that although this decision affects
my team, I have no strong opinion on the matter,
nor do I feel uniquely qualified to participate.”
Source
Pittampalli, Al: Read this before our next meeting, location 612.
Task D
Define
meeting time
Start time
Set an untraditional start time, for example 2.27 PM.
Author Josh Kaufman recommends that you
should allow meetings only in afternoons thus allowing
you to block out mornings for essential work that only
you can do.
He claims that this significantly improves productivity,
and I am inclined to believe him.
Source:
http://www.bqf.org.uk/innovation/2011/08/19/taming-the-meetings-monster-2/
Duration
Keep meeting as short as possible.
Make meeting duration untraditional, for example 23 min.
End time
Make sure the meeting has an end time.
Strong deadlines force parties to resolve the hard
decisions necessary for progress.
Source: Pittampalli, Al: Read this before our next meeting, location 294.
Task E
Define
meeting place
Task F
Prepare
meeting material
Preparation starts with the meeting leader.
He/she must create an agenda and a set of
background materials.
Source: Pittampalli, Al: Read this before our next meeting, location 294.
Task G
Find
meeting time
Example of tool to use
Task H
Call the meeting
Example of tool to use
Task I
Prepare
meeting room
before the start
Preparations before
web meeting
Idea # 1
Place start slide with key information about the meeting.
Idea # 2
Greet people as they arrive.
Idea # 3
Play relaxing music.
Preparations before
face-to-face meeting
Preparations to save time
Research shows that sit-down meetings were 34%
longer than stand-up meetings, but they produced
no better decisions than stand-up meetings.
Source
Allen C. Bluedorn, Daniel B. Turban, and Mary Sue Love:
The effects of stand-up and sit-down meeting formats on meeting outcomes.
Preparations to increase interaction
1. Place chairs in a circle.
2. Use as few tables as possible.
3. Use as small tables as possibles.
Source: Ravn, Ib: Facilitering, p. 51.
Preparations to freshen up the room
1. Clean up the room.
2. Get fresh air into the room.
3. Bring flowers and/or plants.
Source: Ravn, Ib: Facilitering, p. 52.
Tip # 4
The moderator
starts the meeting
Input A
Greet people as
they arrive
Source
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2011/01/making-meetings-more-expensive.html
Arrive at meetings early, and
greet people as they arrive.
Source
http://www.managementexchange.com/story/meetings-can-be-tools-turn-problems-innovation-–-
when-participants-participate
Input B
Start the meeting
on time
Sources
http://fac-vid.squarespace.com/bedre-moeder/Ravn%20-%20Bedre%20mder%20gennem%20facilitering.pdf p. 4.
Boomer, Gary L.: Better meetings, better performance. Accounting today, May 10-23, 2010.
Input C
State the purpose of
the meeting and
present the meeting
agenda
Source: http://www.entrepreneur.com/management/operations/article207490.html
Input D
Ask each meeting participant
to state, during ½ minute, the
result he/she wishes meeting
participants to achieve during
the meeting
Input E
Define values for
the meeting
Ask each participant to choose 1 value for how
participants should work with each other.
The value, which is mentioned most frequently, is
the key value of the meeting.
Openness Community
Experimentation Helping
Collaboration
Creation
Exploration Kindness
Creativity Social
Individualism Safety
Dominance Security
Control Tradition
Power Harmony
Competition Conformity
Input F
Make a vote regarding
mobile devices
Make a vote on whether the meeting should take
place with mobile devices turned on or off.
The majority decides.
Tip # 5
People listen to
ideas of each other
Source: http://www.scribd.com/doc/70513235/Conversation-Exercises
Source: http://www.slideshare.net/frankcalberg/listening-tips
When one or more meeting participants are
no longer required in meeting, he/she/they
leaves/leave the meeting.
Source: Pittampalli, Al: Read this before our next meeting, location 595.
To keep meetings short, Will Wright, designer of
computer games such as The Sims, invited the
creative but impatient artist Ocean Quigley, “the
canary in the coal mine.”
When Quigley raised his hand to be excused,
we knew that the meeting had hit diminishing
returns.
Source
https://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Governance/Leadership/Why_good_bosses_tune_in_to_their_people_2656
Tip # 6
The moderator
manages
decision making
Possibility A
The moderator
summarizes and
concludes. Everyone
silently agrees
Source: http://fac-vid.squarespace.com/bedre-moeder/Ravn%20-%20Bedre%20mder%20gennem%20facilitering.pdf p. 9.
The facilitator will often summarise what they have
heard in order to secure agreement before moving
on to the next topic.
He/she might say:
“So what I am hearing is .......”
“Am I right in thinking that you agreed.........”
Source
Paul Sloane.
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/5637276/do_your_meetings_fail_to_deliver_try.html?cat=3
Make meeting outcomes visible to the group, and
keep the group moving towards meeting outcomes.
Source
Tan, BCY; Wei, Kwok-Kee; J-E Lee-Partridge:
Effects of facilitation and leadership on meeting outcomes in a group support system environment.
European Journal of Information Systems (1999) 8, 233–246
If the facilitator sees the meeting going off-track they
will intervene and remind people of the objective and
timescale. If there is a serious argument or conflict they
might call a break in order to quietly discuss things and
get back on-track.
Source
Paul Sloane.
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/5637276/do_your_meetings_fail_to_deliver_try_pg2.html?cat=3
Possibility B
The moderator
makes a vote
“How many of you vote for:
idea / solution / suggestion # 1:……..?
idea / solution / suggestion # 2:……..?
idea / solution / suggestion # 3:……..?
Possibility C
The moderator asks
2 people to make a
decision
”Josephine and Burt, you showed that you
have great knowledge and ideas about this
topic. I would like the 2 of you to please make
a decision.
Please be back in 5 minutes with a decision.
Thank you.”
Possibility D
The moderator asks
a manager to decide
”George, I’d like to hear your opinion as manager:
What do you think we should do?
Please be concrete.”
Tip # 7
People choose
what they want
to do
End each meeting with action steps.
Source: http://www.innovationmanagement.se/2011/05/09/how-to-make-your-ideas-actually-happen/
Agile methods encourage team members to
voluntarily sign up for tasks and share
ownership instead of assigning task from
the top down.
Source
Xu, Peng: Coordination In Large Agile Projects.
The Review of Business Information Systems; Fourth Quarter 2009.
Tasks are chosen, not assigned
The Web is an opt-in economy. Whether contributing to
a blog, working on an open source project, or sharing
advice in a forum, people choose to work on the things
that interest them. Everyone is an independent
contractor, and everyone scratches their own itch.
Source
Hamel, Gary: The Facebook Generation vs. the Fortune 500
http://blogs.wsj.com/management/2009/03/24/the-facebook-generation-vs-the-fortune-500/
“Recognizing individual team members as intelligent,
skilled professional agents, and placing a value on
their autonomy is fundamental to all other practices.”
Source
http://www.propernet.com/extranet/mcgill/CLASS%203/3.1%20-%20AgileProjectManagement.pdf
Have the person, who takes responsibility for doing
something, do the following:
define the task in his/her own words.
write down the task at the meeting.
say out loud when he/she will have finished the task.
Source: Ravn, Ib: Facilitering, p. 88-89.
Tip # 8
The moderator
finishes the
meeting
Initiative A
The moderator asks every
meeting participant what
he/she has chosen to do.
Source: http://www.entrepreneur.com/management/operations/article207490.html
In the modern meeting, minutes are not required.
All we need to know is the decision and the action plan.
Source: Pittampalli, Al: Read this before our next meeting, location 358.
Initiative B
The moderator asks
whether a couple of people
would like to say what they
found great at the meeting
Source: Ravn, Ib: Facilitering, p. 90.
Name:
How was the meeting?
+
-
Start Finish
What, in particular, did you like?
1.
2.
3.
Thanks very much in advance for your feedback.
Initiative C
The moderator ends the
meeting on time
Source: http://fac-vid.squarespace.com/bedre-moeder/Ravn%20-%20Bedre%20mder%20gennem%20facilitering.pdf p. 10.