“If a problem causes many meetings, the meetings eventually

become more important than the problem”

“If you cannot convince them, confuse them”

“The efficiency of a committee meeting is inversely proportional to the number of

participants and the time spent on deliberations”

“Never argue with a fool at a meeting. People might not

know the difference.”

Meetings - A Practical Alternative to Work?

Julia ZivanovicKnow l’edge

www.knowledgesolutions.com.au

Overview

The 5 stages of meetings.

Great meetings don’t just happen.

Different conversations.

5 ingredients of successful meetings.

Facilitating a meeting.

Helpful tips/Toolkit items.

Meeting audit questionnaire.

Why Meetings FailUnnecessary.

Held for the wrong reason - power, private agenda, habit..

Unclear objective/purpose.

Wrong people are present.

Lack of proper control.

Disagreeable environment.

Poor timing.

Poor decision making.

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The 5 stages of meetings

Ritual Reporting Ideas

Problem Solving

Sharing

Great meetings don’t just happen

They are designed!

Think about it....

Plan it....

Focus on people and processes.

Change the culture - meetings are work!

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Different conversations

Different meetings require different conversations...

Conversation for:

Possibility.

Opportunity.

Action.

Make sure people understand what type of meeting it is.

5 ingredients of effective meetings

Common focus on content.

Common focus on process.

Roles & responsibilities clearly defined and agreed.

Someone to:

manage an open and balanced conversation flow.

responsible for protecting individuals from personal attack.

Facilitating a meeting

A good facilitator will be able to do 3 things....

Utilise excellent interpersonal skills.

Employ a variety of suitable group processes.

Manage participants with various needs and personalities.

What type are you?

Hierarchy

Cooperative

Autonomous

But wait there’s more

Follow up in the meeting and after it, is essential.

Meeting Maintenance Check.

How well is the group working together?

How can the group improve its effectiveness?

Are there things we should stop doing?

What should we do more of?

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Meeting audit questionnaire

Results

What worked, and why?

Identifying areas for improvement.

Resolving:

What to do more of?

What to do less of?

What to do differently?

What Worked

Agenda

Opportunities to influence agenda items.

Participation is encouraged.

Generally meetings are useful

Need Improvement

Participants do not feel able to express their real feelings about issues.

Important discussions should be recorded, even if a decision is not reached.

Not taking time to assess how things are going as a group.

Resolution

How can people be made to feel able to state their true feelings?

How are discussion outcomes to be captured, without a decision?

How do we assess how we are going as a group?

Helpful tips/Toolkit items on the CD of the book, The Research Practitioner’s Guide to Research Consulting

See http://blogs.murdoch.edu.au/researcherconsultants/

Meeting Audit Survey.

Meeting Necessity Checklist.

Meeting Planning Checklist

Group Memory and Action Plan.

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ReferencesJohn Heron, Facilitators Handbook 1989.

Fast Company, You have to start meeting like this, 1999.

Tom Hampstead, Putting people and processes into meetings.

Dorothy Wardale, Facilitating Effective Meetings