Book Summary Preview : Develop Your Skills to Conduct Effective Meetings

The Big Idea

One of the biggest complaints about most organizations concerns meetings and how they are held. Poorly organized meetings waste resources and may even serve to demotivate people – they are thus counterproductive.

eetings are conducted at many levels in an organization. One may at one point in time be involved merely as a participant, but sooner or later one will rise in the hierarchy and conduct one’s own meetings. It is therefore in organizations’ best interests for everyone to learn all about meetings and how to conduct them effectively.

Why You Need This Book

This book provides practical guidance regarding organizing and managing different types of meetings, and is therefore applicable not only to upper management but to everyone. It stresses the importance of planning and preparation in order to ensure that meetings function smoothly.

Purposes of Meetings

The very first question that should be asked is, “Why are we meeting and what do we want to accomplish?” If there are no clear-cut answers to this question, don't hold the meeting.

The three good purposes for a meeting are:

1. Brainstorming
2. Delivering information
3. Gathering information

These three reasons lead people to take crucial decisions individually or as a group. When you can clearly identify the purpose for the meeting, all concerned should agree to a code of conduct for the meetings to ensure that things run smoothly.

Preparing for a Meeting

According to research, senior executives spend an average of 23 hours a week in meetings while middle managers spend 11 hours. What's more, senior and middle managers say that only 56% of meetings are productive; a phone call or a memo could replace over 25% of the meetings they attend.

It is therefore necessary to ensure that meetings held deliver the best possible output using the least amount of resources. Here are some steps to do so:

1. Determine if a different activity could be resorted to other than a meeting.
2. Identify the place of the meeting.
3. List participants and guests.
4. List what the participants' roles are and what is expected from them.
5. Define the objectives and desired outcomes.
6. Determine topics to cover and the best format for the discussion of each one.
7. Estimate the length of the meeting.
8. Make every meeting a learning event: include creative and cutting-edge education regarding your particular topic by using books, speakers, or videos.
9. Use a variety of tools and activities to make the meeting productive and fun. Get them charged up!
10. Create an agenda that is carefully scripted.

The Meeting Procedure

Every meeting you organize can become more effective if you pay attention to three areas: content, design, and process.

Content. Make sure to focus meetings around key issues. Never lose sight of the “what” of your meeting. Make sure each and every meeting is justified.

Design. The design of the meeting can hinder or support the decision-making or problem-solving process, as well as the informational task at hand. In designing a meeting, figure out how you want to approach each agenda item, as well as how deeply or thoroughly you want to discuss each item.

Process. You can improve the process by making sure that one idea is discussed at a time, and that everyone is in agreement as to how decisions will be made. Note that this area depends heavily on the other two. If you pay attention to the content and design of your meeting, you can bet that you will end up with far fewer problems process-wise.

THREE PHASES OF A MEETING

Information Phase. The first phase of the meeting is the information phase. During this phase, those attending the meeting must try not to allow their opinions to be too obvious, thus avoiding 'forcing' a decision.

Opinion Phase. The second stage is that of forming an opinion. This is the phase in which the participants need to be creative. All information and all or some of the opinions must be brought together as closely as possible in order to create a view or solution that enjoys the support of a majority of the discussion partners.

Decision-making Phase. The third phase of the meeting is the decision-making phase. Once all arguments have been heard, it becomes possible to arrive at a decision.

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