Post Martum And Anatomy Of Meeting - Rachit & Navjot

• POSTMORTEM AND ANATOMY • OF

Rachit Puri

Navjot

Objectives

Meaning of Meeting “Meeting is a gathering of like people with a common cause & a common agenda.”

Meeting

management

helps

to

set

skills

often

Definitions • A meeting is a purposeful formal gathering of organizational members to determine and undertake tasks to advance the agenda, maintain functions and processes and build the group’s capacity to act in the future. • Meetings are concerned with people and processes to develop and

Questions to ask yourself before arranging or attending a meeting Why?

What?

Who?

Why are we having this meeting?

What is this meeting? What’s it for?

Who will be there? Who needs to be there?

Why am I going?

When? When’s it taking place?

Where Is?the venue

appropriate for the purpose?

Where to? What are the desired outcomes? What next?

& what would happen if we didn’t have the meeting – is it necessary?

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Some Reasons for Meetings

Dispense information. Solve problems. Plan/strategize tasks. Air concerns. Invest in board growth and learning. • Motivate staff. • • • • •

• Make/validate decisions. • Create new options, visions, directions. • Establish new governance procedures. • Evaluate works in progress. • Celebrate successes.

Why? What is the purpose?

• Define and write the meeting purpose—what you want to accomplish.

• If you can’t, don’t call the meeting. • Be inclusive-give all members of organization some responsibility/ activity

When not to call a meeting?

• When other forms of communication will work. • If one or more key people can not attend. • Just because the meeting is regularly scheduled.

• When gathering a group can be avoided by talking to one or two key people. • To substitute for your personal action. (Make the decision!)

What? What are you going to discuss?

• Prepare an agenda. • A good agenda is a control tool for the leader. • A good agenda is a preparation tool for the other participants.

Who? Invite only those necessary to get the job done. •Caution! Keep in mind your purpose. Building rapport may be more important than efficiency. •

When? This is driven by who you need at your meeting. •Best time that most of the key people can attend the meeting. (Do some checking.) •Allow adequate notice time. •

Where? Centrally located or most accessible to the majority of the people you want to attend. •Comfortable. •Convenient. •Conducive to working without distractions. •

Different Dimensions for a Meeting Meetings can be formal or informal

Formal

Business oriented

Meetings can be task oriented or process oriented

Task

Informal Process oriented Teambuilding

Meetings can be organised to achieve business, or for building the team 13

Formal meetings • Prepared Agenda Apologies Declarations of Interest Minutes of last meeting Matters arising Reports Topic(s) for today AOB (any other business) – Date of next meeting – – – – – – –

Desired Outcomes: Formal record of People present Discussion points Decisions Next Steps Report to higher committee(s)

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Formal v Informal meetings • Different styles and requirements when managing and leading the meeting

The difference between

Chairing & Facilitating

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Less formal meetings • There is more likely to be choice about who chairs (or facilitates), and opportunities for a wider range of leadership style • The purpose of the meeting will be a mix of business, networking & team development • The process is as important as the task

• Participants have different incentives to attend (and reasons not to) • The meeting is more likely to be motivating for participants and to achieve its purpose if there is variety & fun • This might influence the choice of – activity – venue – refreshments 16

Conducting the meeting

Fail to plan, is a plan to fail………..

Conducting a meeting takes confidence, excellent facilitation and organisation skills. Know what your meeting should achieve and then make sure it is done. Make a list of all the things you need to do and consider before you arrange a meeting.

Things you need to consider, organise. Reason for meeting – what is your main objective. Who needs to attend to make this happen. Is your meeting for information or making a decision or both? What do the participants need to bring. Where will the meeting be and at what time. What is on your agenda? Do you need refreshments? Who will take minutes and log actions? Are your facilitation skills up to the job? Remember - Plan,

prepare, promote and produce!

The Mechanics: Conducting the Meeting Start and end on time. Make introductions. Announce the agenda. State the desired outcomes; get agreement. • Establish ground rules. • Stick to the agenda. • • • •

The Mechanics: Conducting the Meeting • Maintain the group memory— preferably on flip chart paper. • Use an appropriate decision-making tool. • Assure that action items have names and dates next to them. • Review accomplishments. • Draft next agenda—items, time, date. • Adjourn the meeting when it is over.

The Agenda Date / Time / Location /Attendees / Apologies q

Give a statement of purpose Include minutes of last meeting Include timings against each item Have detail under each item to ensure clarity AOB? Circulate prior to the meeting for information comments / additions / changes

The agenda should include, a reason for the meeting, include any previous meeting information, time allocated to each event, Include details for clarity, do you want to include AOB? (this can add valuable time to a meeting if someone introduces a challenging topic. Ask participants prior to the meeting for any items to be added, with times and do not include AOB). Make sure invites and notification is communicated in plenty of time. Obtain agreement of attendance.

The Participants Have they all seen the agenda? Do they know what their role will be? Are they aware of what they need to bring? Are they aware of the start and finish time? Do they know where to be? Have they any agenda points that need including?

Participant Responsibilities

• Prepare before the meeting, as required. • Be on time. • Listen to others. • Contribute to the discussion as appropriate. • Assist leader-those presiding over meeting

• Stick to the subject. Don't get off on tangents. • Listen to others. • Accept your share of the delegated work. • Follow-up on your responsibilities in a timely fashion.

Make sure the participants are fully informed about every aspect of the meeting, and certainly make it known what the meeting is to achieve.

The Art: Facilitating the Meeting • Listen actively. • Address conflict. • Encourage • Assure that all discussion, yet stay have a voice in focused. decision-making. • Steer people back on course, yet invite creativity. • Summarize and integrate.

Facilitating the meeting Know your audience Have you got everything you need? Handouts? Reference Material? Is the room ok? Does everything work? CHECK IT!

Tips for Facilitators Don’t get pulled into resolving a conflict between two people. Ask others for their opinions, or ask if there are other issues. Focus on passive majority. •

•

Brainstorm ‘pros’ and ‘cons’ of each •

Tips for Facilitators • Tell group no one • Give people a gets to interrupt— break when they except for you! start to goof off. • Set time limits for • Use structured discussion. activities— brainstorming or • When one person nominal group— is dominating, when entire group others are not has low participating. Focus participation. on them!

Key facilitation skills Express ideas Question effectively Listen Analyse appropriately Provide positive feedback Clarify misunderstandings Manage interruptions How does your list compare with ours?

q q q q q q

Friendly but business-like Positive and productive Neutral Organised Motivational Decisive What other attributes should you have? Please consider these, make a list, then compare with the list provided in our information section.

Lets look at the key qualities of an effective facilitator Friendly and business like, positive and productive, neutral, organised, motivational, and you should have the ability to make decisions.

Administration and Actions It is important to: Home in on actions - “So what needs to be done?” Note actions during the meeting - What, Who, When Summarise actions at the end Send out a list of actions

Noting all the details from the meeting, especially any actions is crucial to the success of every meeting. Make sure the note taker has the skills to do this accurately. All minutes and action points need to be communicated and followed up. All actions must have an owner and you will need to check they are being done.

Plan and Prepare Meeting objective Identify the right participants What do they need to bring? Meeting venue and time Do you need to provide refreshments? An agenda Minute and action logging How will you conduct the meeting?

Effective discussion skills: • • • • • • • •

Clarify Balance participation Listen Summarise Stay on track Get the process Manage time right Test for consensus Evaluate meeting

And finally…………… Carry out your agreed actions Monitor other people’s actions Don’t leave it until the next meeting! Find out what they thought of it - any ideas for improvement?

And finally, always, always, follow up.

Conducting Effective Meetings Facilitating meetings Conducting the meeting Controlling the agenda Participation Making decisions Meeting minutes Meeting follow up

Meeting Minutes • Include name of the group, the date, the time, the place, the name of the meeting. • List names of attendees and absentees. • Describe disposition of previous minutes. • Record old business, new business, announcements, and reports. 42

Meeting Minutes • Record the vote and action taken. • Conclude with the name and signature of the individual recording the minutes.

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Some Facts….

Level of complexity of items

Tropman’s Agenda Bell

Start of meeting

End of meeting

The Gestalt cycle Is very useful in understanding how meetings get stuck usually because energy gets blocked somewhere.

Monitoring Energy

The Gestalt Cycle

Originally devised to help therapists understand the processes individuals have to go through to achieve closure 47

Closure Absence of closure = people need to keep on coming back to a decision, something

Contact Contact between people Is achieved when they are happy with the outcomes, feel a

Sensati on

Something’s going on here, not sure what. No one seems to be

Awareness

Understandi ng how meetings get stuck Action A decision’s been taken but a lot of people still aren’t happy with it – little commitment to action no sense of achievement

Something’s happening but no one seems to dare to mention it. Alternatively, people are talking about it, but no one seems to know what to do

Mobilisation of Energy We know what we need to do, but no one seems to have much energy for it. No one wants to commit themselves. 48

Staff meetings • Purpose: – – – – – – – –

Staff briefing Planning Decision making Problem definition & ideas generation Review / Evaluation Discussion Networking Teambuilding

form al

Process inform al

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Organising Staff Meetings • Short meetings to deal with operational issues – at regular intervals

• Longer meetings or awaydays to deal with strategic issues, timed to fit in with annual planning and review cycles.

Choose the right type of meeting to fit the topic or focus. 50

Making meetings fun • Introduce some energizers

Rotate chair Vary location Refreshments • Lightness and Manage length of humour ( between agenda – be serious items) realistic • Keep to time ! • Encourage everyone to Don’t put up with bad behaviour - work out how to deal with difficult people • • • •

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To your success… • Sometimes you feel awkward about asking a question… • Sometimes there isn’t time… • Sometimes you think about something later…

Conducting Effective Meetings nication u m m o C ffective E f o s C THE 5 LARITY

ONCISE

Don’t waffle - Stick to the Point Don’t ‘stun’ the audience with expertise Signpost and link sessions

Simple sentences Frequent illustrations and examples Use the language of the audience One point at a time

Keep it simple

ONTROL Check understanding - Very important! Establish rapport / Get to know them Check everyone is performing the desired activity

OURTESY

Listen and encourage participation Be empathetic / assertive / open Recognise that people … … don’t like training / speaking in public / lack confidence / think you’re testing them

Stay calm - appear confident - SMILE!

HARACTER Express your personality Be down to earth and natural Be enthusiastic Use humour / have a sense of humour

And after all this learning part, we have a lighter side for this meeting also….