Meetings

1

• Meetings
• Whats the point?

2
They are decided only to be undecided, resolved
to be irresolute, adamant for drift, solid for
fluidity, all-powerful to be impotent. -Sir
Winston Churchill
3
Discussion in pairs

• What are the characteristics of some of the best
  meetings you have been to?
• What are the characteristics of some of the worst
  meetings you have been to?
• Share two or three points on each to the group.

4
Meetings

• The time we spend at them
• Different kinds of meetings
• Challenges in meetings
• The effect of the collective
• Different kinds of participation in meetings
• Agendas
• Control

5
Time

• Look at your diaries for the last month
• Add up the number of hours you have spent in
  meetings
• Identify the meeting you attended with the most
  participants. Give them an hourly rate
• average 8 per hour
• Calculate the cost of each meeting
• Number of participants
• X (Their time spent at the meeting
• Their time spent getting there
• Their time spent preparing and following up
• Their expenses (travel, childcare etc))

6
Time is the coin of your life. It is the only
coin you have, and only you can determine how it
will be spent. Be careful lest you let other
people spend it for you.Carl Sandburg
7
Why do people go to meetings?

• Brainstorm
• As a substitute for action
• To delay taking action
• To avoid individual accountability
• To include others
• Because we always have
• or
• Because the cause is worth the effort
• A range of individuals have something to
  contribute
• Because the group is worth being with

8
Things happen in meetings

• To give or exchange information
• To create or develop ideas
• To decide on goals or issues
• To delegate
• To share tasks
• To persuade, involve or co-opt others
• To inspire
• To build or maintain relationships
• To socialise or have fun
• To consult

9
planning meetings

• Limit the number of functions in one meeting
• When moving from one function to another, make
  that clear, allowing a break between items if
  necessary
• Participants need to know when to play their role
  in each function

10
planning meetings

• Limit the number of tasks
• Limit the number of participants to those who are
  needed, will contribute, or who cant be left out
• Prepare more, meet less

11
"It is not the cards you are dealt but what you
do with them that counts"
12
is a group the sum of the individuals present?

• Groups can lead each other to confirm shared
  positions rather than consider external
  perspectives or challenging information
• Collectively, people can ignore their individual
  accountability or responsibility
• Individuals may meet as a group but not have a
  shared agenda or vision
• Experience knowledge status ability
• collective stupidity

13
is a group the sum of the individuals present?

• Communication and miscommunication
• Outside pressures
• Personal agendas
• Insecurity and need for affirmation
• Mood
• Competition
• Distraction
• Triviality and avoidance

14
Who are the individuals present?Types

• Initiator
• ve ideas -ve ego
• Orienter
• ve steers on track -ve not adventurous
• Facilitator
• ve clarifies, interprets -ve may not decide
• Reconciler
• ve defuses tension - ve need sense of timing
• Supporter
• ve positive, encouraging -ve avoids hard
  choices

15
Who are the individuals present?Types

• Aggressor
• ve critic, questions -ve co-opt by including
  early
• Player
• ve distracts, disengages -ve ensure personal
  interest
• Know it all
• ve seeks control -ve seek prior discussion
• Social leader
• ve good before and after -ve ensure they
  keep to process
• Process leader
• ve seek order, focus, schedule -ve may
  lack social skills

16
Using types

• Try and match individual type to meeting type
• Play to peoples strengths
• Stay solution focused the problem is the problem

17
Other techniques- meetings as theatre

• Get good early reviews
• Plan your supporting cast and ensure they know
  their roles
• Allies
• Good cop / bad cop
• Use props
• Consider seating

18
Other techniques- meetings as theatre
19
Other techniques- meetings as theatre
20
Other techniques- meetings as theatre
21
The agenda

• Provides status and legitimacy
• Is the meeting controllers road-map
• Is the meeting participants crystal ball

22
The agenda

• Start with a warm-up issue
• Place harder tasks next
• Have a warm-down issue
• Build in breaks
• Break between functions

23
Preparation

• Imagine
• Ask questions purpose, roles, desired outcomes
• Do your homework
• Ask others to do theirs
• Anticipate

24
No one can make you feel inferior without your
consent. Eleanor Roosevelt
25
Speak when you're angry,and you'll make the best
speech you'll ever regret.Lawrence J. Peter
26
To disagree with three-fourths of the British
public is one of the first requisites of sanity.
Oscar Wilde
27
When two men in business always agree, one of
them is unnecessary. William Wrigley Jr.
28
A committee is a cul-de-sac down which ideas are
lured and then quietly strangled. Sir Barnett
Cocks