Rajesh is one of Chris' Spring 2012 Professional Speaking students at Carnegie Mellon. Here he writes about meetings.
Meetings have been an essential part of the human history
whether it has been for social, business, political or any other purposes. We
like to discuss and talk to disagree, or come to general agreement or decision.
Professional organizations are becoming decentralized and exploring the power
of putting together diverse skill sets through cross-functional teams. People
who have never met before are in situations where they have to make major
decisions quickly. As a result the average time for meetings of 5.7 years is
expected to increase dramatically going forth. With these circumstances in
place, how can one manage a meeting efficiently and come to a decision with
time and personnel hurdles. As a team works together for a certain period of
time, they start to gel and understand the dynamics of the team, but when time
is not abundant how can you understand the same dynamics?
Anthony Jay published a paper in Harvard Business Review
called “How to Run A Meeting,” in 1976 where he highlights methods to structure
a meeting and how the meeting chairman should facilitate meetings. A
conversation between every participant is essential to address the purpose but
at the same time conversation does not have boundaries, which makes it really
easy to go off topic. Drift from the subject is the number one reason for what
people do not want in a meeting. To solve this problem, the meeting chairman must
prepare an agenda and present to the participants prior to the meeting so that
they can come prepared and as a result this will greatly enhance the
effectiveness of the meeting. In receiving an agenda before the meeting, one
will feel the sense of exclusivity and the invitation will increase their
commitment level. The agenda provides the scope, commitment, structure and
order – all essential components for a successful meeting.
To maintain your credibility as a meeting chair, it is
important that you are prepared, understand the different aspects of the
problem and are in site before the meeting starts. Having some time for
yourself will help you relax, review the agenda and allow you to greet people
and convey the importance of their participation. Simple duties from the start
of the gathering of the participant can really set a good tone for the rest of
the meeting.
The meeting chairman should be the equivalent to jazz
conductor. While following the music script, the conductor allows the musicians
to improvise and add their own licks but in the context of the chord and chord
progression to produce a unique but unified performance. The meeting chairman
should be able to initiate people to let their ideas flow in an organized
manner and within the objective’s boundaries. The meeting chairman has responsibilities
to effectively manage the subject and the people in the meeting. When dealing
with the people he or she needs to give equal weight to each idea, dissolve any
friction, clarify ideas to keep everyone on the same page, align incentives,
and ultimately maintain a work-friendly environment. To keep the meeting in
parallel to the subject in hand, the meeting chairman needs to stick to the
agenda, explain the current scenario of the matter, follow the schedule and
summarize the whole discussion.
In my opinion, managing people is more difficult because there
are more variation and by keeping the people under control it will naturally
fuel the discussion of the main subject. Different personalities, the person’s
mood that day, professional rivalry, seniority in the organization, personal
conflicts and many other variables can really hinder the environment of a
meeting. This is where the team chairman needs to choose the participants
wisely so that he or she can avoid most or all of the obstacles listed above.
Sometimes having two separate meeting with two different groups to avoid
unnecessary conflicts maybe a better idea. Selecting a good time to allocate
the meeting is also critical because people do not tend to be at a 100% all day
long. Putting into the consideration that anything more than 2 hour window for
a meeting will be strenuous to the mind; research has shown that the best times
are between 10 am -12 am and 2 pm – 4 pm.
Summarizing the meeting and defining the next steps are
essential to a meeting or otherwise it is just a conversation. Listing the main
points discussed and the general consensus attached to each issue will put
everyone on the same page to set the foundation for the next meeting. When the
next meeting is scheduled, the meeting chairman must inform the team what the
next steps to be taken and what are the milestones which need to be reached by
then. Once this is out on the table, he or she will have to assign the tasks to
each one, but preferably if the participants volunteer to it will take a lot of
burden of the chairman. To initiate such an action, the chairman should
announce what he or she will be doing and explain to the team how the target
will be achieved. This can cause a ‘jump in the bandwagon’ effect and people
will subsequently volunteer to do a particular task because with a certain level
of commitment they will feel the need to contribute to the greater cause. Once
all the required tasks have been assigned and the meeting has been dismissed,
the chairman must follow up with the minutes of the meeting so that members can
use it to complete their assignment.
Recently, my group for Biotechnology: Structure and Strategy
class had our first meeting to come up with an outline for our ‘drug discovery
project.’ It was an interesting group with a mixture of MBA students and
science students. There weren’t any directions or guidelines given by the
professor so the nature of the project gave us a lot of freedom but also
ambiguity. Six of us walked in without knowing what to expect, had no agenda
and it was the first time we even introduced ourselves in person. With a vague
goal of creating an outline, the discussion swayed in all direction until a
point where we did not know what and why we were talking about what we were
talking about. The first hour was utter chaos and not one thing was
accomplished for the project. We started talking about venture capitalist to
Alzheimer Disease screening methods to reimbursement and basically covered
every aspect of the healthcare industry! The scientists, including myself, were
arguing how we should talk about the technology and explore the business
opportunities while the MBA kids were all about how to make money from the drug
discovery process. But, as the second hour approached a clear meeting leader of
the team emerged and he started taking initiative to writing down the important
points on the white board and we were able to visualize the process and the
components of drug discovery. At this point one of the really volatile MBA
student had left to class to this made all our lives easier to have a cohesive
discussion. The meeting leader mainly asked
us probing questions to explore into our interests and was very patient in
clarifying any doubts the team had. As the hour progressed, through everyone’s
contribution we were able to construct a solid outline. This made the team
members and myself proud of our accomplishment and we started to volunteer on
what each one of us wanted to work on. After the initial turbulence we were
able to define the purpose and analyze the issues we needed to investigate to
achieve the target goal. By a simple initiative approach taken by one of the
members, all six or rather five were able to put out minds together and align
our incentives.
Running a good and efficient meeting will be a useful skill
going forth in the professional world. People are really busy and making the
most of their time by being a servant to their opinion and expertise is
critical. Being a meeting chairman is not a one-dimensional skill, but rather
an integration of different skills. The main skills in my opinion for this
function are initiation, preparation, listening, leadership, followership,
coordination and focus. I believe a balance of all theses skills will help
anyone to become a successful meeting chairman, who can conduct great and
effective meetings.
Reference:
“How to Run A
Meeting,” by Anthony Jay - http://hbr.org/1976/03/how-to-run-a-meeting/ar/1
“How to Run A Meeting,” by Brett and Kate McKay - http://artofmanliness.com/2009/11/17/how-to-run-a-meeting/
“Running Effective Meeting.” http://www.mindtools.com/CommSkll/RunningMeetings.htm
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