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Functions of the Meeting |
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Rapid decision making
- bringing together key people to discuss
and resolve issues
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Disseminating information
- to pass information on to the staff and
encourage staff involvement and ownership
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Fostering internal changes
- to overcome resistance to change such as
new corporate direction, policies, or procedures
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Responding to external changes
- to exchange information and pass the
knowledge on to decision makers from different departments
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Exchange of ideas and experience
- to develop new approaches to solving of
longstanding problems
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Developing teamwork
- to help to develop mutual respect and
understanding amongst the participants by involving them in a
cooperative process
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Types of Meeting |
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Informative / Advisory
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Consultative
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to resolve objections
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to involve people in change or a new
course of action
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to get to know people, as a means of
fostering greater understanding between colleagues
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Problem-Solving
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to consider all possibilities and create
ideas
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to value the ideas and identify feasible
options
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to chose course of action and initiate
that action
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Decision-Taking
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to generate commitment
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to take decisions
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to share responsibility
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to initiate action
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Negotiating
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Five Rules for Effective
Meetings |
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Pass out an agenda at least one day in
advance; encourage people to add new items to the agenda prior to the
meeting
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Set time for the meeting; begin an end on time
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Stick with the agenda and the targeted functions - to make decisions,
to disseminate information, to foster internal changes, to respond to
external changes, to exchange ideas and experiences, or to develop
teamwork. Allow time for discussion, but stay on the topic.
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Invite people to speak out their opinion. Silence does not necessarily
means consent.
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Record decisions and action assignments, preferably so that everybody
could see them on a big screen. Summarize the action list at the end
of the meeting. Check the action list for completion at the next
meeting.
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Turning Staff Meetings
Into a Creative Process
A typical staff meeting is the most blatant example of an
uncreative process. At such a meeting, its leader unwittingly fails to ask
for creative
ideas, even at the most opportune points. A formal, professional
atmosphere is combined with a meeting agenda to keep people "focused," or
"on track." In such meetings, now freewheeling occurs. "Why meet in the
first place if you don't take advantage of the group's unique creative
potential? One person's question or comment can easily stimulate another's
imagination - if you ask for imaginative thinking. Thus no business
meeting should reach it's end without the leader asking for creative ideas."1
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