Meetings

Supervisors use meetings to resolve problems, gain commitment, and share information. Meetings are a prime tool for developing employees through giving and getting feedback, identifying barriers to performance and deciding how to remove those barriers. Schedule regular meetings with key people. Do not use a meeting to disseminate information. That should be done electronically by email, voicemail, or fax.

Meeting Guidelines

	Be prepared. A meeting is a public appearance. No matter how pressed for time you are, don't try to wing it. A lack of preparation will be noticed.
	Clarify the specific purpose of the meeting. The purpose is a focus, an objective that can be accomplished only by gathering people together. Meetings are designed to generate and tune ideas, solve problems, and define what actions the participants will take.
	Design a comprehensive agenda, send it two weeks in advance, and detail it so that each item is allotted a certain time limit.
	Make assignments. Involve an appropriate size and mix of participants. Attendees should be prepared and expected to participate.
	Establish ground rules. One ground rule is "No One Speaks Twice Until Everybody Speaks Once." It keeps domineering or wordy individuals from monopolizing discussions and ensures that all voices are heard. A meeting leader need only point to a statement to remind attendees of the guidelines. "We listen to each other." "No speeches." "We address ideas, not people."
	Make people comfortable, so they will want to participate. Use friendly hand gestures to draw people into conversations. Make eye contact to show interest in what people are saying.
	Appoint timekeepers, who will give a warning (clink a glass) when there are two minutes left for each section.
	Appoint one person to take notes on a computer. Everyone can leave the meeting with a hard-copy record in hand, and a copy can be e-mailed to the rest of the organization. Ideas that are rejected in the meeting can be recorded in a separate section of the notes. Dismissed notions often become valuable later on in the context of another project.
	Summarize the results of the meeting. Clarify or review assignments.
	Critique the meeting. Discuss ways to improve the next meeting. In TQM, the meeting ends with another meeting, a mini-meeting called "+(delta)." The mission is to quickly assess the meeting itself. Under the plus sign, leaders write down what worked. Under the delta symbol, they record changes that need to be made, phrasing those recommendations in positive terms: for instance, "Meeting should be shorter," not "Meeting too long."
	Prepare a follow-up action plan. What must be done? Who will do it? When is it due?
	Distribute a copy to everyone.

Conduct the Meeting

	Reveiw the meeting's purpose, ground rules, and membership.
	Assign roles - facilitator, notetaker or recorder, timekeeper.
	Foster participation.
	Summarize accomplishments.
	Formulate a plan of action for each decision reached.
	End on time.

Participate in a Meeting

	Prepare in advance.
	Arrive on time.
	Listen.
	Participate.