Module 21: Planning, Managing, and Recording Meetings Flashcards
People in organizations meet in many ways.
1) Informal, one-on-one meetings
2) Team meetings
3) Regular staff meetings
4) Other: sales meetings, staff training sessions, conventions, and retreats
5) Parliamentary proceedings
Informal, one-on-one meetings
are the most significant; people see these encounters as an opportunity to exchange meaningful information.
Team meetings
Bring people together to manage projects, solve problems, and collaborate on documents (Module 20). Recorded agendas and minutes formalize these meetings.
Regular staff meetings
Provide information, announce new policies and products, answer questions, share ideas, and motivate people. Recorded agendas and minutes formalize these meetings.
Other frequent organizational meetings
Include sales meetings, staff training sessions, conventions, and retreats. These sessions allow people to develop themselves professionally, to build teams, and/or to do long-range planning.
Parliamentary proceedings
Are the most formal types of meetings, run according to strict rules like those summarized in Robert’s Rules of Order. These meetings are common only for boards of directors and legislative bodies.
What Planning Should Precede a Meeting?
Identify your purpose(s), and plan with an agenda.
Meetings are needed:
To share information
To brainstorm ideas
To evaluate ideas
To make decisions
To create a document
To motivate members
Your meeting agenda
should be a blueprint of your expectations and objectives.
The company uses four different decision-making processes:
1) Authoritative
2) Consultative
3) Voting
4) Consensual:
Authoritative:
The leader makes the decision alone
Consultative:
The leader hears group comments but then makes the decision alone
Voting:
The majority wins
Consensual:
Discussion continues until everyone can support the decision
A good agenda answers five questions.
When and where? Time and place of the meeting
What? Agenda items
Why? Each item flagged for purpose—information, discussion, or decision
Who? Participants and individuals sponsoring or introducing each item
How? Meeting duration and time allotted for each item
What Do I Need to Know About Virtual Meetings?
Be aware of the limitations of the technology. Build in some real meetings as well as virtual ones.
When I’m in Charge, How Do I Keep the Meeting on Track?
Pay attention to both task and process.
In any virtual or face-to-face meeting, your goals as chair are to
(1) make sure you invite the right people—people necessary to the process and to the decision making,
(2) clarify the purpose of the meeting, and
(3) help participants work through agenda items in the time allotted.
What Decision-Making Strategies Work Well in Meetings?
The best decision-making strategies happen long before the meeting. Make the meeting objective explicit and prepare participants. In the meeting, use a decision tree, dot planning, or standard agenda.
Dot planning
offers a way for groups to choose priorities quickly.
The standard agenda is a seven-step decision-making process for solving problems.
Clarify and reach agreement on the task: what the group has to deliver, in what form, by what due date. Identify available resources.
Identify and reach agreement on the problem or the situation: What question is the group trying to answer? What exactly is the issue?
Gather information, share it with all group members, and examine it critically.
Establish criteria: What would the ideal solution include? Which elements of that solution would be part of a less-than-ideal but still acceptable solution? What legal, financial, ethical, or other limitations might keep a solution from being implemented?
Generate alternative solutions: Brainstorm and record ideas for the next step.
Measure the alternatives against the criteria.
Choose the best solution.11
The best meeting minutes record
Decisions reached
Action items, where someone needs to implement or follow up on something
Open items—topics not resolved12
