Properly facilitating a meeting is crucial to being productive. Too many times when intelligent people enter a room off topic discussions can occur. People go on tangents, and although they may be important to the individual, the team or group had another topic in mind. Also without being adequately organized the group may enter heated debates or arguments.
To avoid these issues during meetings a total quality approach should be taken. This model is outlined in detail in “Managing for Quality and Performance Excellence” by James R. Evans and William M. Lindsay. I have also found this website that describes this meeting approach at:
From personnel experience, the most important steps are to clearly define the objective and to have a facilitator that writes on the board or projector and keeps everyone focused on the objective. All of the roles defined in the total quality method are important but the facilitator needs to apply good communication techniques and leadership skills and is the most vital. In my group at work we have been following these easy tips and have cut meeting time down and eliminated irrelevant debate.
I would agree that facilitation is key to holding a more productive meeting. Wouldn't it be great if we all had facilitation training. Just think how effective some our our class discussions would be.
ReplyDeleteIn my experience I would definitely argree that facilitation is one of the most important keys to holding a sucessful meeting. I enjoy the role as a faciltator.. One day I would hope that business schools recognizes the value of effective meetings and offer classes to students to develope effective meeting skills.
ReplyDelete"What does the group you are working with/facilitating want to know and/or be able to
ReplyDeletedo at the end of the meeting?"
This is the reason for a meeting but, so many times I have attended meetings that seem to have no point or actionable information. What do you want us to know and what do you want us to do? Sounds simple enough?
I think the meeting facilitator has an increasingly difficult job, especially since the breakthrough of hand held devices. Not only do intelligent people distract others but they can also become withdrawn quickly and start thumbing through emails on their blackberries or smart phones. As schedules and time lines become increasingly tighter meeting attendees want to be fully engaged or they will interpret the meeting as a waste of their time and begin losing focus as well as distracting other members. Once this domino effect occurs the meeting can quickly spiral out of control
ReplyDeleteTom, your article about meetings is also very informative. Probably between Alan and your post covers many good points about how the meetings should be planned and conducted. Thank you for sharing.
ReplyDeleteTom, I agree with all the comments about the important role of the facilitator. The more I think about it, I wonder if this is not THE critical missing role/skill in many of the meetings I attend. Interesting.
ReplyDelete