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August, 2008
Volume 3, Issue 8
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Powerful Business Ideas
Better Teams Through Better Meetings
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Basic
Meeting Principles
When was
the last time you came away from a session with your
management team and exclaimed, "That was a great meeting!"?
Don't
feel bad if you can't recall. According to TEC speaker
Lawrence
King, most business meetings don't
offer much in the way of a memorable experience. They
drag on at a snail's pace, conversations wander all over
the place and, in too many cases, nothing much seems to
get accomplished. However, your meetings don't have to
follow this mind-numbing routine. In fact, says King,
you can dramatically increase the quality of your
meetings and turn them into a powerful teambuilding tool
by understanding four fundamental principles:
- Quality. Go
for quality of meetings, not quantity. "We have far too
many meetings in the American culture," says King.
"Question the need for every meeting. If you can't
identify a specific outcome from a meeting and why it
adds value, cancel it."
- Structure. Never
conduct a meeting without some type of structure.
Meetings without structure give meetings a bad name.
- Ownership.
In successful meetings,
someone takes ownership for the process and the outcome.
The owner performs critical functions such
as:
- Contacting people to get
issues for the agenda
- Publishing the agenda
beforehand
- Calling the meeting to
start on time
- Keeping people focused on
the agenda during the meeting
- Seeing
that all decisions and actions get captured in print
- Variety.
To keep meetings fresh and
interesting, break up the routine every once in a while.
Use techniques such as brainstorming, role-play and
breakout groups to raise the energy level and promote
creativity.
Twelve
Steps to Great Management Team
Meetings
Few
things cost a company more than ineffective management
meetings. When you consider the salaries of everyone
sitting around the table, each meeting represents a
significant investment of the company's resources. Add
in the cultural impact of a management team that can't
come together to solve problems in an effective and
efficient manner and you end up with serious long-term
consequences.
To turn
your management team meetings into crisp, fast-paced
sessions that accomplish meaningful outcomes, King
recommends the following steps:
- Have a
designated time for starting and ending the
meeting. If someone arrives late
-- even the CEO -- start without them. People may
grumble at first, but eventually they will come to
appreciate the punctuality.
- Have a
prepared agenda for every meeting.
An
agenda provides essential structure and focus for the
conversations that take place during the
meeting.
- Have
clearly stated outcomes for every meeting.
Have
a definite purpose for meeting and make sure every
conversation is directed toward achieving that
purpose.
- Distribute
written assignments prior to the meeting.
When
people receive assignments in writing, they can't show
up and say, "Gee, I didn't know I was supposed to get
that done before the meeting."
- Allow
only those who can contribute to the solution(s) to
attend. Extraneous
people cause distractions and slow down the pace. If
someone can't contribute to the solution, they don't
belong in the meeting.
- Enforce
participation. Don't
allow people to "hide out" in meetings. If they can't or
won't contribute, they don't belong in the
meeting.
- Publicly
record all agreements and decisions and distribute them
to everyone on the team. A
public record prevents conflict during the meeting and
keeps people on the same page in between
meetings.
- Rotate
the meeting leadership. Rotating
leadership keeps the meetings fresh and helps to develop
the skills of everyone on the team.
- Review
prior decisions and actions taken.
Start
every management meeting by reviewing the outcome of the
previous session. Pay particular attention to
successes.
- Increase
the speed and pace of your meetings.
Don't
be afraid to move fast. People appreciate it when the
meeting moves at a good
clip.
- The CEO
speaks last. Have
all team members contribute before the CEO gives his or
her perspective. This prevents the CEO from dominating
the meeting and the rest of the team from parroting his
or her ideas.
- Critique
each meeting for process and the
outcome.
One popular method involves a "plus/delta" exercise.
Divide a flip chart into two columns. On the "plus"
side, capture everything that went right with the
meeting. On the "delta" side, identify areas for
improvement.
"Good
meetings build teams, bad meetings tear them down,"
asserts King, "so take yours seriously. These guidelines
may seem a bit onerous at first, but once you get used
to practicing them, you will wonder how you ever held
meetings any other
way."
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This
information is brought to you by TEC International, the
world's largest CEO membership organization. Since 1957,
executives have been coming to TEC to become better
leaders who make better decisions and achieve better
results. Learn more at www.tecflorida.com.
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If you would like to learn more about Leadership Centers USA and how our programs can help your company grow, call us today at (904) 636-0770 or visit us online at www.tecflorida.com.
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