More effective meetings
- September 28, 2016
- Posted by: admin
- Categories: Learning & Development, Personal Skills
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Purposeful, effective meetings
I ran a half day personal effectiveness course recently for the leadership team of a lovely Scottish company. Some leadership teams spend a fair bit of their time in formal and informal meetings, so we spent part of the course looking at how to make their meetings more effective. Given I am still involved in a couple of Boards, it was a useful reminder for me too!
We discussed:
- Getting Board papers out in good time. Helping the meeting organiser by getting paperwork to them in good time. Keeping Board papers succinct, using dashboards and charts where possible.
- Chair making it clear that Board members need to read the papers beforehand.
- Starting and ending on time, not waiting for the latecomers.
- Only attending the meetings or sessions where you need to attend.
- The Chair involving the quiet folk by asking them for their opinions.
- Enabling time for brainstorming, questions and interchange, getting out of passive listening mode.
- Having candid discussions and challenging the management team (constructively) when required. The critical Board roles of policy-making, decision-making and oversight can sometimes seem like a West End play, with actors faithfully following their assigned roles.
- Making an annual plan for the important business to be discussed.
- Following a ‘first things first’ rule:
- Getting the consent agenda dealt with quickly.
- Scheduling the important issues next, leaving less critical items to the end of the agenda.
- Using a timed agenda.
- Clearly indicating if an item is for discussion, approval, or information only.
- Not allowing AOB, the Chair managing the agenda so it is not hijacked.
- Spending a few minutes at the end of every meeting discussing how the meeting went and whether improvements can be made.
- Getting the minutes out quickly – action-oriented minutes rather than ‘he said, she said’ minutes.
Happy meetings!