Learning Outcomes
Participants in this course will learn effective techniques for: 

• facilitating the group decision making process to produce timely standards that are widely implemented;
• developing consensus in an environment where participants' motivations differ;
• planning and conducting efficient and productive meetings; 
• maintaining progress by understanding procedural options, including effective delegation of responsibilities. 

• Obtain a unified solution from multiple opinions 
• Develop consensus in an environment where the leadership team has little power to legislate 
• Schedule meetings and develop draft agendas that help to prepare committee members and maximize participation 
• Information Technology tools as an alternative to face-to-face meetings 
• Ways to effectively record and act upon committee decisions 
• Lead discussions to maximize potential of the group dynamic 

• Understand problem definition, information gathering and evaluation, and solution development 
• The fine art of listening, asking questions and summarizing 
• Managing conflict and controlling problem participants 
• Avoiding surprises by drawing out non-participants 
• Making effective use of breaks 
• Understanding and implementing alternative procedures and deliverables 
•  Delegating effectively by increasing commitment and accountability 

•   How to get buy-in for your project at all stages of development 
•   Understanding and influencing the procedural and policy decision making processes 
•   Reducing conflict 

   Studies show that 80% of the time most managers spend in meetings is needless, and that on average only one in eight meetings need be attended. 

• Free up time managers are wasting attending unnecessary  meetings. 
• Make time spent in meetings more productive. 
• Improve communications on the expectations and results of meetings. 
• Make sure the right people attend the right meetings. 
• Apply principles of high-performance teamwork to good meeting management.

• Articulating meeting purpose and expected outcomes up front
• Who's the audience; who really needs to be there vs. who is afraid to be left out
• Delegating responsibility in advance
• Preparing and distributing a meeting agenda in advance
• Guidelines for preparing presentations
• Preparing the facility for the meeting (checklist provided)

•  Leading a meeting
• Opening and reviewing the meeting agenda
• Assigning responsibilities within the meeting
• Setting clear times to cover agenda items
• Respect and other behaviors required for good meetings
• Sticking to the agenda
•  Knowing when to allow discussions to go 'off agenda' and not
• Encouraging new ideas; valuing differences of opinion
• Dealing with difficult individuals
• Summarizing key points of agreement, keeping the meeting moving
• Concluding the meeting, gaining agreement on next steps

• Preparing minutes for the meeting
•  Getting feedback on meeting results
• Giving "teeth" to Next Steps, responsibilities and accountabilities for follow-through
• Distribution of meeting minutes
• Organizing for the next meeting 

Naomi Chavez, an internal consultant for Cisco Systems, one of Silicon
                  Valley's leading network equipment manufacturers, is frustrated: "We
                  have the most ineffective meetings of any company I've ever seen." 

Kevin Eassa, vice president of operations for the disk division of Conner
                  Peripherals, another Silicon Valley giant, is realistically resigned: "We
                  realize our meetings are unproductive."

Richard Collard, senior manager of network operations at Federal Express,
                  is simply exasperated: "We just seem to meet and meet and meet and we
                  never seem to do anything."

Meetings are the most universal -- and universally despised -- part of
                  business life. But bad meetings do more than ruin an otherwise pleasant
                  day. William R. Daniels, senior consultant at American Consulting & Training
                  of Mill Valley, California, has introduced meeting improvement techniques to
                  companies including Applied Materials and Motorola. He is adamant about
                  the real stakes: bad meetings make bad companies. 

"Meetings matter because that's where an organization's culture
                  perpetuates itself," he says. "Meetings are how an organization says, 'You
                  are a member.' So if every day we go to boring meetings full of boring
                  people, then we can't help but think that this is a boring company. Bad
                  meetings are a source of negative messages about our company and
                  ourselves." 

 It's not supposed to be this way. In a business world that is faster,
                  tougher, leaner, and more down sized than ever, you might expect the
                  sheer demands of competition ( not to mention the impact of e-mail and
                  groupware ) to curb our appetite for meetings. In reality, the opposite may
                  be true. As more work becomes teamwork, and fewer people remain to do
                  the work that exists, the number of meetings is likely to increase rather
                  than decrease. Jon Ryburg, president of the Facility Performance Group in
                  Ann Arbor, Michigan, is an organizational psychologist who advises
                  companies on office design and "meeting ergonomics." He tells his clients
                  that they need twice as much meeting space as they did 20 years ago. The
                  reason? "More and more companies are team-based companies, and in
                  team-based companies most work gets done in meetings." 

                  Salvation: Adopt Intel's mind-set that meetings are real work. 

                  There are as many techniques to improve the "crispness" of meetings as
                  there are items on the typical meeting agenda. Some companies punish
                  latecomers with a penalty fee or reprimand them in the minutes of the
                  meeting. But these techniques address symptoms, not the disease.
                  Disciplined meetings are about mind-set -- a shared conviction among all
                  the participants that meetings are real work. That all-too-frequent
                  expression of relief -- "Meeting's over, let's get back to work" -- is the
                  mortal enemy of good meetings. 

                  "Most people simply don't view going to meetings as doing work," says
                  William Daniels. "You have to make your meetings uptime rather than
                  downtime." 

                  Is there a company with the right mind-set? Walk into any conference room at any Intel office
                  anywhere in the world and you will see on the wall a poster with a series
                  of simple questions about the meetings that take place there. Do you know
                  the purpose of this meeting? Do you have an agenda? Do you know your
                  role? Do you follow the rules for good minutes? 

                  Indeed, every new employee, from the most junior
                  production worker to the highest ranking executive, is required to take the
                  company's home-grown course on effective meetings. For years the course
                  was taught by CEO Andy Grove himself, who believed that good meetings
                  were such an important part of Intel's culture that it was worth his time to
                  train the troops. "We talk a lot about meeting discipline, It isn't complicated.
                  It's doing the basics well: structured agendas, clear goals, paths that
                  you're going to follow. These things make a huge difference." 

Sin #2: Meetings are too long. They should accomplish twice as much in half the time. 

                Salvation: Time is money. Track the cost of your meetings and use
                  computer- enabled simultaneity to make them more productive. 

                  Almost every guru invokes the same rule: meetings should last no longer
                  than 90 minutes. When's the last time your company held to that rule? 

                  One reason meetings drag on is that people don't appreciate how expensive they are. 

                  "When I use the meter, I don't just  talk about the cost of meetings, I talk about the cost of bad
                  meetings. Because bad meetings lead to even more meetings, and over time the costs become 
                  awe-inspiring." 

                  "We had 170 of the brightest people in the company in one room.  The challenge was, how 
                   much information and how many ideas could we get out of them? Even if we had divided into 
                 15 breakout groups, we'd still have only 15 people speaking at the same time. People were
                  amazed. If we asked a question and each person typed in 2 ideas, that's
                  nearly 350 ideas in five minutes! That was the biggest impact of the
                  technology - the number of ideas generated in such a short time." 
 

Sin #3: People wander off the topic. Participants spend more time digressing than discussing. 

                Salvation: Get serious about agendas and store distractions in a "parking
                  lot." It's the starting point for all advice on productive meetings: stick to
                  the agenda. But it's hard to stick to an agenda that doesn't exist, and most
                  meetings in most companies are decidedly agenda free. "In the real
                  world," says Schrage, "agendas are about as rare as the white rhino. If
                  they do exist, they're about as useful. Who hasn't been in meetings where
                  someone tries to prove that the agenda isn't appropriate?" 

                  Agendas are worth taking seriously. Intel is fanatical about them; it has
                developed an agenda "template" that everyone in the company uses. Much
                  of the template is unsurprising. An Intel agenda ( circulated several days
                  before a meeting to let participants react to and modify it ) lists the
                  meeting's key topics, who will lead which parts of the discussion, how long
                  each segment will take, what the expected outcomes are, and so on. 

                  Intel agendas also specify the meeting's decision making style. The
                  company distinguishes among four approaches to decisions: authoritative (
                  the leader has full responsibility ); consultative ( the leader makes a
                  decision after weighing group input ); voting; and consensus. Being clear
                  and up-front about decision styles, Intel believes, sets the right
                  expectations and helps focus the conversation. 

                  "Going into the meeting, people know how they're giving input and how
                  that input will get rolled up into a decision," says Intel's Michael Fors. "If
                  you don't have structured agendas, and people aren't sure of the decision
                  path, they'll bring up side issues that are related but not directly relevant
                  to solving the problem." 

                  Of course, even the best crafted agendas can't guard against digressions,
                  distractions, and the other foibles of human interaction. The challenge is to
                  keep meetings focused without stifling creativity or insulting participants
                  who stray. At Ameritech, the regional telephone company based in
                  Chicago, meeting leaders use a "parking lot" to maintain that focus. 

                  "When comments come up that aren't related to the issue at hand, we
                  record them on a flip chart labeled the parking lot," says Kimberly Thomas,
                  director of communications for small business services. But the parking lot
                  isn't a black hole. "We always track the issue and the person responsible
                  for it," she adds. "We use this technique throughout the company." 

Sin #4: Nothing happens once the meeting ends. People don't convert decisions into action. 

                Salvation: Convert from "meeting" to "doing" and focus on common documents. 

                  The problem isn't that people are lazy or irresponsible. It's that people
                  leave meetings with different views of what happened and what's
                  supposed to happen next. Meeting experts are unanimous on this point:
                  even with the ubiquitous tools of organization and sharing ideas --
                  whiteboards, flip charts, Post-it notes -- the capacity for misunderstanding
                  is unlimited. Which is another reason companies turn to computer
                  technology. 

                  The best way to avoid that misunderstanding is to convert from "meeting"
                  to "doing" -- where the "doing" focuses on the creation of shared
                  documents that lead to action. The fact is, at most powerful role for
                  technology is also the simplest: recording comments, outlining ideas,
                  generating written proposals, projecting them for the entire group to see,
                  printing them so people leave with real-time minutes. Forget groupware;
                  just get yourself a good outlining program and oversized monitor. 

                "You're not just having a meeting, you're creating a document," says
                  Michael Schrage. " I can't emphasize enough the importance of that
                  distinction. It is the fundamental difference between ordinary meetings and
                  computer augmented collaborations. Comments, questions, criticisms,
                  insights should enhance the quality of the document. That should be the
                  group's mission." 

                In other words, the medium is the meeting. That's why Bernard DeKovan
                  prefers computers to flip charts and whiteboards. "Flip charts create
                  behaviors conditioned by the medium," he says. "People start competing
                  for room on the flip chart, the facilitator has to scratch thing out, and pretty
                  soon you can't read what's on it. With a computer, you never run out of
                  room for ideas, you can edit indefinitely, you can generate hard copies for
                  everyone at a moment's notice. It's a much richer medium." 

Sin #5: People don't tell the truth. There's plenty of conversation, but not much candor. 

                Salvation: Embrace anonymity. 

                  Too often, people in meetings simply don't speak
                  their minds. Sometimes the problem is a leader who doesn't solicit
                  participation. Sometimes a dominant personality intimidates the rest of the
                  group. But most of the time the problem is a simple lack of trust. People
                  don't feel secure enough to say what they really think. 

                  The most powerful techniques to promote candor rely on technology, and
                  most of these computer based tools focus on anonymity -- enabling people
                  to express opinions and evaluate alternatives without having to divulge
                  their identities. It's a sobering commentary on free speech in business --
                  "Say what you think, and we'll disguise your names to protect the
                  innocent" -- but it does seem to work. 

                  Jay Nunamaker, CEO of Ventana Corporation, based in Tucson, Arizona,
                  and a professor at the University of Arizona's Karl Eller Graduate School of
                  Management, is a leading expert on electronic meetings. He says Ventana
                  added anonymity to its software to meet the needs of the U.S. military.
                  "Admirals (and Headmasters?) can really dampen interaction at a meeting," he notes. "But we
                  didn't realize the impact it would have in corporate settings. Even with
                  people who work together all the time, anonymity changes the social
                  protocols. People say things differently." CoVision, the firm that facilitated
                  the 20th Century Fox meeting, provides a system that allows for
                  anonymous voting and anonymous group conversations. 

                  "People in the upper reaches of management pay so much deference to
                  the leader, and have so much to lose, that conversations quickly become
                  measured and political," he argues. "People just won't bare their souls.
                  Anonymity changes that." 

                But there are problems with anonymity. Some people like getting credit for
                  their ideas, and anonymity can leave them feeling shortchanged. There are
                  also opportunities for manipulation. Carol Anne Ogdin of Deep Woods
                  Technology, a teamwork consultant and meeting facilitator based in Santa
                  Clara, California, calls anonymity a "modest idea that's been blown out of
                  proportion." In particular, she worries about gamesmanship - for example,
                  people who build an anonymous groundswell of support for their own
                  contributions. 

Sin #6: Meetings are always missing important information, so they postpone critical decisions. 

                  Salvation: Get data, not just furniture, into meeting rooms. 

                  Most meeting rooms make it harder to have good meetings. They're sterile
                  and uninviting -- and often in the middle of nowhere. Why? To help people
                  "concentrate" by removing them from the frenzy of office life. But this
                  isolation leaves meeting rooms out of the information flow. Often, the
                  downside of isolation outweighs the benefits of focus. 

                  Jon Ryburg offers a few ways to increase the "information quotient" in meeting spaces.
                  For one thing, allow enough space in your meeting rooms for teams to
                  store materials. Project teams generate lots more than minutes and
                  memos. Meetings build models, fill up flip charts, create artifacts of all sorts
                  - "information" that's vital to future meetings. "People are constantly
                  hauling materials to and from meeting rooms," Ryburg says. "It's much
                  easier to just store things for later meetings."

                  William Miller, director of research and business development for Steelcase,
                  the office furniture manufacturer based in Grand Rapids, Michigan,
                  emphasizes that mobility is about more than convenience. The radical
                  redesign of work, he argues, requires a radical redesign of meeting space. 

                  "Knowledge workers spend 80% of their time at the office away from their
                  desks," Miller says. "Where are they? Working on projects. The way to
                  support that work is to build project clusters and co-locate desks around
                  them. You can post information and never take it down. We call it
                  'information persistence.' And we don't talk about meetings. We talk about
                  'interactions.' It's part of the new science of effective work." 

Sin #7: Meetings never get better. People make the same mistakes. 

                Salvation: Practice makes perfect. Monitor what works and what doesn't
                  and hold people accountable. 

                  Meetings are like any other part of business life: you get better only if you
                  commit to it -- and aim high. Charles Schwab & Co., the financial services
                  company based in San Francisco, has made that commitment. In virtually
                  every meeting at Schwab, someone serves as an "observer" and creates
                  what the company calls a Plus/Delta list. The list records what went right
                  and what went wrong, and gets included in the minutes. Over time, both
                  for specific meeting groups and for the company as a whole, these lists
                  create an agenda for change. 

                  How much can meetings improve? The last word goes to Bernard DeKoven:
                  "People don't have good meetings because they don't know what good
                  meetings are like. Good meetings aren't just about work. They're about fun
                  -- keeping people charged up. It's more than collaboration, it's 'coliberation'
                  -- people freeing each other up to think more creatively." 

• PlaceWare (for real-time web conferencing)
• Uptilt (for our trivia game, poll, response form, and Newsletter distribution)
• World Time Server (for corroborating meeting times across time zones)
• QuickTopic Document Review for supporting asynchronous, document related discussions
• EQuill for webpage mark-up
• eZMeeting for graphic collaboration
• BackFlip for online bookmark sharing
• eFax for virtual fax
• Kinkos.com for instant printing and delivery. 
• Microsoft Office 2000 (specifically Word and PowerPoint)
• eBeam whiteboard digitizers
• PolyCom conference phones to all our SmarterMeeting rooms
• Plantronics CT 10 wearable telephone to all our SmarterMeeting faciltitors. 

 Time, said Ovid, is the devourer of all things. Ovid might have added that formless meetings are the insidious devourers of time. Then he'd have really been onto something.

 Few calendar entries prompt more dread and resentment among busy people than a scheduled meeting with an open agenda -- or, just as alarming, a nebulous agenda. In daring attempts to tame the no-agenda beast, some entrepreneurs impose cute conditions on any meeting they agree to attend: one company president, for instance, holds meetings only in rooms with no chairs. That, he figures, will keep things moving along.

 But such ad hoc cures miss the point. The issue isn't simply one of long-windedness versus brevity -- although setting time limits is certainly a good thing. The best meetings, instead, are distinguished by having a focus, a goal that can be accomplished only by gathering people together. The best meetings involve preparation, a careful allocation of how time will be spent. And the best meetings are conducted according to an agenda, articulated in advance and detailed even to the point that each issue is allotted a certain time segment. In a nutshell, the best meetings are so well conceived that their payoffs could almost be guaranteed before they begin.

 It's amazing how many poorly run meetings most people have to endure. 

 Keep to the Schedule
 "I make the introductions, but once the meeting is under way, it's under way -- to jump in would be like trying to stop the Queen Mary. Everyone hopes we've done enough homework that it will go smoothly. The biggest problem is time: people get so wrapped up in what they're saying that they don't want to stop.
 We emphasize the time limits when we're planning, and then again two minutes before the meeting starts In some sessions we have timekeepers, who will clink a glass when there are two
 minutes left for each section."

 -- Frederick DeJohn, director and facilitator, the Western New
 York Technology Development Center

 Build in a Bathroom Break 
 Have a Focus and Stick With It
 "We had a goal: we wanted to show that we have an extremely structured problem solving approach to TQM here at Fedco and that our employees actively own TQM. That's why the longest portion of the meeting was devoted to the employees themselves talking about what we have accomplished." 

 Encourage Participants to Plan Their Parts
 "The quality team I'm on met and said, 'Hey, we've got visitor  coming' -- and obviously, you're going to plan something if someone's coming. We figured we'd run through the TQM programs, talk about what we'd learned, and explain how far we've gotten. We weren't told to make a good impression. We just wanted to tell it like it is."

 -- Rich Jetter, Fedco union president and quality-team member 

 "There's a great payoff to having people prepare their own presentations: explaining what they're doing to an outside group lends it credibility. Our people saw that what they've done is of interest to other companies, that it's important -- maybe even more important than they'd thought."

 -- Gary Moose, Fedco president 

 Rehearse
 "We did two dress rehearsals for the team presentations, in which people would be talking individually about how they were involved in the TQM program. I put together all the information in a rough format, which I ended up compiling into a big booklet for everybody who attended. At the first rehearsal we figured out what there was too much of and what we were missing. We had two hours and 45 minutes of material instead of 45 minutes. So I trimmed it down, and we practiced it a second time until people felt comfortable. A couple of people wanted to practice their sections again and again. One gentleman came in at   o'clock at night to practice with me, one-on-one. That was great, but I wanted to make sure they didn't become like robots. My own presentations, I practiced a couple of times in my head -- and even out loud -- when I was setting up the room." 

 -- Wally Kensy, Fedco manager of TQM

 Do a Follow-Up to Tie Things Together 
 "After each networking meeting, I put together a package for everyone who was there, which includes an  attendance sheet and other materials the company didn't pass out but wanted people to have. The cover letter thanks the host company, makes a few comments about the session, and tells people when and where the next meeting's going to be. I also compile the program assessment sheets and type up a copy of the critique and  feedback. The formal feedback process tells the audience that we're interested in their input -- and we do get some valuable suggestions."

 -- Frederick DeJohn, director and facilitator, Western New York
 Technology Development Center
 

Effective meetings will:

   Focus on well chosen and clearly stated goals 
   Affirm the organization's values, missions and goals 

Meeting leaders should:

   Screen the agenda prior to the meeting, asking the following questions: 

    1.  Do I understand the action I am expected to take?  Obtain clarification if needed. 
    2.  Is the agenda relevant to all attendees? 
    3.  Is the information thoroughly prepared and appropriately documented? 

   Use a facilitator, when appropriate, to: 

•     Assist in planning the meeting 
•     Maintain appropriate meeting dynamics 
•     Encourage use of correct procedures 

Meeting participants should:

•    Review the agenda prior to the meeting 
•    Be on time for the meeting 
•    Be prepared to contribute to discussion 
•    Remain on topic; avoid digression 
•    Be honest; avoid withholding information 

For today's high-technology companies, solutions to problems are not so simple that one individual can provide all the answers. A broad variety of skills, knowledge, and background is needed to address most issues. The result is meetings to define problems, generate solutions, develop strategies, and on and on. 

Companies devote great chunks of valuable time to meetings. Yet, employees often describe meetings as wasted timedebates that produce tenuous solutions not supported by key employees or social hours where little is accomplished. Afterwards, people may be confused about what was decided or who is responsible for following through. 

To avoid such results, try improving meetings at the beginning and the end. 

Prepare in Advance

Leading a meeting requires thorough planning. Decide the purpose of the meeting and put it in writing. It should be something you can measure or document. Don't write, "We will discuss solutions for production delays." Instead, be specific. "We will develop a plan to document causes of production delays." 

With the purpose in mind, consider who will attend. Will all departments or work groups affected by the outcome be represented? Will people with sufficient knowledge of the process and/or company be present? Will the group have the level of experience needed to analyze problems or make decisions? 

Prepare a list of who should attend. Check with managers or supervisors to be sure people can take time away from regular work. Be open to suggestions for other participants. Review your list with someone whose judgement you trust. Arrange for a satisfactory meeting place a room that is large enough, has sufficient seating, and is conveniently located but isolated from excessive traffic, noise, and distractions. 

Inform Those Attending

Call people in advance to alert them and find out the best times for them to meet. With busy schedules, it will be impossible to please everyone, but you can usually avoid serious conflicts. 

Once you have determined the time and place, prepare a memo detailing the location and ending as well as starting times.   Include the purpose of the meeting and, preferably, the agenda. It helps to add that people can call you to clarify agenda items prior to the meeting. 

If special data, visuals, or the like are needed, list them in the memo and clarify what each person should bring or prepare. A few days later, follow up with a phone call or personal contact to verify that your memo was received and the recipient is able to prepare and attend. 

Begin with an Introduction

Open the meeting with introductions. Clarify ground rules, which may include:

•      Hold phone calls until breaks.
•      Don't leave the room and return during the session.
•      Listen without interrupting.
•      Give every idea, no matter how off the wall, a fair hearing.
•      Treat everyone with respect, even when you disagree.

State the purpose and review the agenda. Assign approximate times to each agenda item if you have not already done so. Explain that if the group gets off schedule, members will need to decide whether to table discussions until future meetings, refer the problem to a group for study, agree to disagree and move on, or set the agenda aside and deal with the delay immediately. As the leader, you may need to make decisions if the group cannot agree. 

The meeting leader is responsible for ensuring participation, focusing discussion, summarizing decisions, resolving conflict, and managing meeting dynamics. These techniques take time to master. Whole books and training programs are devoted to these skills. 

Participants, too, have a responsibility to promote cooperation and mutual respect. The leader is instrumental in setting the tone, but participants are responsible for maintaining it. 

End with a Clear Plan

Every meeting should conclude with a summary of work completed, a clear action plan for outstanding tasks, and a decision about subsequent meetings. The summary should relate directly to the purpose: What was the goal? Was it achieved? What remains to be done? 

The action plan should list specific tasks, the person(s) responsible, and the completion date for each. Resolve any confusion and adjust the plan as needed. Get the next meeting on the schedule while everyone is present. Check with participants in a few days to make sure they can complete follow-up tasks. The time you spend in preparation and follow-up will pay off with meetings that begin and end well.