Resources for "Meetings" Workshop
revised December 15, 2008
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Note:  I am appreciative of the workshops and writings of Robert Garmston, Bruce Wellman,
and Bill Kentta .  In addition, we have found many useful books .

My mentor and friend in this effort is Josh Reckord of Eugene Oregon, whom I first knew in Tokyo at the American School in Japan.  I constantly draw on his experience and his many years of thoughtful work in this field.  Josh is the source of much of this material.

Our most often requested information: 

Meetings Checklist, signs for meeting rooms & Useful books and resources

 

Before you begin improving your meetings

·  A Self Assessment for groups considering organizational training

·  Decide who makes decisions in your school, including a sample responsiblity grid 

·  Group Agreements 

·  Kaizen , a philosophy useful in school improvement

·  Does your school look like this ?  (meeting problems)

Consensus Decision Making

·  What consensus really means, and what it doesn't mean.

·  Brainstorming ...there is more to it than you may think.

·  Tools for reaching group decisions 

·  Surveys (Five finger, thumbs up, etc.)

·  STP (a problem solving stragtegy)

·  The Focusing Four (a way to take many ideas from the group and find the best one)

·  What to do when a group is stuck 

 

 

Collaboration & Group Dynamics

·  The Seven Norms of Collaboration

·  More about Teams and Groups

·  Listening (Irritating Listening Habits)

·  Stages of team growth 

·  The Five Stages of Change

·  Four kinds of meeting situations 

·  Why administrators shouldn't run their own meetings.

·  Culture Survey 

·  Why teaching is stressful 

·  First Things First (Covey's Time Management)

Meeting Tools

·  Roles in a meeting (facilitator, recorder, etc.)

·  The agenda (including a sample agenda)

·  Setting the stage 

·  Warm-up and Debrief :  Ideas you can use

·  Your meeting toolbox and recommended books 

·  Signs that you can use for your meeting room

·  Group Memory:   (Public Minutes)

·  Closing Questions 

Other things we have found interesting...........but are perhaps less useful for most schools.

·  What is Organizational Development? 

·  Characteristics of high performing teams 

·  What the world of business is doing

·  ·  Diagnosing the maturity level of participants

·  Four types of facilitation (external/internal)

·  Assessing the status of a group

·  Consultations:  What the Bahá'í faith has to say about consensus

·  Trust (our emotional bank account)

·  Post Meeting Reflections (a survey of the participants)

·  Role behavior & group killer phrases

·  What a meeting is not!

·  How not to get shot when breaking bad news

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