Job Advice: How to Prepare, Lead, and Follow Up on a Meeting?
17 December 2013
Read by 2495 persons
Meetings can take up to 50% of managers' time. But, while it's easy to get bogged down in too many meetings, their quality isn't determined by quantity. So to succeed, Marc Roussel, a trainer and coach, gives us some key tips.
There are countless types of meetings because there are no limits other than the situations humans create. There's no single "best" behavior: it depends on the situation! So, to create your personalized checklist, the idea is to combine the action cycles in which the meeting is involved (ideally preparation, facilitation, and follow-up) with the three main factors to consider: the facilitator, the participants, and the content. This way, you better control your meetings based on their specifics, even if a number of general rules can help.
Preparing your meetings
- Define the scope, the stakes, and the format
- Involve leaders by consulting them
- Formalize the objectives
- Define the content and create the materials
- Think about the logistics
- Prepare psychologically
Leading a meeting
1. Frame the meeting according to the positive or negative context (Caution: a group amplifies situations. So, manage positive situations as a group and negative ones individually)
- Assign key roles (timekeeper, logistics, secretary, etc.)
- Agree on the objectives, process, and stakes
- Establish rules of courtesy and mutual respect
2. Facilitation techniques
- Prepare your key questions (watch out for the trap of closed-ended questions...)
- Encourage participation (round table, brainstorming)
- Answer, defer, or have someone else answer the questions asked
3. Master the group problem-solving process
- Recognize the existence of a problem
- Understand the problem in terms of effects and consequences, but also in terms of cause and trigger
- Take responsibility for the problem
- Find a solution
- Action plan
- Validation and implementation
4. Master the group creativity process
- Imagine the ideal scenario
- Compare to the current situation
- Identify the gaps
- Explore known possibilities
- Invent new possibilities
- Test
- Extrapolate based on results
5. Formalize the meeting results
- Decisions (what, by when)
- Responsibilities (who is responsible)
- Commitment (everyone signs the summary sheet)
Note
The minutes should only contain the decisions made during the meeting. At the end, the person acting as secretary reads the decisions ratified during the meeting, gets everyone to sign the decision sheet and, after making a photocopy, gives each participant their copy.
If a second meeting is necessary, these minutes should form the basic agenda.
Marc Roussel.
Terrafemina.com
Posted on December 17, 2013.
There are countless types of meetings because there are no limits other than the situations humans create. There's no single "best" behavior: it depends on the situation! So, to create your personalized checklist, the idea is to combine the action cycles in which the meeting is involved (ideally preparation, facilitation, and follow-up) with the three main factors to consider: the facilitator, the participants, and the content. This way, you better control your meetings based on their specifics, even if a number of general rules can help.
Preparing your meetings
- Define the scope, the stakes, and the format
- Involve leaders by consulting them
- Formalize the objectives
- Define the content and create the materials
- Think about the logistics
- Prepare psychologically
Leading a meeting
1. Frame the meeting according to the positive or negative context (Caution: a group amplifies situations. So, manage positive situations as a group and negative ones individually)
- Assign key roles (timekeeper, logistics, secretary, etc.)
- Agree on the objectives, process, and stakes
- Establish rules of courtesy and mutual respect
2. Facilitation techniques
- Prepare your key questions (watch out for the trap of closed-ended questions...)
- Encourage participation (round table, brainstorming)
- Answer, defer, or have someone else answer the questions asked
3. Master the group problem-solving process
- Recognize the existence of a problem
- Understand the problem in terms of effects and consequences, but also in terms of cause and trigger
- Take responsibility for the problem
- Find a solution
- Action plan
- Validation and implementation
4. Master the group creativity process
- Imagine the ideal scenario
- Compare to the current situation
- Identify the gaps
- Explore known possibilities
- Invent new possibilities
- Test
- Extrapolate based on results
5. Formalize the meeting results
- Decisions (what, by when)
- Responsibilities (who is responsible)
- Commitment (everyone signs the summary sheet)
Note
The minutes should only contain the decisions made during the meeting. At the end, the person acting as secretary reads the decisions ratified during the meeting, gets everyone to sign the decision sheet and, after making a photocopy, gives each participant their copy.
If a second meeting is necessary, these minutes should form the basic agenda.
Marc Roussel.
Terrafemina.com
Posted on December 17, 2013.
