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Learn how to perceive and understand meeting problems, set up successful meetings, meet participants, and manage the meeting process effectively. Includes tips on problem-solving, agenda preparation, and post-meeting actions.
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Understanding Problems • Problem perception: Sometimes problems are perceived when they actually do not exist or are not related to the context of the issue being discussed. Ask the question of: • “Is there a problem?” • “What is the problem?” • “Whose problem is it?” • Define the problem in terms of: • Problem as it is given and • Problem as it is understood
Understanding Problems • Understand that problems are not all BAD! Problems are always a fact of life. • How do people feel about the problem? • What is the real problem / root cause of the problem? • What are the best, worst and probable cases related to the problem? • Use force-field analysis – problem, barriers (restrainers), and enablers (sustainers) to get a better understanding of the nature of the problem.
Setting Up a Meeting • Create a meeting focus synopsis indicating the purpose for conducting the meeting. • Who, What, When, Where, Why, How, How Many • Send meeting synopsis to all potential meeting participants and receive their availability schedule.
Setting Up a Meeting • Organize the meeting: the day, time and room to conduct the meeting • Schedule for extra time for chit-chat at the beginning, breaks, time to get to know one another, etc… • Do not push your timetable! • Do not overlap schedules with another meeting time slot right after or right before – make sure you have at least 30 minutes in between for people to change their mode of thinking. • Approach it slowly and calmly rather than rushing the process.
Setting Up a Meeting • Prepare a brief agenda and send it to the participants prior to the meeting time (1-2 days prior; if possible – a week). • The presenter should add detail to the agenda for his/her notes. • A detailed set of notes tied to the agenda will help the presenter flow through the presentation process and guide him or her better.
Setting Up a Meeting • If a single person is going to be conducting the meeting i.e., that person is the facilitator, recorder, and manager; then a simple note sheet would be useful for him or her to record key points discussed and decisions made. • If a single person is conducting the meeting, it is better to record the meeting discussion using a video camera or voice recorder. This way the presenter can focus on managing the meeting instead of taking all the notes down.
Setting Up a Meeting • Go to the meeting room early and begin the preparation for what you will need. • Reserve or schedule any equipment and technical support that will be needed for your meeting • Think of a brief agenda to go on the easel • Setup supplies for name tags, notes, paper, pens/pencils • Setup for refreshments and snacks • Identify locations of rest rooms, break rooms etc… • Other: • Name tags • Motivational and cohesion building items: • List of jokes and stories to tell (slides depicting certain humorous issues) • Donuts, bagels, cream-cheese, orange juice, soda etc…
Meeting the Participants • Be a host! As meeting participants start to arrive to the meeting location, meet them at the door, introduce yourself, welcome them and make them feel at home. • Do not focus too much onto a single person. • Hello (good morning/afternoon/evening), my name is …, and I’m going to be your facilitator today. • Who might you be? • Nice to meet you … and welcome, • looking forward to working with you • hope you’ll find this process interesting and productive. • How was your trip down here? Good! …. • Did you have any problems finding parking? • Okay, we’ll see if we can resolve that for you…. • If there is anything I can do for you, please don’t hesitate to let me know!
Meeting the Participants • Do not allow people to bring to a meeting cellular phones, beepers, or other communication devices that may disrupt the process. • Ideally it is better to hold the meeting at an off-site location to reduce the number of intrusions and, therefore, improve the meeting process effectiveness.
Holding the Meeting • Start the meeting on time ! • Get participants to introduce themselves and state their expectations for the meeting. • Define the roles of the people. • Review, revise and order the agenda. • Set clear time limits for discussing the issues and content. • Review action items from the previous meeting (if any). • At the end of the meeting, establish action items: who, what, when • Conduct a review of the content discussed, the decisions made and the action items assigned. • Adjourn the meeting crisply and positively • Evaluate the meeting. • Conduct a survey or discuss it with the participants to determine its success and areas for improvement.
After the Meeting • Clean up and rearrange room. • After a meeting is conducted, prepare a group memo – a summary of the events and discussions that occurred during the meeting. • Follow up on action items and begin to plan for the next meeting.
Tools to Use • In an IT/IS planning/requirements gathering process use of high-level flow charts that show general flow from one topic to another is more useful than a data flow diagram (DFD).
Tools to Use • It is better to acquire data and information needs through high-level meta-data models than through detailed conceptual data models.
Tools to Use • Use of “sticky notes” is a good way to get people to jot down simple ideas quickly and then give them to a sorter/organizer to arrange into categories and groups.
Tools to Use • Use an easel to record information for retention purposes and to make it visually available to the participants. Tape/tap the easel sheets on the walls around the meeting room. • Information on an easel has the advantage of being more permanent than on a board.
Tools to Use • A white board can sometimes be better than an easel since the information can be erased and edited without destroying the entire idea/concept. • The disadvantage is that the information must be retrieved in some form (either through a • Polaroid picture or through hand copying or in some instances the information on the board can be printed out).
Tools to Use • Provide the meeting participants with notepads and paper to allow them to doodle ideas and suggestions; perform basic analysis and prioritization; and to submit to you, as the presenter, ideas for future discussion – this is extremely important if there is only a presenter role and no facilitator, recorder, manager roles.
Thank You ! Any Question ?
