Perspectives
Becoming a Meeting
Wizard
by Shirley Fine Lee
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Shocking Meeting Statistics
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Shirley facilitates C&C SIG discussion.
Participants were Dennie,
Jeff, David, Bob, Al,
Tracy, Debbie, Dave, Patricia, Julie.
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Believe it or not – a discussion
on the topic of meeting management can be exciting, lively, and enthusiastic. This
is what the Coaches
and Consultants SIG found out in the April 17th meeting, where
it was a pleasure
to lead a discussion on how to improve meetings. Why was this meeting a good place to be on a
rainy Tuesday night? Because all the participants
were open to new ideas and ready for improvement since we all have to attend so
many meetings every week.
First, we started by
evaluating a recent meeting each person had attended that they felt did not go
well. This allowed us to see where some weaknesses
or barriers to good meetings are. We used
the Meeting Evaluation format from the book “R.A!R.A! A Meeting Wizard’s Approach” page 54
(also available in 8.5 x 11 as a free form at www.ShirleyFineLee.com). We discussed the process-related questions which
scored low. Then we placed the averages
of their meeting evaluation scores on the chart to the right. Afterwards, we discussed some reasons why we
are willing to accept a meeting grade of 20, 40, or 60 in business when we would
never accept a report card from one of their children with a grade that low. The general response was that we are
conditioned to accept bad meetings because that is what we have gotten used to
- it has become the norm.
Then we moved to a very
interactive 30-minute discussion to see how we could move our meetings from
ineffective (scores below 40) through average (scores between
40 and 60) and then make them both
better and more effective (scores above 60).
During the discussion, the group was challenged to find the answers to
the following questions on their worksheet:
What does the R.A!R.A! acronym stand for?
Roles (the main 5 _r’s)
Agenda (using 3 T’s)
Records (during
and after)
Actions (using 3 W’s)
What do you feel is an important element of R.A!R.A! and why?
Every component of the R.A!R.A! approach was chosen by someone with many great comments related to clarifying roles, getting participation, preventing take-over, controlling conflict, staying on-track, using open/close components, focusing group, having an optional open time, using standard formats, complementing with technology, and assuring follow-through.
How can R.A!R.A! be used for coaching and consulting? What is your take-away from today?
The
group was challenged to come up with 2-3 ideas for how they can use R.A!R.A! with customers and co-workers and put that on their
worksheet to do during the next two weeks.
Then in closing, we shared some key things we learned from discussing
the R.A!R.A! approach to
meetings. Some things shared included:
records are more important than most people think, always having an agenda
structures meeting, don’t just assign actions – set deadlines, better
understanding of the extra responsibility of facilitator verses meeting leader.
About the Author: Shirley Fine Lee is the author of “R.A!R.A! A Meeting Wizard’s Approach”, which is a quick guide to planning and conducting meetings so that they are as productive, effectual, and smoothly run as possible. She has considerable training and expertise in leading effective meetings herself, as well as training others within the corporate world to be able to do the same. Shirley has worked as a training and development specialist since 1986, and an independent consultant since 2000. She has extensive experience helping organizations with their team building, training development, meeting facilitation, presentation delivery, and other communication needs. Shirley may be contacted via phone 214-457-5736 or email slee@shirleyfinelee.com.