Successful meetings: taking the chair (part 2)

Topic: Communication, Confidence

In the second of our four part series on successful meetings (see part one: preparing for success), we look at what the most successful meeting chairs do to ensure sessions lead to outcomes. And don’t forget to download your very own everywomanNetwork checklist – an easy step-by-step PDF you can take anywhere to help you chair next meeting.

The one that’s running over and shows no sign of ending soon. The one where everyone seems to be talking at once. The one where the agenda bears no resemblance to what’s actually being discussed. The one where you’re wondering if you’ve stumbled into Groundhog Day: isn’t this the exact same meeting we had last month?

Terrible meetings aren’t just bad for morale; they’re bad for business, costing the US economy alone $37 billion a year.[i] What’s more, bad meetings top the chart of workplace productivity killers (even beating a negative workplace environment).[ii]

Just a little pressure then, to ensure the meeting you’re chairing – whether it’s your regular team meeting or a one-off – doesn’t end with your attendees wondering how they can close their diaries for business.

Opening with authority

If you’ve followed our preparation checklist, you’ll have already communicated with your carefully selected guest list so that everyone is crystal clear about what’s expected. Once you have them seated at the table, tell them again. Reiterate not only what the objective of the meeting is – what must be achieved before close, but why each individual has been chosen for attendance and in what capacity they are expected to help enable the goal. Be clear who the decision maker in the room is. If there isn’t one and the session is designed to generate ideas to present to someone else, be clear that everyone is on an equal footing.

Succinctly run through how you’d like the meeting to play out, assigning timeslots to each agenda point. If possible, put the agenda somewhere prominent (on a white board) in order to keep people focused. Ensure you’re wearing a watch so that you can keep the meeting on track – better than a phone which will act as a distraction and possibly an indication to those around the table that they too can use technology throughout the conversation. Communicate which behaviours could enable a quicker meeting than the one scheduled; Sheryl Sandberg of Facebook, enters every meeting with a list of information she wants to collect. Once every item is checked off, the meeting is over, even if it’s 10 minutes into a one hour slot – the COO knows that getting back to desks will result in more productivity than 50 minutes of unplanned discourse or reiteration for the sake of keeping to the diary.

Lay out the ground rules

If you’re generating ideas and quantity is what counts, it might be that no analysis is allowed. If the team has some strong characters who tend to dominate, insist on no interruptions or talking over others. If you’ve a packed agenda and a tight schedule, ask for brevity when proposing ideas or arguments. If you’re nearing close of play or lunch, ask for everyone’s focus to ensure everything runs like clockwork. If it’s going to be a long session, state upfront when there’ll be breaks (be mindful of the fact that one in five of your attendees are prone to sleepiness in meetings, but be wary also of ordering in too much coffee – a study published in the Journal of Applied Social Psychology found that though a shot of the dark stuff can power up problem solving and collaboration in women, the opposite can be true of men, whose response to over-caffeinating may be less conducive to agreeable discussions). Think about your objective for the meeting and anything that might get in the way of achieving that, setting rules accordingly.

Remember that as chair, though you may hold similar rank to others in the room, attendees will look to you to control the meeting. If you break your own rule – responding to a text message, talking over someone else or holding court, others will assume that they are free to do the same.

Setting the scene

Summarise any background facts or data that are necessary to stimulate the discussion. If there’s a lot to get through and you’re conscious of taking up too much airtime yourself, assign chunks of material to individuals around the table – if it’s essential that they’ve read this beforehand in order to communicate it effectively, let them know prior to the session that they’re expected to do this.

Action time

As the discussion gets underway, keep a record – and/or ask someone you trust to do the same – of every point raised, idea shared or objection mounted.

During the discussion, you have two options as chair. One is to be heavily involved, putting forward your own ideas and entering into debate over others’. Another is to see your responsibility as facilitator, moving the discussion on in a timely way, ensuring that everyone is having their say, asking the right questions at the right times and managing any issues that arise to threaten successful achievement of the objective. Which option you choose will depend on the group dynamics.

Depending on the purpose of your meeting, you may want to try out some of our brainstorming or problem-solving techniques to get the group thinking.

Closing arguments

Run through any action points and who will take ownership for each one, ensuring you get their buy in while they’re still in the room. Tell everyone when you’ll be sending around the notes and commit to doing so that by that time.

Always close the session on a note of successful achievement. Even if you didn’t come up with the big idea for X or the group is still in deliberation over Y, run through what has been achieved and how this fits with the overall objective. If it’s agreed that a follow up is necessary, arrange it while everyone is still in the room – it’s easier than trying to find a free slot in everyone’s diaries once you’re back at your desk.

As soon as possible following the session, send around the minutes. You may find it helpful to distribute both a full, descriptive write up, and a summary outlining action points which individuals can quickly and easily scan to see where their input is required and by when.

The wash up

Finally, if the meeting didn’t go as you’d hoped, spend time thinking about why, drawing on the help of individual attendees you trust if needed. Did you skip over some essential prep? Were there too many players involved? Did you fail to establish or enforce ground rules? Does one particular attendee need to be better managed? Did you struggle to participate as a group member while also facilitating discussion? Work out where you went wrong and attempt to put this right when you next chair a meeting.

Fed up of Ms Always Late, Mrs Won’t Stop Talking or Mr Ignoring The Agenda? Look out for part three of our successful meetings series, where we’ll look at the difficult characters you may encounter in meetings, and how to manage them – coming soon!