Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Meetings: Effective Communication or Production Roadblock?
I’m fascinated by the individual tasks assigned to leaders to try and inspire, motivate, and coach people in a company. One of the key components for any leader to accomplish these tasks is through effective communication. Meetings are one way leaders try to communicate with their department. There are team meetings, brainstorming sessions, production meetings, mentoring sessions, and skip level meetings. The idea is a meeting could be called for just about anything in an organization, at any time.
The question I pose this week is how effective are meetings? Do you feel they are effective tools to communicate or production roadblocks? How should an effective meeting look? Are there key people that help make meetings effective? Have meetings become tools to pull us away from work, and tools used to talk at employees not to them?
I feel meetings can be effective, if they have a purpose, have an agenda with a mediator and time-keeper, and if the department as a whole has a chance to participate. True open communication is necessary to be able to hold effective meetings. What are your thoughts?
Chris
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8 comments:
This has nothing to do with Chris' great topic, but thought I'd share something from J.D. Pendry's blog on leadership. "The bad leaders all suffer from the same malady. Cranial Rectal Inversion Syndrome (CRIS)." Cracked me up! - jan
Ah, meetings. They seem to be a necessary evil, don't they? I am a painfully punctual person so when meetings don't begin on time I am easily annoyed. I believe a person who calls a meeting then doesn't show up on time (consistently) is either, rude, inconsiderate or attempting some kind of "power play". "Taking the Lull by the Horns" gave me a different perspective on late meetings and I have found myself trying to network more. However, that wasn't the question.
The short answer is, yes, meetings are necessary. They prevent us from working in "bubbles" and allows for the free-flowing of ideas. There are many different meeting purposes so to gauge if they are "effective" depends on what you are trying to achieve. A brainstorming session could be relaxed with people tossing out ideas. A townhall is more "sit and listen with questions later". A production meeting may require more of a "stop watch" mentality and facilitator to keep things on track. One thing all meetings should have is common; however, is an agenda, preferably distributed ahead of time. When all participants know what the meeting is about and what they need to bring to the table, things tend to run smoother.
When we began this class it was with the understanding that most topics could be answered with "well, it depends". This is no exception. The effectiveness of a meeting depends on what is trying to be accomplished and what kind of facilitator you have. Keeping a semblance of control is the key to keeping things moving in a productive manner.
-Margaret
Meetings are an important tool if used properly. The purpose of a meeting is to share an idea, communicate a plan, set policy, train educate and so on. For me, meetings are a waste of time if I spend a full day attending 5 different ones only to realize at the end of the day that I put myself further behind and yest I couldn't tell you anything about the meetings that I went too.
Also an agenda, start time and end time are essential.
Mariann
Ahhh, "it depends" seems so appropriate for this one. Meetings are a necessary evil, and can be effective, but only if everyone attends and the group stays focused on the objective.
Unfortunately, in many instances folks don't show up, come with their own agendas, agree to items but don't support the ensuing work effort, etc. Sometimes we get into a spin where it seems like we are meeting about meetings to discuss meetings. I too find myself at the end of some days having spend most of the day in metings, and because the objective was not met, additional meetings will or have been scheduled.
Like many things, they can be effective if the attendees are there (mentally and physically, meaning present and fully engaged), the objectives are clear and there are accountabilities associated with performance in and outside of the meetings (next steps, to do's deliverables, etc.).
Meetings are effective if there is effective leadership and management inside and outside of the meeting...unfortunately for most of us, and for many organizations that is not the case so we continue to spin, and spin, and spin.......
Melissa
Meetings can be effective if they are called for and have a useful purpose. The operative words being useful and purpose. Many times meetings are held that just aren't useful to the people attending or the purpose of the meeting is obscure. A meeting should not be someone's way of avoiding making a decision (like setting up a committee to discuss something) but rather a forum for open and honest exchange of ideas to attack a problem or create innovations that improve a process or product.
Gary
Meetings can either be the bane of your existance, or a great tool; dependent upon how you use them, or the purpose of. As a leader; if I have to communicate to/at my staff; a meeting is really an informational session; and I call it such. A true meeting is an opportunity to discuss; give information, share ideas, and involves everyone getting a consensus. ( I would imagine this topic is going to be huge next semester in team leadership). Nothing can harm a leader like holding bad meetings that everyone dreads attending. Likewise; not sharing information or allowing your team to communicate ideas can create the same level of harm. To answer Chris, I think that when we schedule meetings the members need to know the agenda, or have a clear purpose of what the meeting is supposed to accomplish; these two items give mass/ merit to a meeting and make it a valuable tool. With that said; a good working team can have regular meetings to gather/share information and the communication from the outside looking in can give you a sense of "huh"? The cryptic communication styles and abbreviated messages can give a newcomer a sense of "what was that about"? As leaders, it is important to recognize the need to keep meeting agendas fresh and purposeful for all attendees.
Jana
There are people who think that holding a meeting will achieve the goal. There are people who have objectives that say "hold monthly staff meetings;" or "attend monthly staff meetings." There are meetings held for the sake of sharing information where people say little or nothing of substance. Purpose and vision are necessities. Jan
Meetings are a tool. In order for a tool to be effective, it must be used properly.
Meetings are effective if not used for someone to pontificate, badger, belittle, or just read statistics off a presentation.
There are two types of meetings: Working, and Informational/Reporting. The two should not be mixed.
I agree that a meeting should have an agenda, a set beginning and end time, and someone to let the meeting chair know when time is done.
John
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