The vision: A culture of effective meetings

26 Sep 2018 Tags: Soft skills

Seventh and final post in a series on group decision-making, based on Ch. 10–11 of Making Meetings Work.

The series:

1. Introduction. Decision rules.
2. Overview of decision crystallization.
3. The decision mosaic and the determinative element.
4. Crystallizing a decision at the end of a round.
5. Learning to crystallize decisions.
6. Reviewing and refining the decision as a whole.
7. A culture of effective meetings (this post).

What good meetings can do

This series of posts has gone into detail about the core function of meetings: making effective decisions. Successful meetings have other facets as well. An effective meeting is

• preceded with appropriate preparation, by both the chair and the regular members,
• managed to ensure full participation and safety of all members, and
• followed up with one-on-one or small-group discussions, minutes, and assigned actions.

Tropman’s book provides useful, detailed advice for all these phases. It’s well worth reading the whole thing and applying his advice.

Yet the focus of all this, the apogee of the meeting’s arc, is making decisions. Consistently get that right, achieve real agreement from all interested parties, address all concerns, stay within any strong boundaries drawn by management or expertise, and your group will be energized by a sense of progress.

Several years after I began seriously practicing these ideas, I had an experience at the university that affirmed their value. It was a week when I chaired two meetings. I was the only common member between the two groups and in fact their areas of responsibility were distinct: one was concerned with policies within our department, the other with universy-wide policy. At the end of the first day’s meeting, a member spontaneously said, “That was a great meeting”. At the end of the second day’s meeting, a member of that group exclaimed, “That was the best meeting I’ve ever attended!”. One of the favourite weeks of my academic career.

Dare to imagine meetings like that: Ones that the participants look forward to, which they view with a sense of ownership, where they can influence the course of their work, and where their voices are heard and valued. It’s possible, it’s practical, and you can do it. What are you waiting for?

Coming up …

I want to spend a few posts on issues that have accumulated while writing this series. After that, I expect to consider a higher level of soft skills, the practice of innovation as described in Denning and Dunham’s The Innovator’s Way. Their book has some strong similarities to Tropman’s but also some distinct differences. Stay tuned!