Master Your Game: Meeting Process Design
Master Your Game: Meeting Process Design
Designing the process means considering the meeting objectives, the scope of the topic, the discussion stage for each topic and the available time. Specifically, this article discusses strategies for managing the group size, thinking activities and discussion time.
Managing the Group Size
Assess the appropriateness of the meeting size. Each topic area for the meeting may need a different group size according to the nature of the topic and the thinking activity involved.
Consider dividing the main group into sub-groups. Some benefits of sub-groups:
provides safety for quiet members
appropriate for discussing sensitive topics
members could choose the topic area of interest to them.
If you have a large group and several topics, use sub- groups to discuss each topic then have each group make a presentation to the larger group when it reconvenes.
Designing Thinking Activities
Various thinking activities can be used throughout the discussion of each topic. Try these activities:
• Visioning. Ask: What would an ideal outcome look like?
• Brainstorming. Engage participants and make a list of ideas.
• Categorizing. Organize a list of ideas into topic areas.
• Prioritizing. Consider potential alternatives and assign priorities.
• Pros & Cons. Analyze the ideas presented.
• Question & Answer. Ask questions of the persons presenting their ideas.
• Challenging Assumptions. Have the speaker explain his or her assumptions.
• Researching Facts. Ask: What information do we need to know to make a decision?
• Creating Scenarios. Explore potential alternatives that may take place.
• Gap Analysis. Analyze the current state compared to the desired future state.
• Force Field Analysis. Analyze the forces (resources, skills, attitudes) contributing to the solution and the obstacles (barriers, problems deficiencies) to overcome.
• Planning next steps. Ask: Where do we go from here?
• Evaluating the Meeting. Ask: How effective was this meeting? What do people take away from the meeting?
Putting it Together: Sequence and Timing
The strategic use of various meeting elements results in an engaging, successful meeting. For a meeting with a topic that is in the information gathering stage, a likely sequence of activities might look like this:
• Brainstorming. Ask groups of three to brainstorm for 10 minutes then regroup to share ideas for 15 minutes.
• Categorizing. Have three members of the group categorize the items from the brainstorming while the rest of the group takes a break for 15 minutes.
• Prioritizing. As a group, select the top five categories for further discussion. Provide each member with five sticky notes and have them stick the note beside the categories of highest priority. 5 minutes.
• Open Discussion. Discuss each of the top five categories for 10 minutes each.
Sequences like this preserve the group's attention and concentration, resulting in more productive meetings.
Notice that in the above example each item has a time limit. To create a sense of focus and urgency, allocate a time frame to each thinking activity.
The Bottom Line: Rate Your Meeting Design
At the end of the day, what really counts is how well you accomplished your objectives. Ask yourself these questions:
• Is there clarity for each topic as to how that item will be managed?
• Are time limits set for each agenda item?
• Are group members fully engaged in the discussion?
• Are all members taking responsibility for action items and follow-up?
• How would you rate the pace of the meetings?
If you are happy with your responses, congratulations. You have indeed mastered your game.
Next month, we discuss Group Decision Making Processes, the final topic in this series.
Wishing you effective meetings,
Jacque Small
*Adapted from a Facilitator's Guide to Participatory Decision-Making, Sam Kaner, Lenny Lind, Catherine Toldi, Sarah Fisk and Duane Berger
Master Your Game Meeting Process Design - To learn more about this author, visit Jacque Small's Website.
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After establishing and communicating the agenda to participants (see previous issues), the second step to conducting an effective meeting is designing the meeting process.*
Designing the process means considering the meeting objectives, the scope of the topic, the discussion stage for each topic and the available time. Specifically, this article discusses strategies for managing the group size, thinking activities and discussion time.
Managing the Group Size
Assess the appropriateness of the meeting size. Each topic area for the meeting may need a different group size according to the nature of the topic and the thinking activity involved.
Consider dividing the main group into sub-groups. Some benefits of sub-groups:
provides safety for quiet members
appropriate for discussing sensitive topics
members could choose the topic area of interest to them.
If you have a large group and several topics, use sub- groups to discuss each topic then have each group make a presentation to the larger group when it reconvenes.
Designing Thinking Activities
Various thinking activities can be used throughout the discussion of each topic. Try these activities:
• Visioning. Ask: What would an ideal outcome look like?
• Brainstorming. Engage participants and make a list of ideas.
• Categorizing. Organize a list of ideas into topic areas.
• Prioritizing. Consider potential alternatives and assign priorities.
• Pros & Cons. Analyze the ideas presented.
• Question & Answer. Ask questions of the persons presenting their ideas.
• Challenging Assumptions. Have the speaker explain his or her assumptions.
• Researching Facts. Ask: What information do we need to know to make a decision?
• Creating Scenarios. Explore potential alternatives that may take place.
• Gap Analysis. Analyze the current state compared to the desired future state.
• Force Field Analysis. Analyze the forces (resources, skills, attitudes) contributing to the solution and the obstacles (barriers, problems deficiencies) to overcome.
• Planning next steps. Ask: Where do we go from here?
• Evaluating the Meeting. Ask: How effective was this meeting? What do people take away from the meeting?
Putting it Together: Sequence and Timing
The strategic use of various meeting elements results in an engaging, successful meeting. For a meeting with a topic that is in the information gathering stage, a likely sequence of activities might look like this:
• Brainstorming. Ask groups of three to brainstorm for 10 minutes then regroup to share ideas for 15 minutes.
• Categorizing. Have three members of the group categorize the items from the brainstorming while the rest of the group takes a break for 15 minutes.
• Prioritizing. As a group, select the top five categories for further discussion. Provide each member with five sticky notes and have them stick the note beside the categories of highest priority. 5 minutes.
• Open Discussion. Discuss each of the top five categories for 10 minutes each.
Sequences like this preserve the group's attention and concentration, resulting in more productive meetings.
Notice that in the above example each item has a time limit. To create a sense of focus and urgency, allocate a time frame to each thinking activity.
The Bottom Line: Rate Your Meeting Design
At the end of the day, what really counts is how well you accomplished your objectives. Ask yourself these questions:
• Is there clarity for each topic as to how that item will be managed?
• Are time limits set for each agenda item?
• Are group members fully engaged in the discussion?
• Are all members taking responsibility for action items and follow-up?
• How would you rate the pace of the meetings?
If you are happy with your responses, congratulations. You have indeed mastered your game.
Next month, we discuss Group Decision Making Processes, the final topic in this series.
Wishing you effective meetings,
Jacque Small
*Adapted from a Facilitator's Guide to Participatory Decision-Making, Sam Kaner, Lenny Lind, Catherine Toldi, Sarah Fisk and Duane Berger
Master Your Game Meeting Process Design - To learn more about this author, visit Jacque Small's Website.
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Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
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Kim CastleWith nearly two decades in the advertising and design business, with clients like Domino's Pizza, General Motors, Direct TV, Pedigree, Wolfgang Puck, Higher Octave Music, Hollywood Celebrity Products, Disney, and Paramount, as well as thousands of entrepreneurs around the world define, structure, communicate, and position their business for greater profits, BrandU(R) co-creators Kim Castle and W. Vito Montone discovered that entrepreneurs could experience the same power that big brands command for a fraction of the cost with the world's only process-based results-drive Integral approach to business creation. BrandU(R) is helping entrepreneurs grow with the power of extreme clarity from idea...to brand...to market(TM) and helping one million entrepreneurs become successful and whole so that they can make a difference in the world. Are you one of them? If you want to experience clarity all the way to the bank(TM), get started now at http://www.brandu.com. - Visit Kim Castle's Website |
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Jeff FosterWebBizIdeas.com is a Minneapolis website design company founded to help people start an internet business by providing them with website, business, and internet resources that help foster the growth of successful online businesses and develop innovative Internet business ideas. We specialize in internet consulting & internet marketing. - Visit Jeff Foster's Website |
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David BarrDavid Barr is the President of Venture Opportunities, Inc. David has been a professional business broker/intermediary since 1980 focusing on General Business Brokerage and Mergers and Acquisitions representing client transaction value from $400,000 to $20,000,000. Mr. Barr has handled the sale of over four hundred and fifty companies. David earned a university degree from the State University of New York majoring in economics and business. David holds the Mergers and Acquisition Master Intermediary and the Certified Business Intermediary designations from the International Business Brokers Association. He is also a Senior Business Analyst and a Texas licensed Real Estate Agent. For more information about David and Venture Opportunities, visit www.bizdealmaker.com. - Visit David Barr's Website |
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Dianne CramptonDianne Crampton is an executive leadership coach, team culture consultant, author and president of TIGERS Success Series, Inc. Dianne has been helping CEO's and Executives connect their employees to their core values and goals for over 20 years using the trademarked TIGERS team culture process, which stands for trust, interdependence, genuineness, empathy, risk and success. To download a free white paper on behaviors that build strong teams and behaviors that will predictably tear them down go here. Dianne's contribution to the 2010 Pfeiffer Consulting Journal (an imprint of John Wiley and Sons Publishers) entitled TIGERS Hearted Teams is available in November 2009. Her new book TIGERS Among Us: 5 Winning Business Team Cultures And Why, Three Creeks Publishing will release in March 2010. To receive publishing discounts, subscribe to the free TigerTracks Newsletter here. - Visit Dianne Crampton's Website |
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Staging DivaDebra Gould, aka The Staging Diva®, is President of Six Elements Inc., an internationally recognized home staging company. Inspired by many requests from aspiring home stagers wanting to start similar businesses, Gould created the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program. Gould has trained over 1000 Staging Diva Graduates worldwide to start staging businesses. Buying decorating and selling six of her own homes in four years lead to an interest in real estate staging which she turned into a career with the launch of sixelements.com in 2002. Since then she has staged hundreds of homes in addition to teaching home staging training. Gould is the author of several home staging resources including a series of popular ebooks made up of a Design Guide, Color Guide and Portfolio Guide. For more information about Debra Gould visit stagingdiva.com. - Visit Staging Diva's Website |
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Stephanie RobeyStephanie Robey is President and CoFounder of Pivot Positive, LLC - an Internet marketing business focused on helping people start work at home ventures. Previously, she was employed at The Search Agency with over 20 years experience in graphic design and 10 years experience in online marketing. She was responsible for launching the Conversion Path Optimization (CPO) unit where she and her team have conducted hundreds of optimization tests for online companies across multiple verticals. She is a successful entrepreneur having started and sold 2 companies and remains on the board of directors of the third, PhotoSpin.com Stephanie began her career in the direct marketing realm creating and producing direct mail for many of the major cable television companies and directly attributes her understanding of Internet marketing to those early offline experiences. Stephanie is a graduate of San Diego State University with a BFA in Graphic Arts and also holds an Executive MBA from the Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University. Read Steph's Blog Meet Steph and Dave Sign up for our Free 7-Day BootCamp: Self Employed & Rich - Visit Stephanie Robey's Website |
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