Charing Meetings

As a Chair your task is to utilise the talents of the group and move them towards the meeting’s objectives. This can be difficult to achieve. Looking back at your own experiences of chairing meetings, or through your observation of meetings, what elements of leading meetings can go wrong?

In this section, we look at some key pointers that will help you to lead meetings more effectively.

• Setting up the Meeting
  • Type of meeting
  • Size of Meeting
  • Membership
  • Developing the Aims and Agenda
• Charing the Meeting
  • Opening the meeting
  • Keeping Control
  • Discussing each item
  • Encouraging Participation
  • Summarising and Closure
  • Actions after the meeting
• Consensus Building

Setting up the Meeting

Type of Meeting

Different types of meeting need to be chaired or led differently. Clarify what type of meeting it is that you are chairing. Is it for information gathering, information giving, negotiating, problem solving, decision making, or some other type of meeting?

Size of the meeting

Meeting tend to fall into two size categories:

• Small Groups, as around 3-7 people
  Small groups can be highly productive and focused. generally all participants are visible, there is a low drop out rate, and there is less possibility of cliques forming.
  However, they may have a narrow range of skills, have limited discussion, be a little too informal, and result in less reliable decisions. 

• Large Groups, say over 10 people.
  In such groups there are often a range of view points and this can lead to sound decisions. Because of the size, there is more group pressure on saboteurs to fall in line.
  However the size also means that it can be hard to achieve consensus, people may be intimidated into silence, and the chair may have exert visible control. Sometimes there can be a high drop out rate, and side meetings with the danger of cliques forming. The larger the group (say exceeding 15-20) then the more these difficulties are compounded.

Membership

• The decision about who is to attend depends on what you want to accomplish in the meeting. This may seem too obvious to state, but it's surprising how many meetings occur without the right people there. Try not to ensure that those who attend can contribute rather than being simply "representatives" of their sections.

• Rather than relying solely on your own judgment about who should come, ask others for their opinion as well.

• Think about the size of room and layout that would suit the meeting -  horseshoe, round table, cabaret, conference style, theatre

• Prepare the ground. Depending on the type of meeting, you may wish to prepare the ground more along the following lines:

  • Talk to each person to tell them about the meeting, it's overall purpose and why their attendance is important.

  • Follow-up with a meeting notice, including the purpose of the meeting, where it will be held and when, how long it will last, the list of participants and whom to contact if they have questions.

  • Send out a copy of the proposed agenda along with the meeting notice.

  • Have someone designated to record important actions, assignments and due dates during the meeting. This person should ensure that this information is distributed to all participants shortly after the meeting.

Developing the Aims & Agenda

• Think of what overall outcome you want from the meeting and what activities need to occur to reach that outcome. The agenda should be organized so that these activities are conducted during the meeting. In the agenda, state the overall outcome that you want from the meeting.
• For some meetings it is best to develop the agenda together with key participants, or simply solicit agenda items in advance.
• Design the agenda so that participants get involved early by having something for them to do right away and so they come on time.
• Next to each major topic, include the type of action needed, the type of output expected (decision, vote, action assigned to someone), and time estimates for addressing each topic
• Don't overly design meetings; be willing to adapt the meeting agenda if members are making progress in the planning process.
• Think about how you label an event, so people come in with the right frame of mind.

A good start to the meeting will make a great deal of difference. It is your chance to assert your authority and lay down the ground rules.

It is worth giving thought to how you are going to open the meeting. If nothing else, it will help you to steady your own nerves. Some things to take into account are:

• start on time
• state the purpose and objectives of meeting
• make appropriate introductions, check that everyone knows each other, try and put everyone at ease
• announce the timetable of the meeting (finish and break times)
• if leading a new group, give information on all participants attending, their expertise and relevance to the task.

Possible weaknesses of the Chair are their lack of ability to keep control of the meeting, or their tendency to be too domineering or autocratic.

You may need to exert more control at the beginning of a meeting, when a group is newly formed, or when the meeting is particularly large. Being over-controlling, however, will inhibit debate and may reduce participants’ sense of ownership of the tasks.

The trick is to strike a balance between control and participation:

• stick to the agenda and keep to time
• bring discussion back to the point by summarising and asking questions
• deal with emotional outbursts by referring to the task, whilst acknowledging the feeling being conveyed e.g., "I can see you feel very strongly about this point, but time is pressing upon us and we need to try and reach a conclusion"
• try to avoid leading with your opinion. Give your own opinions as a member e.g., "if I may leave the Chair for a moment..."
• control the talkative. If a speaker gets long-winded, watch for an opportunity to break in and ask someone else about their view

An effective meeting will have a well thought out agenda with clear items. The meeting leader needs to present each item positively, and must deal with them separately.

• refer to the agenda
• introduce the item briefly, so all present are clear about its nature and purpose
• remind participants about how much time is allocated
• vary your approach to introducing items, e.g., invite someone to open the discussion to the whole group.

One of the central elements of an effective meeting is the quality of participation and involvement of those present. The Chair plays a key role in encouraging and managing the contributions of participants.

Before looking at this more closely, give some thought to the range of feelings and attitudes that meeting attendees may have during a meeting. Write your thoughts down in the box below.

As the Chair of the meeting, you need to manage all the people and personalities involved. We shall be spending time during the workshop looking more closely at this. For now, here are some general pointers.

Summarising is a particularly useful strategy to adopt when leading meetings. It can be used:

Close the meeting by thanking everyone for their attendance and their contributions. If there is to be a further meeting, aim to set the date and venue before closing the meeting. This will save a lot of time later on if venues or meetings have to be changed due to attendees’ previous commitments.

After the meeting it is tempting to breath a sigh of relief and forget about it until the next scheduled meeting looms. However, there are several actions you need to take after the meeting has concluded.

The meeting is not an end in itself. An effective meeting can be measured by its results - the actions people take as a consequence of the meeting.

Consensus Building for Teams

One of the most important, yet poorly understood or applied, tools in a problem solving team is consensus. Consensus often is reduced to meaning "a vote," "what the most verbal agreed to," or some other dysfunctional process. But real consensus decisions can empower groups and produce superior solutions, definitions and results. Below are some guidelines.

No judgement may be incorporated into the group decision until it meets at least with the tacit approval of every member.

(This is not a ground rule of unanimity, where each person is in total agreement; rather, it represents a feeling that one can "live with" the judgement or is at least willing to give it an experimental trying out.)

Guidelines for Team Member:

When to Use a Consensus Process:

Any complex issue requiring maximum input and agreement. Examples could include Choosing a Team Problem to Work on; Defining Your Team’s Charter; Creating a Corrective Action Plan, etc

When Not to Use Consensus:

Since consensus building is usually time consuming, routine or non-complex issues can often be resolved by other means. They might include. Team Operating Guidelines; Lists of Problems and Barriers; and most other group decisions. Consensus is a powerful tool, but should not be overused!