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2015-03-24 05:55:08
Roger Schwarz
March 19, 2015
We ve all been in meetings where participants are unprepared, people veer
off-track, and the topics discussed are a waste of the team s time. These
problems and others like it stem from poor agenda design. An effective
agenda sets clear expectations for what needs to occur before and during a
meeting. It helps team members prepare, allocates time wisely, quickly gets
everyone on the same topic, and identifies when the discussion is complete. If
problems still occur during the meeting, a well-designed agenda increases the
team s ability to effectively and quickly address them.
Here are some tips for designing an effective agenda for your next meeting,
with a sample agenda and template below. You can use these tips whether a
meeting lasts an hour or three days and whether you re meeting with a group of
five or forty:
Seek input from team members. If you want your team to be engaged in meetings,
make sure the agenda includes items that reflect their needs. Ask team members
to suggest agenda items along with a reason why each item needs to be addressed
in a team setting. If you ultimately decide not to include an item, be
accountable explain your reasoning to the team member who suggested it.
Select topics that affect the entire team. Team meeting time is expensive and
difficult to schedule. It should mainly be used to discuss and make decisions
on issues that affect the whole team and need the whole team to solve them.
These are often ones in which individuals must coordinate their actions because
their parts of the organization are interdependent. They are also likely to be
issues for which people have different information and needs. Examples might
include: How do we best allocate shared resources? How do we reduce response
time? If the team isn t spending most of the meeting talking about
interdependent issues, members will disengage and ultimately not attend.
List agenda topics as questions the team needs to answer. Most agenda topics
are simply several words strung together to form a phrase, for example: office
space reallocation. This leaves meeting participants wondering, What about
office space reallocation? When you list a topic as a question (or questions)
to be answered, it instead reads like this: Under what conditions, if any,
should we reallocate office space?
A question enables team members to better prepare for the discussion and to
monitor whether their own and others comments are on track. During the
meeting, anyone who thinks a comment is off-track can say something like, I m
not seeing how your comment relates to the question we re trying to answer. Can
you help me understand the connection? Finally, the team knows that when the
question has been answered, the discussion is complete.
Note whether the purpose of the topic is to share information, seek input for a
decision, or make a decision. It s difficult for team members to participate
effectively if they don t know whether to simply listen, give their input, or
be part of the decision making process. If people think they are involved in
making a decision, but you simply want their input, everyone is likely to feel
frustrated by the end of the conversation. Updates are better distributed and
read prior to the meeting, using a brief part of the meeting to answer
participants questions. If the purpose is to make a decision, state the
decision-making rule. If you are the formal leader, at the beginning of the
agenda item you might say, If possible, I want us to make this decision by
consensus. That means that everyone can support and implement the decision
given their roles on the team. If we re not able to reach consensus after an
hour of discussion, I ll reserve the right to make the decision based on the
conversation we ve had. I ll tell you my decision and my reasoning for making
it.
Estimate a realistic amount of time for each topic. This serves two purposes.
First, it requires you to do the math to calculate how much time the team
will need for introducing the topic, answering questions, resolving different
points of view, generating potential solutions, and agreeing on the action
items that follow from discussion and decisions. Leaders typically
underestimate the amount of time needed. If there are ten people in your
meeting and you have allocated ten minutes to decide under what conditions, if
any, you will reallocate office space, you have probably underestimated the
time. By doing some simple math, you would realize that the team would have to
reach a decision immediately after each of the ten members has spoken for a
minute.
Second, the estimated time enables team members to either adapt their comments
to fit within the allotted timeframe or to suggest that more time may be
needed. The purpose of listing the time is not to stop discussion when the time
has elapsed; that simply contributes to poor decision making and frustration.
The purpose is to get better at allocating enough time for the team to
effectively and efficiently answer the questions before it.
Propose a process for addressing each agenda item. The process identifies the
steps through which the team will move together to complete the discussion or
make a decision. Agreeing on a process significantly increases meeting
effectiveness, yet leaders rarely do it. Unless the team has agreed on a
process, members will, in good faith, participate based on their own process.
You ve probably seen this in action: some team members are trying to define the
problem, other team members are wondering why the topic is on the agenda, and
still other members are already identifying and evaluating solutions.
The process for addressing an item should appear on the written agenda. When
you reach that item during the meeting, explain the process and seek agreement:
I suggest we use the following process. First, let s take about 10 minutes to
get all the relevant information on the table. Second, let s take another 10
minutes to identify and agree on any assumptions we need to make. Third, we ll
take another 10 minutes to identify and agree on the interests that should be
met for any solution. Finally, we ll use about 15 minutes to craft a solution
that ideally takes into account all the interests, and is consistent with our
relevant information and assumptions. Any suggestions for improving this
process?
Specify how members should prepare for the meeting. Distribute the agenda with
sufficient time before the meeting, so the team can read background materials
and prepare their initial thoughts for each agenda item ahead of time.
Identify who is responsible for leading each topic. Someone other than the
formal meeting leader is often responsible for leading the discussion of a
particular agenda item. This person may be providing context for the topic,
explaining data, or may have organizational responsibility for that area.
Identifying this person next to the agenda item ensures that anyone who is
responsible for leading part of the agenda knows it and prepares for it
before the meeting.
Make the first topic review and modify agenda as needed. Even if you and your
team have jointly developed the agenda before the meeting, take a minute to see
if anything needs to be changed due to late breaking events. I once had a
meeting scheduled with a senior leadership team. As we reviewed the agenda, I
asked if we needed to modify anything. The CEO stated that he had just told the
board of directors that he planned to resign and that we probably needed to
significantly change the agenda. Not all agenda modifications are this
dramatic, but by checking at the beginning of the meeting, you increase the
chance that the team will use its meeting time most effectively.
End the meeting with a plus/delta. If your team meets regularly, two questions
form a simple continuous improvement process: What did we do well? What do we
want to do differently for the next meeting? Investing five or ten minutes will
enable the team to improve performance, working relationships, and team member
satisfaction. Here are some questions to consider when identifying what the
team has done well and what it wants to do differently:
Was the agenda distributed in time for everyone to prepare?
How well did team members prepare for the meeting?
How well did we estimate the time needed for each agenda item?
How well did we allocate our time for decision making and discussion?
How well did everyone stay on-topic? How well did team members speak up when
they thought someone was off-topic?
How effective was the process for each agenda item?
To ensure that your team follows through, review the results of the plus/delta
at the beginning of the next meeting.
If you develop agendas using these tips, and the sample agenda and template
below, your team will have an easier time getting and staying focused in
meetings.
Roger Schwarz is an organizational psychologist, speaker, leadership team
consultant, and president and CEO of Roger Schwarz & Associates. He is the
author of Smart Leaders, Smarter Teams: How You and Your Team Get Unstuck to
Get Results. For more, visit www.schwarzassociates.com or find him on Twitter
@LeadSmarter.
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