Meetings September 24, 2004
When you feel you are spending so much of your time in
meetings and other such group activities, it does seem meaningless sometimes
because you feel where is the time to work. Actually, work gets enabled and some cases even
executed in meetings, and sessions, if you think of them with objectives like...
Objectives:
- Sharing
- Training
and Education
- Collaboration,
working in teams
- Consensus
building
- Generating,
sharing, and capturing thinking - workshops
- Etc…
Types:
- Operational
– planning, plans/status
- Requirements
review and definition
- Process
review and definition
- Goal
setting
- Work
product Peer Review
- Etc…
Roles that
participants play:
- Chairperson - Defines
meeting logistics, resolves indecision, votes
- Facilitator - Ensures
direction aligned with objectives, builds trust among participants
- Gatekeeper - Ensures
participation from all participants
- Information/Idea
provider - Shares own information, data, knowledge, ideas to
contribute
- Decision
maker - Has the authority and position to take decisions
- Decision
influencer - Helps change decisions, leader
- Learner - absorbs, assimilates, learns
- Coordinator - sends
out invites, minutes, status, books venue, informs participants,
refreshments, etc.
- Minuter - captures proceedings of the meeting/session
(in most meetings, people play multiple roles, it is good to
know them nevertheless)
If you can identify the type of meeting and objectives that
it is expected to meet, and know the roles different participants are going to
play, it helps in focusing the meeting so that it is not only effective but
also efficient and finishes on time, having met all its objectives…
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