Meeting facilitation skills are important in the business environment. People who are good at facilitating or leading meetings conduct very effective meetings. In well-facilitated meetings there is little waste of time and highly productive results. Therefore, understanding what it takes to have a great meeting is critical to business success. To help make your meeting successful, here are four things a meeting facilitator or leader must do to make the meeting truly effective.
1. Understand your role as a meeting facilitator. As the meeting facilitator, you are responsible for ensuring that an agenda is set and that meeting members agree on the meeting processes. As the meeting continues, you ensure that the agenda and processes are met, while suggesting an additional process of problem solving or brainstorming when necessary to unblock the group from achieving the purpose of the meeting. meeting.
2. Make sure you have a meeting agenda prepared in advance. Providing a proposed agenda (with deadlines for each topic) at the beginning of the meeting and obtaining the agreement of the group prevents the meeting from drifting off track. The agreed upon agenda can be used to reorient the group and avoid loss of control during the meeting. Although it may sometimes be better to change an agenda to cover urgent matters, this should be done at the beginning of the meeting with the agreement of everyone present before the meeting continues.
3. Always keep a record of your meeting and assign a recorder. TThe meeting record should contain all brainstorming, decision making, and other discussions in a way that is visible to all members during the meeting. Having a visible record using marker boards or flip charts often prevents members from repeating themselves to ensure they are heard. It also helps members refocus on the current topic if someone starts to deviate from the agreed topic. To help ensure that the records are captured, another person can be assigned the functions of the recorder. A recorder is not only responsible for compiling meeting minutes, but also publishing and distributing them in a timely manner to all meeting members for appropriate action.
4. Capture and assign action items to follow up on the meeting. During the meeting, have a visible location where all actions are listed as they arise. This way, if the facilitator or recorder omits the action during the discussion, one of the meeting members will likely recommend that you be added to the list. At the end of the meeting, make sure someone volunteers to complete an action or is assigned the action until all actions are given. Also, be sure to assign a deadline as to when actions need to be taken. Having a deadline and posting actions in minutes encourages people to do things to keep projects moving and not disappoint the group.
People who are good at facilitating or leading meetings not only run effective meetings, they help the organization by wasting little time and increasing group productivity. If a meeting facilitator or leader wants an effective meeting, the four things listed above should be helpful in achieving better meetings. This checklist will increase the chances of a successful meeting by helping the facilitator or leader improve their knowledge of the business of meeting.
NOTES: The four items listed in this article are summarized from the book “RA! RA! A Meeting Attendee’s Approach” by Shirley Fine Lee, copyright 2007. See also “Ten Mistakes Meeting Leaders Make” and some of the consequences of making those mistakes.