effective meetings

Effective Meetings

Usman NazirInstitute of Business Administration

Outline• Meetings Overview

• Preparing for Meetings

• Leading and Participating in Meetings

• Using Meeting Technologies

Activity

Plan out and conduct a meeting. Possible scenarios for the meeting are:

•You are the HR Director of Mehran Oils. Among other discussion points, you are to hold a meeting to discuss a suggestion given by an employee – ‘We should ask our employees to stop smoking or leave the company’.

•You are the Sales Director of Super Refrigerators. Sales report for last year shows 20% decline in sales revenues. Among other discussion points you are to hold a meeting to discuss how to improve sales.

•You are the Country Head of SCP Bank. You have called out a meeting to discuss whether the bank should invest in CSR activities or not?

Activity

• You are the CEO of Khalil Umbrellas. The projected returns on the core product of the company do not look good. You are to hold a meeting to discuss whether to sell the company or not?

• You are the registrar of ABI University. You are looking to devise code of conduct for the students. You are to hold a meeting to discuss how should students behave in class?

- Note: Feel free to make up the missing details where appropriate.

Activity

Meetings Overview

• Meetings are an integral part of an organization. It is usually the meetings where the most important decisions are made for a business.

• Meetings are expensive. According to Wall Street Journal an average:– CEO spends 17 hours per week on meetings. – Senior executive spends 23 hours per week on meetings – Middle manager spends 11 hours per week on meetings.

[Making Meetings Work, Julie-Ann Amos, How To Books Ltd]

• The managers researched said that only fifty-six percent of their meetings were productive and over 25 could have been replaced by a single phone call or a memo.

• When planning to carry out a meeting, ask this very important question – Is a meeting necessary?Why have a meeting? Can we achieve the same thing by issuing memo or phone calls?

Meetings Overview

• All meetings can generally be divided into two types i.e. planned/scheduled or unplanned/unscheduled

• It is important to make sure that the people attending the meeting feel that it is important for them to attend the meeting.

• Three most frequently reported problems with meetings are: getting off the subject, not having an agenda and running too long.

• The market trend in meetings is to increasingly use other forms of communication other than face to face meetings to save time.The most popular alternatives to face-to-face meetings are – video conferencing– teleconferencing – internet

[Meetings Made Easy, Frances Micale, CWL Publishing Enterprise]

Meetings Overview

Preparing for Meetings

• Decide on your purpose

• Select participants for the meeting

• Choose the time and the facility

• Set the agendaProductive agenda answers 3 key questions:- What do we need to do in this meeting to accomplish our goals?- What issues will be of greatest importance to all participants?- What information must be available to discuss these issues?


A good agenda can do half your work for you before the meeting even starts. An agenda can have many functions:

– it can give the specifics of the arrangement of the meeting– it can list the people attending the meeting– it lists issues and items to be raised– it gives order in which they will be dealt with– it can announce the responsibilities of the people attending the

meeting– it states the purpose of the meeting– it indicates the expected outcomes– it can place duration on each topic to discuss– it can list the finishing time of the meeting

[Making Meetings Work, Julie-Ann Amos, How To Books Ltd]


[The Perfect Meeting, David Sharman, Random House Business Books]


We can summarize the meeting preparation to-do list as such:

– Identify problem/need/expectation.

– Develop a meeting outcome.

– Develop the agenda.

– Send out announcements of meeting.

– Book room, refreshments, and audiovisuals.


Leading and Participating in Meetings

• At the beginning of the meeting:

– Welcome the participants, make necessary introductions, and check the status of action items from previous meetings.

– Clarify the meeting outcome

– Set role Expectations

– Contract the ground rules

– Present and describe the meeting agenda items


• Body of the meeting– Keep the meeting on track– Follow agreed-upon rules– Encourage participation– Participate actively– Take important notes

(Minutes Of the Meeting – MOM, may be used)

• End of the meeting– Conclude and summarize the progress against the outcome– verify the action items and praise the group for their effort

• After the meeting– Follow up on the progress of the action items– Write down things that may improve the meetings in the future


• Action Items example:

[Meeting Excellence, Glenn Parker & Robert Hoffman, Jossey-Bass]


Using Meeting Technologies

• Emails

• Instant Messaging

• Shared workspaces

• Virtual Meetings

Using Meeting Technologies

Short Quiz

• What questions should an effective agenda answer?

• A meeting should be democratic. Everyone present should be permitted to talk as much as he or she wants without interference from the leader. Discuss.

• The people attending the meeting – not the leader – should determine the agenda. Discuss.

Assignment

Setup a meeting to discuss a topic. Suggestions on possible topics are:- List of top three things to do to improve your MBA experience at IBA.- Top 5 things we can do to improve Pakistan.- Pros and Cons of the internet.

Thank you

effective meetings

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