team meeting process

AXA Business Services Pvt. Ltd.TEAM MEETING PROCESS

Was your last meeting successful?Were you an effective convenor or an active participant?

Were those who had a contribution to make, invited to participate?Did the meeting accomplish the stated purpose?

These questions and many more need to be asked and answered affirmatively if organizational meetings are to be successful.

Meetings are essential and can serve as an effective method of communication within an organization. But some managers have rightfully categorized the same as time-consuming, high-priced, and un-productive, but this need not be the case. Sometimes we expect too much from a meeting. When it fails to meet our expectations, we may be too quick to criticize.

The fundamental decision concerning meetings is not whether to hold them, but how to make them effective. Recent studies show that members of middle management spend 30 percent of their time in meetings. Unproductive meetings can result in substantial loss to an organization. On the other hand, a productive meeting becomes a tool for effective management communication, and serves as a vehicle for development of specific plans or the organization of specific tasks. In any case, successful meetings don't just happen; they occur as a result of careful planning, good leadership, and close attention to details before, during, and after the session.

Meetings are helpful means of achieving coordination. When there is a gathering of people with a mutual interest, the results may be as follows:

Encourage participation in the subject of concern; Integrate interests; Broaden perspectives and change attitudes; Improve decision-making; and Motivate and commit participants to courses of action.

The person who chairs the meeting must stimulate, guide, clarify, control, summarize, and evaluate the discussion, keeping in mind his responsibility to accomplish the meeting objectives. If he fails to perform his role effectively, the meeting may turn into meaningless discussions of irrelevant subjects, a series of pointless power plays, even boring monologues and of course! Valuable time.

Here is a re-energised two-way team meeting process across the business, which will ultimately help us to contribute towards business goals.

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THE NEW TEAM MEETING PROCESS

It is recommended that all teams across the business have regular team meetings. It is recommended these are held weekly, although this may not be possible in some areas and in these instances frequency should be agreed with the appropriate Department / Functional head.

The Agenda for this team meeting may consist of the following elements. Please see the attached Pulse agenda template, which can assist in conducting meetings, and capturing the summary in an easy manner. The following is the split suggested for allotting time spent during team meetings

TEAM 70% of the meeting may be spent on Team issues and topics, which can be divided in to the following categories: Performance, Progress, People, and Planning. The content / agenda items for this section will come from the manager/team leader and team members. Click here to view a sample of the Operations Team Meeting.

BUSINESS AREA 20% of the meeting may be spent on Business Area issues and topics. The content/agenda items for this section will come from the points briefed and discussed at the managers/team leaders Pulse meeting (i.e. the meeting they have attended with their peers led by their manager). This can be cascaded from meetings that managers have with their Functional Heads and Functional Heads may use this forum to communicate issues that are discussed in the Senior Management meetings

COMPANY 10% of the meeting may be spent on Company issues and topics. The content/agenda items for this section may come from the Internal Communications or through inputs from customers or other fora

POINTS TO FEED BACK ‘UP’ THE LINE Each manager / team leader may feed in to their Pulse meeting (i.e. the meeting they attend with their peers conducted by their manager / Functional Heads or other Supervisors) any appropriate comments, questions etc from their teams and have it clarified in their next meeting with their peers and supervisor.

IS THE MEETING EFFECTIVE? A short review on the effectiveness of the team meeting should happen at each Pulse. Ask the questions: Stop what? Keep what? Change what? Can we make the meeting more fun/interactive/ engaging?

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Effective Team Meetings‘Are we talking your language?’

The revitalised Internal Communications process is built around supporting the face-to-face two way team meeting. Nothing gets people interested & involved like face-to-face.

Effective regular two-way team meeting:The Agenda template will have three main sections:1. Team – 70% (divided into four sections; performance, progress, planning & people)2. Business Area = 20% - local business area / department news3. Company = 10%

Ideas for effective team meetings Plan

Establish Objectives Set clear agenda items Arrange logistics Define roles & responsibilities Invite & brief key contributors Identify & overcome barriers

Meeting Do’s and Don’ts

Do Headline ideas / key points Paraphrase or repeat the sentence to ensure better

understanding of the point that is being made / or to confirm what has been said

Be positive and listen actively Establish and observe timings Stay focused on the agenda Build on others ideas

Don’t Have a hidden agenda Have two meetings going on at once Ramble, lob ‘grenades’ or launch ‘missiles’ Look for ‘holes’ Violate timings Reschedule the team meeting unless there is a valid

reason

Do Follow the agenda Record group thinking Practice good meeting behaviours Encourage participation Identify next steps

Review Evaluate effectiveness of meeting Circulate team meeting summary Follow-up on next steps Incorporate feedback Start planning the next team meeting

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Click on the above topics for more information


“Nice to see you”

If you're experiencing a cold response in your team meetings e.g. glazed looks; folded arms; blank response when asked a question, it's very probable that you haven't done a good warm up before the 'show begins'.

What can you do about it? Have an exceptionally good warm up exercise for when the team meeting begins

ORBegin the warm up before it starts. Here are some ideas for doing that. All produced by Team Managers in Operations.

Format Daily, on-site 5 min huddles to discuss

yesterday's progress; to day's focus; who needs

Pre-meeting work Start thinking about "Your new ideas for...”

before meeting starts Generally give 'em preparation/task to do

before the meeting -get them to do it in group Joking and social chitchat on the way to the

room

Roles Delegate agenda items and roles -do NOT do

it all yourself. It's boring listening to the same voice and aren't you supposed to be a 'team'?

Guest! Team member to lead meeting Arrange some 'plants' before you go in Generally have guests e.g. someone from

other departments; Sales etc

Location Stay on their feet for the 'briefing' bits or

quick “scrum-downs” Location: e.g. pub 'Intimate' huddles -avoid facing each other

around a table where possible. Bad impact on dynamics

Room set-up. Use a 'u' Breakfast meeting Time it right – when are they lively or not

worrying frantically about work?

Fun Adding competition works - give them a

topic, put them into teams and get them to come help etc with 3 ideas for improvement to share in the meeting

Mix people up from their buddies and other tribe members for this

Game show format for covering items is easy and fun: Kaun Banega Karodpathi etc.

Best performers (Light-hearted!) Jokes in-between agenda items Cakes!

It's their meeting too Collate their agenda items to cover 12 possible agenda items -choose 6

Team meeting disciplines Make sure meeting well prepared: time,

place etc Set a proper agenda and stick to it Create your own team meeting ground rules

and roles e.g. no sad songs; no folded arms; be constructive

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Summary

Meetings are an essential management tool. Meetings can improve communications, promote coordination, develop people, and help to get a job done.

The value of an effective meeting may be summed up as follows:

It serves as the cornerstone for successful team building and progress within an organization.

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PULSE AGENDA (Click to go back to the previous screen viewed)

Date: Time: Venue:

Team items: 70% of your team meeting This section should be spent on TEAM Issues – performance, progress, people & planning

Performance

KPIs, goals, objectives. Money-saving ideas. What’s working, what’s not? What it’s like at the moment.

Progress

Progress reports. Action points from last meeting.

People

Team items for the agenda. Customers. Feedback. Recognition.Who’s in, who’s out?Can we make life more fun?

Planning

Upcoming changes/projects/initiatives. Brainstorming & problem solving.Details of next meeting.

Business Area items: 20% of your team meeting Points from the Pulse with your line manager: Information from other sources.

Company items: 10% of your team meeting Company-wide items.

Points to feed back "up" the line:

2 min review on improving the meeting: stop what? Keep what? Change what? Can we make the meeting more fun/interactive/engaging?

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Operations' Perfect 'Pulse' Team Meeting (Click to go back to the previous screen viewed)

You can't have all of these in 1 team meeting. Decide which should be covered at every team meeting and those to be done on an ad hoc / monthly basis.

Performance

Set daily/Week/y interim targets to focus minds

Versus Productivity; Quality; Utilisation; Other key measures

Expectations/targets Emphasise desired behaviours What worked well & didn't -learning points Other teams' performance; do they need

help?

Progress

Process improvements or suggestions Progress against current process specific

changes Action points out of previous meetings Local issues -hygiene factors e.g. desks,

Chairs, coffee machines, lunch Practice/process changes –headlines Filling vacancies Project: success / help needed Other updates

People

Star of the week Celebrating their achievements Performance management: examples of

superior v/s expected performance Behaviours -making it real Their nominated topic Socials e.g. Town Hall, Theme party etc

party; next booze up Getting ideas for delivering targets, good

planning, given topics etc -acknowledge that you don't have all answers

Training needs Feedback from customers etc Prizes and team competitions to liven it up

e.g. around new ideas for hot topic

Planning

Plan the week: workshops; training; absences; peaks; troughs etc

Work spread/redistribution required Brainstorm new ideas/solutions: topic of the

‘week’ Training coming / nominations to training Bigger need outside your dept Future goals Legislative/technological stuff Training new recruits 3-6-12 month planning; peaks Past planning learning Leave planning External factors that might affect production

and or performance

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MEETING (Click to go back to the previous screen viewed)

NEXT STEPS

Present:

Actions Required Who By When

EXAMPLES OF ACTIONS

Arrange regular team meetings for the rest of 2001. Book in everyone’s dairy and organise rooms, etc.Allocate each other team member a team meeting to facilitate and advise them accordingly

EXAMPLES OF DICISION MADE

All team members will facilitate one team meeting between now and the end of the year

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PLAN (Click to go back to the previous screen viewed)

OBJECTIVES Why is the meeting being held?What will it accomplish?

Meetings are usually held for one or more of the following reasons: · To disseminate new information or provide feedback; · To receive a report; · To coordinate efforts of a specific nature and obtain group support; · To win acceptance for a new idea, plan, or system; · To reconcile a conflict; · To negotiate an agreement; · To motivate members of a group; · To initiate creative thinking within a group; and · To solve a current problem within a group.

The meeting plan should not be too broad or the meeting may be doomed from the beginning.Therefore, a wise convenor identifies realistic objectives for the meeting and is prepared to meet them.

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AGENDA Is an agenda necessary? How long will it require carrying out the agenda? Would the meeting run smoothly and be just as successful without it?

The agenda Should crystallize the intended meeting objective(s) Should establish the time available to accomplish them.

Now how much time is left? How much time will your top priority items take? Are they controversial? Will more time be needed? Does someone need to brief the group on background, or the latest intelligence

information? How much time will they need?

Provides the framework to keep the meeting on target whether it is in writing or stated verbally by the Team Meeting Leader

Permits the Team Meeting Leader to devote his attention to managing the interplay of the participants.

The meeting should focus on the objective(s) and also on reaching the objective(s) in a pre-established, finite time schedule.

Meetings that exceed established time limits usually are not constructive because opinions begin to replace facts. Such meetings are apt to go astray and may even disintegrate into personal contests or power plays between participants.

Tips Begin with a discussion of topics of major concern to participants; then, if necessary, discuss

related topics of lesser importance. A meeting of this type requires fewer attendees and generates better participation in the discussion.

Schedule fewer agenda items when the topics cannot be related. It is difficult for most participants to come to a meeting completely prepared on a wide variety of topics. The more concise the agenda, the better.

Establish a time limit and priority for each agenda item. Consider whether the topic to be discussed is familiar, new, controversial, or complex.

Don't have the meeting run too long. One hour is usually the norm. When the meeting is scheduled on a quarterly, semi-annual, or annual basis, it may run longer to accomplish the objectives. Schedule a "break" when the meeting is expected to take over 2 hours.

Submit the agenda to the participants, with the background data, as early as possible. This will give each participant more time to prepare for the meeting.

The convenor of the meeting should be sure the meeting is needed. If the need disappears, he should cancel the meeting.

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LOGISTICS When should the meeting be held? Where should it be held?

There are several necessary considerations regarding time and physical arrangements for the meeting. Among the more important are:

The convenience of the place. The size of the room. It should not be too large or too small. If the right-size room is not

available, it is better to select a small room, rather than too large a room. A small room presents a friendlier atmosphere than a large, sparsely filled one.

The seating arrangement and the availability of extra seats if needed. The lighting, air-conditioning, and ventilation. Any visual aids required and their proper use. Availability of extra paper and pencils, etc.

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ROLES & RESPONSIBILITIES When is the meeting?Who is conducting the meeting?Who would organise for the arrangementsWho would organize for informing participants etc?

It is very important to define roles & responsibility to Arrange / facilitate team meetings Begin and end the meeting on time. Make sure participants arrive on time, etc.

TIPS:Two techniques proved effective in curing cases of chronic tardiness are

(1) To ignore latecomers; and (2) To make no attempt to bring latecomers up to date.

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INVITE KEY CONTRIBUTORS How many persons should be invited to the meeting? What is the purpose of inviting each person?

The attendees should be viewed as management resources - each able to contribute to the meeting through knowledge or experience or both. It is wise to include some of the persons in the organization to whom action items may be given after the meeting. This tends to encourage better support for the topics to be discussed. Attendance by disinterested persons tends to increase non-relevant discussion and impede the meeting. Thus, the convenor of the meeting should invite as many people as necessary, but no more.

The size of the meeting tends to affect the way it functions. For example, if attendance exceeds seven, there is a tendency for communication to become more centralized, and participants have less opportunity to communicate directly with one another. As the number of people invited increases, the ability of the convenor to predict the interaction that will take place becomes more difficult.

Proponents of the "small group" theory consider seven to be the maximum number of participants for a productive meeting. However, if a problem-solving type of meeting is to be held, some authorities claim that up to 12 participants can be accommodated effectively. If the number of participants exceeds 18, the convenor may find it almost impossible to accomplish the meeting objectives.

On the other hand, in a meeting involving only three participants, there may be a tendency for two of them to form a combination against the third participant. This could be disastrous so managers should guard against organizing too small a meeting.

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IDENTIFY & OVERCOME BARRIERS Why should the convenor be concerned about blocks? How can these affect the success of a meeting?

One of the initial steps to ensure a successful meeting is to give adequate consideration to protocol. Protocol might be defined as the application of common-sense courtesy.

Some steps the convenor might take to avoid protocol problems are: Notify participants well in advance of the meeting date, and provide them with an agenda

and background data. Notify supervisors when subordinates with expertise are needed. Make sure that arrangements with resource persons outside the organization are completed

before the meeting. Introduce resource persons and newcomers at the start of the meeting. Also, make their

affiliations and expertise known to the other attendees. List participants in alphabetical order in the meeting announcement and minutes, unless

someone present far outranks the others. In that case, list this person first. Express gratitude to those from within the group as well as to those outside the group for

significant contributions to the success of the meeting. Advise those invited to attend the meeting of postponement or cancellation as far in advance

as possible.

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DO (Click to go back to the previous screen viewed)

Running the Meeting The convenor may make the meeting as relaxed and informal as possible. He may resort to lightening the mood resort when attendance is large or debate becomes heated. The convenor should "manage" the meeting, speak when appropriate, encourage discussion, seek a consensus, and summarize. Under no circumstances should the convenor be unprepared, "hog" the discussion, play the comic, chastise a participant, or let the meeting run by itself.

The meeting will not get off the ground unless the participants know where they are going. Therefore, it is important that the convenor makes a concerted effort to ensure that:

Every participant has a clear understanding of the meeting objectives at the start of the meeting. A consensus about the objectives at the beginning will vastly improve chances for success of the meeting.

The objective(s) remain valid throughout the meeting. If not, they should be revised.

Do you play your role well at a meeting? For a meeting to succeed the convenor must display strong leadership and he and the participants must be willing and determined to:

FOLLOW THE AGENDA

Keep the group and speakers focused on the agenda item & task on hand Always keep your “eye on the prize” of the big picture objective the group is trying to

accomplish Each agenda item has a time allocation. The time limit for the meeting should be announced

when the agenda is published, or at the beginning of the meeting. Halt & redirect the meeting if it is going out of track.

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RECORD GROUP THINKING Make sure that people's comments and ideas are properly recorded using appropriate

resource. This can be done by the Team Meeting Leader or by a participant Record all ideas without evaluation, provided these thoughts and ideas support the

objective(s) of the meeting After recording, eliminate duplication & other ideas if everyone agrees. Do away with non-relevant issues, perceptions, or personal conjectures as soon as they arise

and before they can become disruptive

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PRACTICE GOOD MEETING BEHAVIOURS One of the good meeting behaviours is to set ground rules before we proceed with the team meeting. The convenor should receive the participants’ approval of the meeting ground rules before proceeding: how the meeting will be run, what rights and responsibilities do the participants and convenor have? Determining this at the beginning of the meeting prevents a great deal of later debate at what is often just the wrong time. A few examples are Don’t interrupt while the other person is speaking Switch off your mobile Be concise and don’t repeat what others have said Listen wisely and carefully to the other participants Don’t attend telephone calls Stay focused on the agenda; don't wander or bring in extraneous information Be polite, positive & respect others point of views Stop checking e-mails, etc.

DO

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(Click to go back to the previous screen viewed)

ENCOURAGE PARTICIPATION Give the other participants an opportunity to present their ideas, opinions, and

recommendations without interrupting or degrading their comments. Accept new or fresh thoughts and ideas expressed by other participants, provided these

thoughts and ideas support the objective(s) of the meeting. The more important the decision, the more important it is to have all pertinent information

(facts, feelings and opinions) on the table. Call on people who haven't spoken as much to give them an opportunity to address the issue. Notice who is confused, agitated or unhappy with the debate, and call on them to speak to the issue

Assist in the process of arriving at a consensus by combining ideas with those of others, reconciling them through compromise, or coordinating them with other ideas.

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IDENTIFY NEXT STEPS Identify all task assignments & responsible person / teams to make sure the assignments are

converted into actions Try to ensure that the next agenda-making team is identified so everyone knows whom to

contact to offer input or committee items for the agenda.

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REVIEW (Click to go back to the previous screen viewed)

The most important part of the meeting is its ending.

After all information has been presented, all decisions made, all problem solutions found or all conclusions reached, the convenor must summarize and solidify the results.

EVALUATING EFFECTIVENESS OF THE MEETING

The evaluation of the meeting serves several purposes: to provide a quick opportunity for people to express their feelings about the proceedings, and thus to provide a sense of closure to the experience. It also helps to improve meetings in the future. A simple and standard evaluation technique is to ask-

What is not good in the current meeting to the stop the process from continuing? What is good in the current meeting process to continue? What needs to be included in future team meeting?

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CIRCULATE TEAM MEETING SUMMARY

Summarize the accomplishments of the meeting. Document all decisions. Minutes or notes of meetings are the group's memory, and every

effort should be made to keep them accurate and up to date. Circulate the minutes of meeting to all participants.

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FOLLOW-UP ON NEXT STEPS

To translate decisions reached in a meeting into actions, the convenor must conduct the necessary follow-up action. A strategy used by successful convenor is to: Plan the follow-up procedure before the meeting – ensure to have an owner and a clear

deliverable Adjust the procedure during the meeting; and Consolidate the procedure after the meeting.

When the convenor follows up on meeting decisions, he demonstrates that meetings can accomplish something. This encourages future participation.

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INCORPORATE FEEDBACK

Share feedback with each other if appropriate Implement suggestions given by participants to improve the team meeting process Evaluate the suggestion in the next meeting

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START PLANNING THE NEXT TEAM MEETING

Begin to create the next meeting agenda Make sure that the next meeting is scheduled. It is much easier to schedule the next meeting when

everyone is present. Allow time for it on the agenda, and insist that people consider it. Set the time and place of the next meeting

Click here for a sample format

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team meeting process

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