Kitabı oku: «Meetings», sayfa 2

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1.5
Know the different roles

It is important to know the different roles that need to be fulfilled to make sure that a meeting runs smoothly.

The key roles in a meeting are:

▪ The chair, who works with other colleagues to help prepare the agenda, welcomes newcomers, builds good relationships with participants, keeps the meeting on track and reviews progress, stimulates discussion, summarizes and then makes decisions. This role is important and we devote a whole section to this: see here.

▪ The coordinator/secretary, who plans the venue and time, invites the relevant participants, agrees the agenda with the chair, sends out the agenda and any papers and reports before the meeting, prepares the room for the meeting and makes arrangements for refreshments, etc.

▪ The minute-taker, who will work with the chair to ensure that a full statement of what is agreed at the meeting is recorded. The minute-taker will not write down every word, just significant matters, and will write up the minutes as soon as possible after the meeting, check with the chair that they accurately reflect the content of the meeting and send out the minutes as soon as possible after the meeting. Again this role is crucial and we devote a whole section to this: see here.

▪ Every participant has a role to play in the meeting by preparing themselves and reading the material in advance of the meeting and listening well and responding positively. If you leave a meeting thinking that it was a waste of time, then you are partly responsible: each person has a role to play.

When you are next in a meeting in which you do not feel involved, think of what you can do positively to move the meeting on … and do it.

Whatever your role – chair, coordinator/secretary, minute-taker or participant – each person has an important role to play to make sure that the meeting is successful.

How many meetings have you been to where things have gone wrong? Has a room where you’d planned to hold the meeting been double-booked? Have you ever arrived at a venue and no one is expecting you? Have you ever arrived at the wrong time? Or if you are in the meeting, and the seating is poorly laid out, the relevant people are not present; there is no agenda, and papers and reports have not been circulated before the meeting … Unfortunately, the list could go on and on. In this chapter we consider how to prepare well for meetings to make sure that they are successful and effective.

2.1
Make the practical arrangements

Preparation for a meeting is vital. What is the best time of day to hold it? For example, if you hold the meeting just before lunch then colleagues will want to finish punctually. If you hold it just after lunch they may be sleepy. Think what is the best time.

You also need to consider the venue:

▪ If you are holding a conference, will you need several rooms, e.g. one formal room to conduct the official business and a separate room for refreshments? Will you need rooms for breakouts, small discussion groups? Book the rooms you need as soon as possible.

▪ If you’re considering an external venue, e.g. a hotel, then choose one that is easily accessible to most of your participants. Arrange an appointment with the on-site conference manager to discuss your requirements and their facilities and prices. If the venue is away from your offices, then check car parking and access to public transport.

▪ If you are having an appraisal or are discussing a sensitive matter, then consider meeting at a neutral venue. Try to arrange the seating so that you sit at right angles to the person you are speaking to. Further, the chair you are sitting on should be at the same level as the person you are speaking to.

Also list the basics:

▪ How many participants are attending.

▪ How you want the seating to be laid out in the room. Examples: horseshoe (U-shaped) seating, if you want all participants to have good eye contact with one another; boardroom-style seating where participants sit around a long table; conference- or theatre-style seating in which speakers sit in a row in front of the audience; cabaret/restaurant-style seating for more informal occasions.

▪ Whether refreshments are needed and if so when and what; don’t forget special dietary requirements.

▪ The lighting and air-conditioning/heating of the room.

▪ Wi-Fi availability (e.g. password for access to the Internet).

▪ Other equipment that you will require.

▪ Facilities for those hard of hearing and/or with special access requirements.

▪ Accessibility to toilets.

case study Jane and Kate needed some quiet time to think through their strategy for a forthcoming project so they booked room A3 in their offices from 9.30 a.m. Unfortunately, they had only booked that room for an hour, so at 10.30 a.m., just as they were making good progress, some other colleagues interrupted them saying they had booked the room from 10.30 a.m. The lesson: check your arrangements.

These lists may seem unimportant but you only have to forget one detail to realize that working through a check list is essential.

2.2
Invite the relevant people

Have you ever been at a meeting where you all look at each other and realize that the person who is most needed at the meeting isn’t present? You need to take care over inviting the relevant participants to attend the meeting.

To invite participants:

▪ Check their availability on your computer system or contact them by phone or email to see if they’re available. If the meeting is a regular one, for example of a subcommittee, then there will be little choice over who to invite. However, if the meeting is taking place only on that occasion, then you need to take certain steps. Begin by checking that the most important person/people can attend. Confirm their availability in an email so there is no doubt later. If you want people to attend only the part of a meeting that is relevant to them, then make that clear.

▪ Invite those participants who need to attend. Some people suggest that you should invite many people on the basis of not wanting to offend those who are not invited. However, if you have too many participants, then the discussion is likely to last a long time and it will be difficult to reach decisions. (On the other hand, if you invite too few people, then those who are present may complain that other people’s interests are not being heard and so consider that the meeting lacks authority.)

▪ If you are in doubt about who to invite, then check who was present at similar meetings in the past and/or discuss the choice with the chairs of other meetings to make sure you do not exclude anyone essential.

▪ It is good to have a mix of people, i.e. you do not want all the participants to agree with one another. Disagreements can sometimes be a healthy way to help refine the road ahead.

▪ Send an email confirming the following:

▪ The date and time of the meeting (start time and likely finish time) and the venue. You may want to invite them to come a few minutes before the meeting if refreshments are available.

▪ The subject of the meeting and any agenda and papers to be read (these could be sent at a later date but should still be sent well before the meeting). If the person is expected to lead discussion on a particular point, then confirm that, too. If they want to use a PowerPoint presentation, then ask them to bring it on their own laptop and also on a memory stick (saved in an earlier version of PowerPoint in case their laptop fails and you need to use another one).

▪ Directions to the venue, with links to maps or notes on car parking or access by public transport.

▪ A request to let you know of any special requirements.

▪ Your contact details, including on the day, e.g. if their train is late they can still contact you on your mobile and not be put through to an office voicemail.

▪ If relevant, guidelines on dress code.

Ask the people you invite to confirm they can attend by a certain date, e.g. so that you can finalize numbers for catering purposes.

2.3
Plan an agenda

The agenda is the list of items to be discussed at the meeting. It should be circulated to those attending the meeting well in advance, together with any relevant papers or reports to be discussed during the meeting.

You should include the following in the agenda:

▪ The name of the committee, etc., of the company or organization.

▪ The date and time of the meeting and the venue.

▪ A list of the members who will attend the meeting. My preference is to list these in the following order to show the roles of the individuals: Ray Smith (chair), then every other individual with their job title listed either in terms of seniority (the highest/most important coming first) or in alphabetical order of their family name. The name of the person taking the minutes should also be given.

▪ Apologies (this means any individuals who should be present at the meeting but who cannot attend will have their apologies noted).

▪ Regular items such as:

▪ Minutes of the previous meeting held on [insert date]. This is the opportunity for the minutes of the previous meeting to be approved and signed as a correct record.

▪ Matters arising. These are matters that have arisen from the previous minutes but are not listed on the present agenda.

▪ Financial reports and other progress reports.

▪ New items to be discussed at the meeting. Here, it is useful for the most important items to be discussed as soon as possible, rather than being left to the end.

▪ Don’t try to fit too many items of significant new business into the meeting.

▪ The final item on the agenda should ideally be positive, to avoid participants leaving the meeting in a negative mood.

Two items often come at the end of the agenda:

▪ AOB (any other business). This is the opportunity for individuals at the meeting to raise other items to discuss. However, participants should ideally not raise significant items without informing the chair before the meeting.

▪ DONM (date of next meeting). To arrange the date of the next meeting of the committee, group, etc.

Agendas also sometimes include the following:

▪ the name of the individual (or their initials) who will lead the discussion of a particular point;

▪ the length of time that a particular point is planned to take.

Send out the agenda with a covering note well in advance of the meeting, to give participants enough time to prepare for it.

2.4
Prepare for a meeting

Before you go to your meeting, it is essential that you prepare for it.

I begin my preparation for an important meeting two days before the meeting itself. I do this for two reasons:

▪ The start of my preparation might be delayed. If I begin my preparation only the day before the meeting and am delayed, then I will have no time to prepare for the meeting.

▪ After I’ve completed my main preparation I often find that new thoughts occur to me. By allowing extra time before the meeting, I give my subconscious mind the opportunity to raise thoughts.

Here are four steps in your preparation for a meeting:

Read through the papers circulated in advance and consider what your thoughts are on the issues to be discussed. Write down your thoughts on the agenda or on a separate sheet of paper. Don’t think that you will remember the points in your mind; you may remember them only for a few seconds or minutes but not for a day or two.

Take time to arrange your papers in order of the items to be discussed at the meeting. If there are several sheets of paper on many different issues, you could collect the papers together for each different point and clearly put the number of the point on the agenda on the first sheet. I sometimes also use coloured sheets of paper to separate the various points. All these methods are ways of saving time during the meeting itself. If some matters are repeated under different points, then you could even make additional photocopies for yourself so that all the information is readily accessible during the meeting.

“To fail to prepare is to prepare to fail”

Benjamin Franklin

3	If you are working electronically, then make sure that all the documents are readily available to you. During the meeting other participants will not have time to wait for you to open several documents on your laptop.

4	Check the time and venue and make sure you allow sufficient time to reach the venue.

In your preparation, read through the papers circulated in advance, think about the issues and write down your thoughts.

2.5
Prepare for negotiations

Negotiation is one aspect of a meeting that you need to pay special attention to in preparation.

Here are some steps you need to undertake in your preparation:

▪ Know the position of the other side. You may not know this in detail but you should discover as much as you can about them. What is the company’s background? Are they strong or weak? What are their aims? Where are they positioned in the industry? What is important to them? What dealings have you had with them in the past? Do they really need your product/service?

▪ Note also that the person you are dealing with in the negotiations may not be the person in the company or organization who has the authority to make the final decision.

▪ Know your own position.

▪ Do you really believe in the product/service you are offering? Is it unique or ‘me too’?

▪ Which factors are negotiable and which non-negotiable?

▪ What precisely are you offering?

▪ What are the highest and lowest points you are willing to accept? For example, if you are delivering books you might be willing to negotiate on the schedule but not on the price you want to sell the books for.

▪ Work out in advance the range that you are willing to discuss; for example, if you’re negotiating price then the best price might be x and the worst y.

▪ Know what you want to achieve. On which points is there likely to be agreement? And on which is there likely to be disagreement?

▪ Think about possible objections the other side might raise to your proposal and how you will respond to each of them.

▪ Work out in advance the benefits and advantages your product/service will bring them.

▪ What are the range of options that you are willing to accept, e.g. highest/lowest price, earliest/latest delivery times?

▪ Work out the financial terms you would ideally like to agree.

▪ Consider what alternatives you can offer if the other side refuses to accept what you offer.

▪ Work out the process you are going to adopt:

▪ What will be your opening offer?

▪ At what point will you be willing to make a concession?

▪ How many points are you willing to concede?

▪ Negotiating as a team. If you’re working as a team, agree among yourselves what you will offer and the points you will and will not compromise on.

If the other side is well prepared and you’re not, then they are sure to win.