Leading a meeting

Leading a meeting is arguably the
most demanding aspect of leadership: one feels, rightly, in the spotlight;
everyone is waiting for a 'lead' and one is so conscious of the implications of
a false step, a wrong note; and one is fully aware that the general expectation
of meetings is that they are unproductive – worse, one is all too aware of all
the unproductive meetings one has been to during one's career. Why should this
one – the one YOU are leading – be any different?

 

The first question that must be
asked is: do we need this meeting? The Year Planner can easily become a routine
set in amber – plenty of scheduled meetings, but meetings whose usefulness is
only to ensure certain hours are clocked up and the appearance of ‘doing’ is
projected.

 

Successful meetings are those where
there is a common purpose, where the focus is on the agenda items, and where
individuals are activated – they go out and do something as a result. That
said, it is important to realize the different functions a meeting can fulfill:

 

1. inform – to impart knowledge, information

2. originate – to generate ideas and even enthusiasm

3. allocate – to distribute responsibilities so that action
can occur

4. legislate or change constitution – to fulfill legal
requirements – e.g. AGMs

 

This leads to the observation that
it is very important to be clear about the purpose(s) of a meeting, and the
balance within it. Is it a good idea for a 90 minute meeting to be solely
concerned with imparting information? It would need to be particularly exciting
information to hold attention for that long.

 

At the same time it is a good idea
to remember not to mix two highly incompatible types of origination: the
strategic and the operational. By this we mean, meetings are frequently bogged
down when strategic discussion (and generation of ideas), say, of  policy, principles and values stray into the
operational area of 'how Operator X in Department Y does Z'. Dealing with fine
levels of operational detail defeats strategic planning, and invites endless
parades of anecdote. Thus, keep strategic discussions for one meeting, and
operational considerations for another: in other words, deal with the WHAT, and
then turn to the HOW.