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Meeting on a topic or on a topic. Organizational aspect of holding meetings at the enterprise

How often have you sat in meetings that, having exceeded the duration of 2 hours, tried to solve all the problems in the world at the same time? When people, red from stuffiness, losing self-control from fatigue, start trying to shout down each other in an attempt to find the right solution? When every meeting ends in nothing, and all the participants swear to themselves that they will never again gather for these meaningless meetings?

Original article: tvoyplan.com/2013/04/28/effective-meeting-rules

What makes a meeting effective?

If we apply the popular logic of calculating return on investment (ROI, return on investment) to evaluate the effectiveness of meetings, we get something like this:

Meeting efficiency = value of decisions made / (meeting time * number of participants * average participant salary)

Obviously, by increasing the value of the decisions made (numerator) and reducing the meeting time and number of participants, as well as trying to minimize the use of highly paid people's time (denominator), you can maximize the return on it. While trying to optimize each of these parameters, you will already achieve considerable success, there is an interrelationship between them and skillful balancing of them is a difficult task that not many leaders succeed in.

Therefore, a meeting is a rather expensive thing, which rightly earned itself fear and hatred among office workers. The same emotions extend to the organizers of these meetings, including you. If you want to earn the respect of your team, you must be able to lead effective meetings.

This article is about teaching you how to get the most out of your meetings with the least amount of time and emotional wastage of participants.

Preparing for the meeting

Is a meeting necessary?

“Meetings are a symptom of bad organization. The fewer meetings, the better." - Peter Drucker, The Effective Leader.

The ROI of a meeting is often less than a call, text, or instant messaging. A meeting is only needed on those rare occasions when other means of communication would be less effective. Typically, more than one of the following conditions must match:

Complexity. The topic being discussed is so complex that participants need to look at the visuals together so as not to fall out of the flow of the discussion. For example, discussing the architecture of database entities or the complex business process of reviewing a loan application.
Urgency. The topic under discussion is so urgent that the development of an action plan on this topic e-mail will take an unacceptably large amount of time.
Importance. The topic under discussion is so important that its importance overrides any possible time spent by the group members on the meeting.

In other cases, you can safely refuse to collect the meeting.

No need to call meetings for the wrong reason. If you are:

want to shift responsibility for the problem to the group,
looking for listeners for your ideas or
Do you want to strengthen your team?

then look for other ways to communicate.

Set a clear goal and agenda

Like any other endeavor, without a clear purpose, a meeting is doomed to failure.

The purpose of any meeting is a plan of action. Not to “discuss the possibilities”, not to “resolve the issue”, but to “instruct so-and-so to do so-and-so by such-and-such date”. Any other goal setting could result in the meeting having no impact.

Therefore, when scheduling a meeting, clearly list the participants the action plan for solving which problem or problems you want to receive and send them the resulting agenda. A written agenda will allow people to make sure that they do not waste time in pointless discussion, and the issues discussed will be relevant to their area of interest.

In case there is not enough time for the meeting, the issues on the agenda should be sorted in descending order of importance (then you will have time to discuss the most important) or in ascending order of complexity (then you will have time to close the maximum of questions).

Do not invite extra participants

Every person in the meeting will inevitably spend the general time speaking and asking questions, whether out of genuine interest in an issue or simply to justify their presence. Moreover, the likelihood that an additional person will know something that others do not know decreases with an increase in the number of participants. That is, in addition to the obvious increase in group time, an increase in the number of participants reduces the effectiveness of the discussion.

Does he have exceptional knowledge of the subject that other participants in the meeting do not have?
Does the topic under discussion affect his interests? Do not his interests coincide with the interests of any other participant?
Is this person ready for a constructive discussion?
Would it be sufficient to simply notify this person of the results of the meeting?

Holding a meeting

The organizer of the meeting, that is, you, is responsible for ensuring that its goals are achieved. You must:

follow all the discussion rules described below
interrupt those who violate them
summarize the group's decision
follow the agenda and determine when the group moves on to the next question

Here are the 7 rules for effective meetings:

One says... Don't let the participants interrupt each other. Not only is this a sign of disrespect, but most likely, at the moment of simultaneous speaking, the participants do not try to understand each other, which is not good for the meeting as a whole.
…and everyone else is listening. The key to effective discussion is for everyone in the group to follow what is being said in the group. Everyone should have the same "picture" of the issues under discussion. Once the group breaks up into several discussions, or someone starts to get distracted (for example, checking email on the phone or just "withdrawing"), further time will be lost until the group becomes one again. Everything that happened while someone was “absent” will have to be repeated for him, spending the time of everyone else on this.
Get to the point! Even though when tired people want to relax and talk about distracting topics, any such sidetracking wastes the time of everyone involved and moves you away from reaching a solution. Gently bring everyone back to the topic of discussion.
Fight the problem, not the people. In the heat of the discussion, participants can afford comments that others may take personally. Situations like these, if not nipped in the bud, will inevitably spoil the working atmosphere, create unnecessary tension, "disable" the affected members, waste time, and most likely prevent the group from achieving its goals. Immediately stop discussions that have gone "in the wrong direction."
Record everything you say. This can be done by you or by another member whom you designate as meeting secretary. Without fixation, the group will begin to forget the facts or conclusions that were made, and the effectiveness of the process will inevitably fall. In addition, notes help the group save time by allowing the speaker to simply point to one or another part of the notes, instead of explaining in detail what exactly they mean by what has already been said. Fixation should take place on a sheet of paper that is visible to the whole group, or on a board hanging on the wall.
Take breaks. Use the Pomodoro Technique (work in cycles with a 5-minute rest every 25 minutes of work). In my experience, meetings that last more than an hour and a half lose their effectiveness altogether due to the fatigue of the participants. It is better to interrupt such meetings by moving the continuation to another day.
If the group is no longer needed, disperse. As the problem is discussed, there are fewer and fewer complex issues that require general discussion. If you understand that the problem has broken down into several tasks that require individual execution, it makes no sense to spend the total time on a group discussion - the meeting must be completed. If the meeting is still too early to end, but there are already people whose knowledge will not be required in further discussion or whose interests will no longer be affected, let them go.

End of the meeting

At the end of the meeting, return to its goal - the development of an action plan (aka minutes of the meeting). This protocol must:

exist not in oral, but in written form
avoid different interpretations
be written in a language that will be understood even after two months
for each item contain a person responsible for execution and deadline

Send out (you or the secretary of the meeting) the protocol to all participants and those responsible - this is one more step towards the fact that everything said will be fulfilled.

During the meeting, the leader should convey to subordinates useful information and set clear goals for them. If everything is done correctly, labor efficiency will increase, otherwise the order of meetings should be reviewed.

How often do you hold meetings? How often do your employees get something useful from them? Do they understand the goals and objectives that you have set for them?

Does the efficiency of their work increase after planning meetings? Are you getting adequate feedback? If you answered “no” to at least one question, then you need to learn how to conduct effective meetings and planning meetings in order to waste a minimum of time on them and get the maximum benefit.

Effective meeting

With the help of meetings, communication is maintained between different departments and within the departments themselves, embodied decisions taken and increase the motivation to perform the work of individual employees. But only an effective meeting can solve these problems, so check yourself if your meetings meet the following criteria:

1. Format conformance. There are several types of meetings: meeting, briefing and operative. Each of these meetings has its own goals and accordingly lasts for different times. The operative is designed to solve the problem that has just arisen.

It usually lasts 5-10 minutes, it gathers people directly related to the problem. A planning meeting is usually held every day in the morning and lasts 25-30 minutes. During this time, the manager needs to set tasks for the day, get feedback on the results of the previous day and adjust plans if necessary.

The meeting aims to find a solution global problem, form a new offer for your market, develop new program motivation, etc.

Often meetings are divided into two stages - the first is held in the evening, it sets the goals of the meeting, outlines the problems that will be discussed. In the morning, the second stage begins, which can last up to two hours. A full meeting is pure creativity.

2. Specification of tasks. Each meeting should have clearly defined tasks that are announced to the participants in advance. Deviation from the agenda is highly undesirable.

3. Rigid regulations. A meeting must have a start and end time, whether or not all the invitees show up. Set clear time limits, eg end agenda item 1 in 25 minutes.

Set aside a certain time for each speaker - 5 minutes is enough, this will teach people to talk to the point. If you hear extraneous conversations or digression from the topic, stop these attempts, save your time.

4. Optimal composition. The meeting must be attended by the people it concerns. Just like that, sit and listen, do not invite anyone. Let everyone mind their own business.

5. Word to everyone. Each participant in the meeting should have the opportunity to express their opinion on a particular issue. Do not interfere and, moreover, do not interrupt the employee’s speech, even if it goes against your point of view. Do you need adequate feedback?

6. Record keeping. Agenda is not the only binding document meetings. The protocol, which records all the main points, the employees who spoke in order of priority, their opinion on a particular issue, and most importantly the results of the meeting, is a very useful paper.

Be sure to send out a newsletter to the meeting participants so that they always have it at hand for clarification of any points. So it will be more convenient to control the implementation of tasks and analyze the results. It is the “task - results - control - task” scheme that allows you to make the meetings the most efficient and concise.

7. Planned meeting. Each employee should know when he will be invited to the meeting room again. Surprise is a bad helper in organizing meetings, participants do not have time to prepare or do not come at all due to absence from the office.

If a problem arose suddenly, and you decided to call an operative to solve it, get ready for the answers “I don’t know,” “I need to check,” and “I will provide you with a report later.”

How to prepare and conduct an effective meeting?

To have an effective meeting, you must first prepare for it. Before starting the meeting, the leader should clarify the following questions for himself:

What goals does the meeting pursue and what tasks does the meeting solve?
what is the format of the meeting, what are the roles of the meeting participants. The roles of employees are distributed in advance: there must be a chairman and a secretary. Also define exact time start and end of the meeting.
what is the structure of the meeting. A typical structure looks like this:
greetings;
announcement of the goals of the meeting, the tasks set, the format of the meeting;
discussion and analysis of existing problems;
receiving feedback from performers;
analysis of the results and setting tasks for the near future;
summarizing.
what is the agenda of the meeting. Determine the exact time to work through each agenda item, allocate time for a break if the meeting involves a long time.
what documents are needed. Prepare all the necessary information that will be of interest to the participants, make a distribution of materials so that they are studied in advance.
whether a meeting is necessary. Before sending out invitations to a meeting, check if it is really necessary.

Answer these questions for yourself:

Do the tasks you set need to be addressed right now?
What should the participants take away from the meeting?
How should their work change after the meeting?
Is all necessary information collected? Will you get a “I don't know” answer to any question?
Is it possible to solve the problem in another way, without holding meetings?

Remember about simple rules conduct effective meetings, keep the audience's attention on main goal, keep the discussion positive or neutral and encourage people to express their own opinions.

Then you will get an increase in the efficiency of your employees and at the same time reduce the amount of time wasted.

Please tell me which preposition is correct to use in the sentence: “The meeting is scheduled for November / in November 2019.” Is it acceptable to use both prepositions?

That's right: scheduled for November.


	Question No. 301610

The article about the agreement of the predicate with the numeral does not cover the issue of agreement with the subject, expressed as % by 1, without dependent words. For example: - Check availability of tickets: 21% already booked. or - Check ticket availability: 21% already booked. Which agreement is correct/preferable in this case? Thanks a lot.

Answer help desk Russian language

The reference book by D. E. Rosenthal says the following.

With compound numbers ending in one, the predicate, as a rule, is put in the form singular, For example: Twenty - one delegates arrived for the meeting ; ... Thirty-one applications were submitted at once(Sholokhov). The plural form in this construction is possible according to the conditions of the context, for example: Twenty-one delegates met at a round table(the predicate met indicates a mutual action, which is expressed in the plural form); For everything paid 92 681 rubles(with the formal role of the subject, the countable turnover matters the circumstance of the measure in the passive construction); Twenty-one students showed up for the exam(colloquial variant, the influence of the tendency to harmonize in meaning); Twenty-one crates of dishes that were delivered to the base got there by mistake.(influence of a subordinate clause with an allied word which is in the plural form).

Thus, it is true: 21% already booked. Allowed: 21% already booked.


	Question #298486

Hello! Tell me how to organize a meeting with the director or with the director. Thank you.