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Running Meetings Well |
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One of the tasks that engineers and computer technicians will do often in their professional lives is sit in or run meetings.This lesson shows them that they don't have to suffer through badly run meetings and that they can learn how to run them well. In the finals, students sometimes say that they've practiced the new techniques in their own club or association meetings and found that the techniques work really well. The lesson depends on access to a Video Arts video, described below. The video is key--it works very well, which I could see both during the team meetings held later in the semester and from the final-exam responses, in which the students sometimes repeat the rules word for word. Lesson Plan Major Concept You need to know how to prepare for and run meetings effectively in business. Generalizations In a survey of a thousand American executives, the majority said that up to a third of meeting time was wasted. Among top executives, meetings take up 17 percent of their time. This is a problem because meetings are management, and the one area in which leaders can show themselves to be leaders, not just supervisors.  Objectives Cognitive Students will be able to lead team meetings effectively (so that the meeting’s goals are met) following the rules shown in the videos. They must be able to plan the meeting, inform the other members about the meeting goals, prepare an agenda with time allocations, structure the discussion in the correct order (first facts, then interpretation, then decision), and summarize and record the decisions and action points. Materials Videos:
Note: These videos are from Video Arts, the training film company started by John Cleese (Monty Python). Don't try to substitute other training videos--the Video Arts films are very funny and very memorable. However, they're expensive to buy or rent. Rental is $275 for 7 days, $870 to buy it. What I did was use interlibrary loans and/or get the free one-week preview copies from companies such as The Richardson Company that rent the videos. The preview copies have an annoying crawl along the bottom saying the video is a preview, but you stop noticing it soon enough. Procedures Introduce the videos, priming them to watch for particular items:
Watching the Video, Discussion Pass out handout #1 and start Meetings, Bloody Meetings.
Watching the Second Video, Discussion If there is time, pass out handout #2 and start More Bloody Meetings (or other video).
Reinforcement and Assessment Reinforcement When the students start doing their class projects, they will be holding team meetings. During these sessions, remind them of the meeting rules as you walk around the room answering questions. Assessment Ask the students about their meetings as part of their team assessments at the end of the class projects. Sample Student Responses Student 1: From this class, I learned a five stage plan for shorter and more effective meetings. Number one, plan; what the meeting is about, what will be discussed; basically create an agenda, a brief with topics to be discussed and briefs of each topic, being clear of objectives. Number two, inform; make sure everyone is on the same page before start of meeting about what will be discussed, why, and what the outcome will be. Must anticipate information needed for answering questions of team members. Number three, prepare; look for logical connections between topics and arrange them in order typed up with notes next to each, time to spend on, importance of topic, etc… Number four, structure and control; discussions need structure, have stages of discussion. Evidence before interpretations, then discuss to determine a verdict. Number four, summarize and record; keep records of each meeting so you can take a look back at past records not to waste time in current meeting. When meeting with our team for the Haiti project I noticed had we used this five stage plan we would have cut down meeting times and the amount of meetings we had. Student 2: I loved the movie “Meetings bloody Meetings”. I completely see how a meeting can go wrong when not properly organized. I used what I learned in other meetings that I have been incharge of all semester. I noticed things going smoother when an agenda was handed out to everyone and how problems were solved faster when the proper information was brought to the meeting place. Student 3: Additionally, I watched a video called “More Bloody Meetings” that was produced by Monty Python. This video was about a manager that ended up in a potentially torturous dream that judged his substandard managerial skills. Though the film was comically produced it effectively stressed the importance of leadership, protecting meek employees from domineering ones, and learning how to direct a meeting towards productive solutions. This video taught me that everyone with in an organization has a collective role and that their best qualities should be harness to benefit the group as a whole. Student 4: I learned the basic rules in conducting meetings Unite the Group: Do not take sides, stick to the facts, and let others talk, avoid any aggression. Focus the Group: do not deviate from the topic, test comprehension, stay alert, paraphrase or check back with Mobilize the Group: Bring in everybody’s contributions, protect the weak and put the strong under control, build up ideas not to break them down |
