CHAPTER 9

Effective Meetings

Chapter Objectives and Integrator Guide

The opening page of each chapter in Communicating at Work lists desired learning outcomes.
The Integrator Guide will assist you in locating activities and resources relevant to each
objective.

Integrated Objectives Resources

Describe various types and purposes of meetings. In the text:
Page references: 293-298
Key terms: online meeting; teleconference; video Activities: 1
conference Career Tip:
Technology for Virtual Meetings

Instructor's Manual online:

Discussion Launchers: 1,2
Classroom Activities: 1,2
Identify reasons to hold a meeting, and determine In the text:
when a meeting is not necessary. Page references: 298-301
Activities: 2
Career Tip: Opting Out of Meetings

Instructor's Manual online:

Discussion Launchers: 3-6
Classroom Activities: 3
Construct a complete meeting agenda. In the text:
Page references: 301-305
Key terms: agenda Activities: 4
On Your Feet:
Agenda for Your "Dream Team" Meeting

Instructor's Manual online:

Discussion Launchers: 7
Classroom Activities: 4, 5

Student Online Learning Center:

Internet Exercise 2
Business Document Templates: Agenda Template
Analyze participant behavior at meetings; and In the text:
identify several methods to encourage full Page references: 305-314
participation of all members, keep discussion on Activities: 3,5,6
track, create a positive atmosphere, and promote Career Tips:
understanding. Members Can Be Leaders, Too

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Key terms: direct question; motion; nominal group
technique (NGT); overhead questions;
parliamentary procedure; relay questions; relevancy
challenge; reverse questions
Getting Credit for Your Ideas
Ethical Challenge:
Dealing with Opposing Viewpoints
Self-Assessment:
Team Meeting Effectiveness Checklist

Instructor's Manual online:

Personal Reflection for Journaling
Discussion Launchers: 8-14
Classroom Activities: 6-8

Student Online Learning Center:

Internet Exercise 1
Effectively bring a meeting to a close, and follow In the text:
up appropriately. Page references: 314-317

Instructor's Manual online:

Discussion Launchers: 15-18
Other resources found on the Online Learning Center:
Student online center
Glossary
Key Term Flashcards
Key Term Crosswords
Self-Quizzes
Instructor online center
PowerPoint Files

About Chapter 9

The ability to conduct and participate in meetings is essential for members of today's
workforce. Effective meetings can build morale and boost creativity, yet ineffective meetings are
ubiquitous time wasters in business today. This chapter promotes an appreciation for the
importance of conducting meetings effectively in today's organizations.

After explaining different types of meetings, this chapter presents guidelines for determining
whether calling a meeting is appropriate. The focus then shifts to the steps required to construct
an agenda and plan a meeting. The skills for opening, conducting, closing, and following up after
a meeting are explained. Skills for conducting a meeting focus on achieving objectives and
encouraging and sharing participation. With these skills, students will be better equipped to
conduct meetings while they are in school and when they enter their chosen professions.

Opportunities can be found throughout this chapter to apply previously taught skills in the
context of meetings. For instance, the section on ritual activities relates to Chapter 1 material
about informal networks and physical contexts. This chapter's discussion of encouraging
participation can be linked to listening styles and gender and minority interaction in Chapters 3
and 4. Writing quality meeting goals that are "result-oriented, specific, and realistic" provides an
opportunity to review concrete language and low-level abstractions covered in Chapter 4.

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Strategies for keeping a positive tone relate to the Chapter 5 topics of praise and critique. The
segment on interdependent tasks relates back to functional roles, discussed in Chapter 8.

Personal Reflection for Individual Journaling Assignment

Picture yourself in your mind's eye at the last meeting you attended. If you were an
outsider observing your nonverbal and verbal interaction, what would you notice? Your
descriptions should be specific and measurable. What intended and unintended messages
were you sending? Would this outsider think you were helping or hindering the group
process? Why?

Discussion Launchers

1. Explain the differences between a group and a meeting. Can a group exist if it doesnt
meet? Can a true meeting occur if the attendees are not all part of a group?

2. Talk to someone who works in a job that you are interested in. Ask her or him to describe
the purposes, types, and importance of meetings in which she or he participates.

3. When have you felt most satisfied with a meeting you attended? Why?

4. When have you felt most dissatisfied with a meeting you attended? Why?

5. How would you complete the following: I [usually, almost always, often, almost never,
never] enjoy meetings that I attend. Provide reasons for your answer.

6. Under what circumstances should a meeting be avoided and the problem solved by some
other form of communication? Can you give some examples?

7. How many meetings that you attend have printed agendas? Do you always or ever have
printed agendas one or more days in advance of the meeting? What are the effects of
having or not having an agenda?

8. In your experience, what should a leader do to start a meeting off on the right foot? Can
you recall some exemplary beginnings? What made them so?

9. Can you think of meetings that started off poorly? Why? What could/should have been
done differently?

10. Have you ever attended a meeting that was run according to parliamentary procedure?
What type of meeting was it? Were you able to understand the procedures? Did the

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 procedures seem to help or hinder the flow and effectiveness of the meeting? Explain.

11. How can people be encouraged to participate in a meeting, especially when they do not
want to? What works for others to encourage you to participate?

12. What do people do to discourage others from participating in meetings? What things
really discourage you from participating?

13. What are the most important things a leader can do to keep a discussion on target? In
your opinion, what should a leader never do?

14. If, starting tomorrow, all guidelines in the text for calling and conducting meetings were
followed, what immediate changes would occur in your life? In the organizations you
belong to?

15. How important is it that meetings end on time? Why? What do you think the leader
can/should do when the group's work isn't done but the scheduled time for the meeting is
up?

16. What do you think you, as a participant, can/should do when the group's work isn't done
but the scheduled time for the meeting is up?

17. What do you appreciate most in terms of follow-up after a meeting? What do you think is
the responsibility of the leader? Of each participant?

18. Have you ever attended a meeting that had an unsatisfactory ending? Explain why you
thought it was unsatisfactory, integrating concepts from this chapter.

Classroom Activities

1. Types of Meetings:
Objective: Students will become more familiar with the frequency and types of meetings
held in organizations in today's workplace.

Procedure: Write the titles of the following meeting types on the board: information-
sharing; problem-solving/decision-making; ritual activity; other. Ask students to walk to the
board and write in the appropriate column the topic of one recent meeting they attended. If
students have jobs, they should use a workplace meeting. If not, they can choose meetings of
other organizations to which they belong. If meetings involve more than one type of activity,
such as information sharing plus decision making, ask students to choose the column heading
that best depicts the central purpose of the meeting.

Class Discussion: After all students are seated, ask questions about each type of
meeting, such as
What similarities do you see among the topics of the meetings in this category?

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 What differences do you see among the topics of the meetings in this category?
Based on this sample, which meetings seem to occur most? Is this a representative
sample? How do you know?
By a show of hands, how many of you noted meetings that actually accomplished all or
most of what they were intended to accomplish?
Do any of these types seem to lend themselves more readily toward accomplishing their
stated goals? Why or why not?

2. Virtual Meetings and Face-to-Face Meetings

Objective: Students will experience first-hand the advantages and disadvantages of

meeting face-to-face versus virtually. This is an important lesson in today's high-tech world,
where old-fashioned face-to-face meetings are sometimes shunned in favor of texting, even
though face-to-face communication is a richer medium and is far more appropriate for tackling
complex issues.

Procedure: Divide the class into six groups. Give each group the same task, such as
creating five quiz questions (with correct answers indicated) covering the material in the current
chapter of this text. Whatever task you assign should require some level of interdependence.
Groups will have 20 minutes to complete the task. Three of the groups will work face-to-face.
The fourth group will use a chat room; the fifth group, email; and the sixth group,
teleconferencing, either audio or video, if facilities are available. (If not, text messaging will
work). After 20 minutes, call time, and begin a class discussion of the results.

Class Discussion: First, ask groups to share what they have accomplished. Typically, the
face-to-face groups will have accomplished more. Lead a discussion about why this happens.
Elicit from students the challenges and frustrations they experienced, as well as what they
learned from the experience.

3. A Meeting: To Have or Not to Have?

Objective: The purpose of this activity is to identify circumstances and apply criteria to
determine the advisability and necessity of holding a meeting.

Procedure: In small groups, ask students to generate a collective list of four or five
meetings they have participated in during the past few months. Ask them to list the meetings
on paper, and then have each student explain what was accomplished during the meeting he
attended. Using the criteria in the text, ask the group to decide by consensus whether each
meeting was necessary. There might be some lively debate if the student feels the meeting he
or she participated in was necessary and the class does not.

Class Discussion: When all groups have finished, let each group report the following
statistics to the class: the number of meetings the group discussed, the number and
percentage the group decided were necessary and the criteria met (job was beyond one
person's capacity, tasks were interdependent), and the number and percentage that were

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 unnecessary and reasons why (the necessary people couldn't attend, issue could have been
decided by one person, etc.).

4. Agendas: Proposed and Actual

Objective: The purposes of this activity are to provide an opportunity for students to
compare agendas with actual meeting discussions and to help students establish more-
realistic agendas through a critical analysis of the actual meeting process.

Procedure: Provide each student with a copy of the agenda for the next meeting of the
student government. Ask students to attend the meeting and take notes to compare the agenda
with the actual discussion of the group. After the minutes of the meeting are published, copy
and distribute them to the class.

Class Discussion: The following questions could be used to lead class discussion.
How closely did the agenda adhere to the guidelines in the text?
Would you suggest any modifications to the agenda?
What were the differences among the agenda, the students' observations, and the
minutes of the meetings?
If there were major differences, why did they occur?
If the group got off track, what communication skills could have prevented them from
straying from the agenda? Who (chair, members, committee heads) could have kept
the meeting on track?
If the group stayed with the agenda, what communication skills helped them do so?
Who was largely responsible for doing so?

5. Preparing an Agenda
Objectives: This activity should assist students in the development of skills for writing
agendas and provide them an opportunity to examine a variety of agenda types.

Procedure: Choose an issue about which students could create an agenda. For example,
you could assign students to prepare an agenda for a class meeting to decide the speaking
order for upcoming speeches and when group presentations should be given. Or, they could
prepare an agenda for a hypothetical student committee to decide how to spend a $5000
surplus collected from this years student fees.

Student Instructions: Prepare an agenda for your meeting in which you will discuss (insert
topic you've chosen). You may work singly or in pairs. When you return to class, we will
compare the agendas you've created. It will be easier to discuss your agendas if you put them
on transparencies, large sheets of paper, or a floppy disk (if you have a laptop and projector
you can use in the classroom).

Class Discussion: After the assignment is completed, you should post or project the agendas
and allow students to compare and contrast them. Critique the student examples using the
guidelines from the text.
Which agendas are most effective? Why?

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 Which would be easiest to follow?
Which would be hardest to follow? Why?

6. Participation Bean Bag

Objective: Students will gain practice in participating in a discussion that stays on track
and encourages everybody to contribute. This exercise is also a good bet when students are
gripped by some national, local, or campus event that is distracting them from class topics.

Procedure: Place students in groups of seven to nine members. Ask each group to select
a topic of interest they would like to discuss. Provide a bean bag or a similar object for each
group. The group's task is to hold a discussion in which all members have a chance to
participate. Begin the conversation by stating, "Today, we will talk about XXXXX." As you
toss the bag to one of the students, ask "Tanya, what are your thoughts on this?" Tanya must use
a linking device to show the continuity between your remark and hers. "Well, Dr. Jones, I think
XXXXXXX." Tanya must then share the floor. She will toss the bag to a second student,
remarking, "Josh, I'm wondering what your thoughts are." Josh catches the bag and remarks,
"Well, Tanya, unlike you, I think ." As the conversation continues, each student must link their
comment in some meaningful way to the comments of the students preceding and following
them. The conversation ends in seven minutes or after all students have had a chance to
contribute at least twice.

Variation 1: You may distribute a list of linking phrases before beginning the
conversation. Examples include "As you said," "To the contrary," "Just like you," "I agree with
you, and I would like to add," "There's one point I have a questions about," and "I see what
you're saying, but I'd like to return to a point that was brought up earlier."

Variation 2: You may appoint one or two observers who will write down the rhetorical
devices students use to link their reasoning to the others speakers' ideas. After class, collect the
lists, compile them, and distribute to students in the next class session for their future use.

Class Discussion: Debrief this exercise by asking questions such as

Did this conversation follow a typical path? Why or why not?
Why did this seem phony? How could you learn these conversation skills
without first practicing them in a way that feels phony?
Did this format force you to listen to the persons speaking before and after
you?
Although this highly structured format we used today might not be
appropriate, how could you apply these skills in a real-life group to which you
belong?

7. Nominal Group Technique

Objective: To apply the nominal group technique as a method for generating a list of
alternatives.

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 Procedure: Use the nominal group technique to generate a list of vital issues and/or new
concepts (buzzwords) in business and industry today. You might begin by asking, "What do
you think are the most important issues and new concepts in the workplace today?"
Examples are diversity, hiring competent people, training employees, working in groups,
downsizing, and total quality management. Then, have students sit in groups of five. Give
each student four or five post-it notes and these directions:.
1. Sit silently and each write down four or five items on your Post-it notes.
2. Now, post all ideas on a large sheet of paper.
3. Discuss all ideas so they are clearly understood by everyone, but not criticized.
4. After all ideas are discussed for clarity, silently and individually rank-order the ideas
from most to least important on a post-it note. (Put a "1" by the most important, "2"
by next in importance, etc.).
5. Then, tally the items, and decide on a rank-order for the group's list of the five or six
most important items.
Alternative: Choose a matter you are willing to turn over to the class: dates of test or
presentations, method of deciding in what order students will give presentations, type of
exam (take-home, essay, small group, objective). Allow students to use this technique to
make a "real" decision in which they have some stake. This combines readily with Activity
#3 above.

Class Discussion: This activity will produce a list of issues the class believes are most
important to American business today. You might use these issues as the basis of research,
reading, or group-presentation assignments.

8. Mock Meeting*
Objective: This activity gives students a chance to practice running a meeting.

Procedure: Arrange all chairs in a large circle. Begin by asking what types of meetings
students have participated in and what the strengths and weaknesses of those meetings have
been. Typically, a majority of the students will agree that most meetings have been poorly
run and have produced poor results. Suggest that if students can learn effective skills for
running meetings, they might be able to improve future meetings they participate in. To give
them an opportunity to apply the skills in the text, design a mock organization. Elicit from
students what kind of company they would like to represent and what types of products or
services they deal with. Ask for student volunteers to fill the roles of president of the board,
CEO, CFO, HR director, marketing and advertising manager, research and development
manager and an administrative assistant who will take notes. The students will conduct a
role play of a monthly board meeting.

Before beginning the meeting, have students create an agenda (this can be written on the
board). Limit the number of items on the agenda so the class can cover them during one
session. Review the guidelines in the text for opening a meeting. Then ask the president of
the board to open the meeting. After the president completes the opening, analyze the
process in terms of the guidelines from the text. Next, review guidelines for conducting the
meeting. Proceed with the agenda items. Feel free to coach the students about what should

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 come next and to interrupt the flow of the meeting at any time to offer guidance. Encourage
students to interject questions and comments about the process at any time. Try to cover all
the major points of the chapter during this practice. After most of the items have been
covered and students seem to be comfortable with managing the flow of the meeting, have
the president bring the meeting to a close.

Alternative: If students are unfamiliar with what goes on at a corporate board meeting, they
could role-play a parent discussion group about childraising or a student group whose task is
to improve the appearance of the campus.

Class Discussion: After completing the meeting, discuss the students experiences. You
might want to ask questions such as
In what ways was this meeting effective and ineffective?
Which of the guidelines from the text seem easiest to master?
Which seem hardest to apply effectively?
Are some guidelines more essential than others?
How can you gain more practice using these guidelines?
If you are a low-level employee, what could you do to improve the meetings in your
organization?

*Adapted from Roberta Gilroy, Salt Lake Community College

Additional Resources

Print
Bradford, L. P. (1976). Making meetings work: A guide for leaders and group members. San
Diego: University Associates, Inc.
This book addresses ways to turn apathy and indifference toward and during meetings into
interest and involvement. It includes sections on conflict, participation, managing difficult
members, and questionnaires to assess meetings and members' behavior at meetings.

Burelson, C.W. (1990). Effective meetings: The complete guide. New York: John C. Wiley &
Sons, Inc.

LaFaivre, A.W. (1987, January). Checklist: Planning an off-site meeting. Public Relations
Journal, 2930.

Townsend, J. (1987, July). How to master meetings. Management Today, 8082.

Van Grandy, A. (1984). Managing group creativity: A modular approach to problem solving.
New York: American Management Association.

Video
Be Prepared for Meetings. 24 min. Kantola Productions.

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 Part of the Toastmasters International Communication series, this video teaches techniques for all
parts of meetings.

How to Conduct a Meeting. 18 min. Coronet/MTI Films and Video.

Meetings, Bloody Meetings. 30 min. Xicom Video Arts.

John Cleese (known for Monty Python films) demonstrates disastrous meetings with comic
penalties. Viewers can learn to avoid these mistakes.

Meeting Robbers. CRM Films.

A look at how meeting time is stolen and what you can do to end the theft. Deborah Tannen,
Talking from 9 to 5, p. 293

Web
Patricia Fripp, Consultant
http://www.fripp.com/articleslist.html
This site offers a number of free educational articles. Scroll down to the heading Meeting
Planners.

Usability First
http://www.usabilityfirst.com/groupware/
An introduction to groupware. Includes many helpful links.

Web Content Management and Collaboration

http://www.yedit.com/
Information and tools for collaborating online.

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