Conducting meetings has become an important activity for many administrators for a number of years, both for purely technical and psychological reasons.
- The complexity of the elements involved in a large number of decisions prevent them from being made by a single individual, requiring the preparation of different meetings for their preparation. If decisions are to be accepted by those who must implement them, it is necessary and convenient to associate them with their own decision-making, hence the importance of meetings.
A meeting is the action of working two or more people face to face. Meetings are an intense way to involve others in problem solving and decision making.
If we manage to involve the staff and commit them to what can be achieved from this process, it ensures:
- Effectiveness in the proposed solutions. Support and acceptance of those solutions.
There are two types of people who act differently in meetings:
- Those who make the meeting the navel of the world Those who hate the meetings: many people see the meetings as a hell pot where they have to plunge by obligation. This happens because many meetings are still in some lost version within the English parliamentary procedures of the beginning of the century where the chief sat at the head of the table and began to direct, control and speak most of the time. In this way it is not strange that the meetings work so badly.
If the meetings have such a bad reputation, it is because of the methods that are applied to carry them out and because of their kilometer length, so that in the end they do not solve any problem.
Meetings are worthwhile provided they have a valid and premeditated purpose
Meetings are worth it when, in search of maximum success, total participation is called for, we know that there are barriers, but an environment must be created that encourages reaching it, alignment must be achieved so that there is face-to-face communication between members of the group, so that paying attention to personal inspiration achieves common success.
Meetings are a method of evaluating staff, it is a means of learning about people's progress, engagement, and potential.
At each meeting the characteristics of the staff are revealed. Mastery, originality, creativity, common sense, you must be able to promote these elements and take advantage of them in favor of the company.
Only from this point of view is every meeting worth
The idea of a meeting is to achieve commitment, that everyone buy a plan made by selling all the ideas.
How to know if our meetings are effective? There are two ways to judge a meeting:
- For the results of this. For the internal development process of the same.
If the meetings fail it is due to some bad attention to one or both of the elements mentioned above
A decalogue so that our meetings do not fail
1. Plan to solve a problem, not to hold a meeting.
The fact is not to say place, date, availability of members, this is to schedule. What is needed is an approach to solve the problem. A meeting equal to a matter.
Ask yourself questions about the problem you are going to solve at the meeting.
- What is the specific problem to solve? Do I have any who need a meeting? What are the real facts that will support my decision to do the meeting? How can I solve this problem? Have an outline of the solution.
2. Use the meeting as an instrument of good
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WHEN TO HAVE A MEETING |
WHEN NOT TO MEET |
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We have to ask ourselves:
- Is it necessary to solve this problem? Could I do it by myself, or by themselves? Did you call it to have listeners and applaud what I am going to do or to really hear what they think? I do it so that others do the work and take responsibility for me?
3. Choose each member as a meeting source
Use all the people you need as a source of resources, but do it with as few people as possible. Try to think about inviting people to your meeting in person - resource terms so that those present can contribute something and are not wondering what I am doing here?
4. Pay attention to hidden purposes
People go to the meeting with your goals and expectations just like you. Try to achieve an alignment between these purposes and expectations. Sometimes this happens because people do not know what will happen in the meeting.
- Report the problem ahead of time to think about it. Communicate the agenda and ask for comments if something needs to be changed or included. Once at the priority meeting, the issues people wanted to see resolved.
5. Enforce the meeting. Do not allow indiscipline
Avoid departures, phone calls, late arrivals. Delete them so that your meeting is respected.
- Announce 48 hours venue, time, and time for people to plan for no interruptions in that time. Explain to others why you should be at the meeting, which will ensure that people know if you are there it is because of Something and you shouldn't miss a minute in the meeting. Tell people what you expect of them in your meeting.
6. Start right from the start
The more you worry about starting well, the more likely you are to start badly, because you will take responsibility alone and the others involved won't think about it. At the beginning of the meeting, think about how you can induce this group to feel responsible for what we are going to do?
At the beginning of the meeting, a pleasant atmosphere must be created and relationships must be established between the members and you and each other, since if this is not done, people will have their cards covered, trying to protect their own interests and avoiding responsibilities with the problems that they are trying to solve.
7. Adopt a style based on the purpose of the meeting
- For informational meetings: from you to them. Autocratic.To make decisions: Democratic.To solve problems: Democratic.To collect information: Democratic.To sell decisions: Democratic. Democratic in decision-making and autocratic in its application.
8. Think about solving the problem
- Define the problem. Clarify its impact on the company and what people think about it. Look for the causes, not the culprits. Generate alternative solutions. Select good solutions for the company.
9. Avoid viral diseases
Multi-headed animal syndrome is the tendency of the group to disperse in several directions at the same time (diverse targets).
The effectiveness of the meeting means focusing attention on the objective problem, you have to focus on a single focus. One of the features of the human mind is that it only allows you to focus your attention on one point at a time. Don't ignore this.
How many times have you not been in a meeting and have had to use your energy just to capture a moment and jump into the conversation to be heard?
Sometimes when it succeeds:
- It's too late He forgot what he was going to say He was attacked by someone else
Members fear the violating group of their individuality and conformity or acceptance of what others say can be created.
- He manipulates himself when he has a personal interest in the purpose. He is not objective when they try to suspend his project. He will influence their gestures and opinions. He plays too many roles: Player, referee, scorer and team capital. He speaks 60% of the meeting time.
You can have your agenda or agenda for the meeting, but people have other unofficial, covert, but entrenched agendas, and then you start working with them especially when crises or difficult times arise in the meeting. These hidden agendas constitute reason for antagonisms, repressed motives and desires, hidden aspirations, guarded reactions. There is the one who wants to be the leader of the group, the group resists because they think that the boss is a "heavyweight", the boss who wants to grind someone's bones, etc.
These orders are not a good sign, but they are not a bad one either.
- Discover these hidden agendas. Both you and others. Trust people to tell what is inside.
- What prevented us from going any further? What did we do to reach the agreement so quickly? Why did we take so long? Who were the main characters in the meeting? What should we not do if we started again?
10. Plan for results, not for meetings
What you want is to obtain a result, not to hold another meeting. The meeting is a means and not an end is yes. We must take into account the final objective of it and we will think about how the meeting can lead us to it.
A meeting has the ultimate goal of analyzing and solving a problem, making a decision about it, checking the consequences of that decision, checking the understanding of others and planning how it will be implemented.
Not from a meeting if you don't have a problem to solve
