Meetings challenge leaders with a seemingly limitless number of problems. Wouldn’t it be nice if you saw them coming so that you could be ready with a solution? While you can’t know everything that’s going to happen during a meeting, you can make some good guesses about the most likely problems and plan accordingly.

Take, for instance, a meeting in which you are planning to announce to your staff a reorganization. In your mind this is going to be really good for everyone. While that may be true, it doesn’t take much imagination to anticipate some of your employees might not see it that way. The minute you say the word reorganization, some people will become defensive.

As fear races through their minds, protective instincts will kick in. The result might be people start challenging the wisdom of the change. They may shut down and go silent in an attempt to fly under the radar. Most every response will work against what you are trying to accomplish, and reduce the odds of having a successful gathering. If you can anticipate these reactions, you can also think about how to mitigate the adverse effects.

Think of it like planning a party that you want to host in your backyard. You lay out all the details based on your hopes for a beautiful day. Do you think through the changes you’ll make if it rains? Most people would. How about if it’s really windy? Not as many people would, but I think that one also represents a very real threat. How about earthquakes, tornadoes, or the outbreak of a deadly virus? Probably not. While possible, those are highly unlikely. If it’s likely to go wrong, you should be ready for it. And if not fully prepared, at least ready to show some flexibility and adaptability if it comes to pass.

If you walk into your reorganization meeting oblivious to what will be likely and normal reactions, you are setting yourself up for disaster. That’s why you might want to not only create Plan A, but also be ready with Plans B & C as well. Consider a few of the  problems that have a reasonable probability of cropping up and noodle through what you will do if things do work out that way. You’ll be glad you did.

Image credit: Rachel from cupcakes take the cake

The two usual justifications for staff meetings are that everyone needs to know what’s going on or some vague goal about creating a stronger sense of teamwork. Here’s the problem. People tell me they really don’t care what their co-workers did last week and aren’t getting that warm-fuzzy feeling of teamwork that you hoped they would experience. So what’s the alternative?

The idea of knowing what people are working on has some merit, even if your staff doesn’t see it that way. But since you are the one having the staff meeting, I’ve got to ask a delicate question. Is your intention truly for everyone to hear what each is doing or are you taking everyone’s time in order to meet your need for knowing what’s going on?

I’m betting it’s the latter. Don’t take it too hard, most bosses do the same. Think about what’s going on here. If you have a staff of 10, it’s like you are having 10 short check-in conversations with each member of your team and forcing everyone else to listen in on them. The only conversation individuals care about are the ones that involve them.

If you are going to do one-on-one conversations, then you should have one-on-one meetings with each person. Is it more work for you? Probably. But do the math. In the old method there was you and ten team members for say one hour. Total meeting employee time = 11 hours. In scenario two, let’s say you give everyone a 15 minute check-in, which is much more attention than they are currently getting in the staff meeting. Now you have to sit through 2.5 hours worth of meetings and your team collectively sits through 2.5 hours worth. Total employee time = 5 hours. You’d have to stretch these check-in meetings out to 30 minutes per employee before reaching the breakeven point.

Here’s another way of skipping the staff meeting. Tell people what you need to know and what you don’t. Ask them to communicate that information to you via some electronic means. If you do think it makes sense for a wider distribution, use one of the many tools that exist for creating online collaboration at work.

As for the second goal of creating a sense of team, I do think you need to bring people together to accomplish it. I think it rarely, if ever, happens by having people sit around a table and provide updates. If that’s your goal, create a session that focuses only on helping people become a stronger team. Team building doesn’t just happen by chance. Be purposeful.

Bottom line: Staff meetings aren’t necessary. There are other ways to meet the goals you have for them. Try an alternative with your group.

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A meeting pro needs tools, and a flip chart is easily the most useful. Flip charts have three attributes that makes them the best option for capturing critical meeting information. Let me tell you about them.

3 Reasons Flip Charts Rule

1. They are portable. I can put them anywhere in the room and move them around as needed. This is particularly helpful if I want to rearrange attendees into small groups. When each small group needs a flip chart of its own, I can provide one.
2. Meeting progress stays visible. As each page is filled, it can be ripped from the pad and posted for the remainder of the meeting. Later when people need to refer back to an earlier idea or decision, it’s easily accessible. Posting the pages also helps participants stay oriented to where they are in the meeting plan. Finally, seeing the sheets reinforces the idea that something is happening in the meeting. There are, after all, lots of full flip chart pages hanging on the wall. They represent the group’s accomplishments.
3. Easy to transcribe. At the end of the meeting, the pages can be pulled off the wall in the order they were created, stacked, folded and carried back to your desk. I typically toss the pile on the floor, and working one sheet at a time, quickly produce meeting notes from these pages.

Flip Chart Best Practices

You wouldn’t think using a flip chart is complicated; however, you’ll find these best practices will help you use one like a pro.

• Use water-color markers so they don’t bleed through.
• Write in capital letters if possible.
• Don’t cram too much on the page. Write large enough so people furthest away can still see.
• Use dark colors for words.
• Use bright colors for underlining and highlighting.
• Write what people say.
• Ask person to shorten long phrases for you.
• Confirm that what you are writing is correct.
• Use abbreviations whenever possible.
• Get second scribe if one can’t keep up.
• Stand to the side of the flip chart so people can see.
• Speed is important during brainstorming.
• Pre-rip tape so it’s ready when needed. Stick the pieces on the leg of flip chart stand.
• Date and number pages for later translation.
• Keep work visible by posting on the walls.

Challenges

The biggest challenge I’ve found is having a decent flip chart stand available. I want it to be large with a solid back. It should not wobble and be light enough to move around from place to place. If a decent stand isn’t available, but I have a pad, I will use the wall as my flip chart. This works best when you have sticky-back paper. You can make just one small section of wall your “flip chart” and then move the filled pages to other spots for the duration of the meeting. If you use this method, confirm that the markers you are using won’t bleed through onto the wall.

The second challenge is having pads with enough paper on them. Usually, if there’s a pad in a conference room, you’ll find each page has already been used. This is a great testament to how useful they are. You might want to keep your own stash and bring a pad along with you so you know you’ll have what you need.

If you’ve been leading meetings without a flip chart, it’s time to give it a try. I’m confident you and the other meeting participants will see value in them.

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There are way too many meetings that should never have happened in the first place. You know it. I know it. And we are all more than a little sick of having to sit through these meetings. They waste our time and bore us to tears.

So what should you do if you’re thinking about calling a meeting and have doubts about whether or not you should? Let me ease your concern. Just because there are a lot of meetings that should never have occurred doesn’t mean that there aren’t some that should have been held. Your goal is to only call one when there’s a good reason for doing so. I can think of at least five good reasons to call a meeting. Would be interested in learning about others if you can think of some.

1. You’ve got a problem you can’t solve on your own and don’t know of any one person who you can ask to solve it for you. You believe the solution will require the creative brainpower of a group.
2. You need a decision that affects a group, and you believe it should be made by the group rather than imposed upon them.
3. You need to put together a plan. You recognize the importance of involving others in order to build a better plan and generate more buy-in.
4. You’ve got news to share that will likely cause an emotional reaction and generate lots of questions. You believe that it will be best to provide the information to everyone at the same time, and let all hear the answers to the questions that others ask.
5. You are launching a new initiative and want to bring people together for the purpose of setting the direction and establishing guidelines.

See a theme? All these reasons have an element of two-way interaction. Great meetings are a collaborative activity, and you should call one only if collaboration is necessary.

There is one more thing that’s a little harder to identify, but you should try. Assuming you have a reason, and your reason requires collaboration; ask yourself if it’s worth it. The value equation is the one we apply in all sorts of situations. It fits here as well. It boils down to “Value = Benefits – Costs.” Use your best estimates and consider not calling the meeting unless the result is positive.

We can tweak meetings to make them better, but the greatest impact can be realized by knowing when and when not to call a meeting in the first place.

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This past weekend I had the chance to serve as parliamentarian for a local political convention of about 240 delegates. In these lower level conventions there are always two things delegates are most interested in accomplishing: Endorsing candidates for local races and getting themselves elected as delegates to congressional and state level conventions.

As parliamentarian my job was to help the co-chairs enforce rules and make myself generally useful so that the convention would be expedient and orderly. Between consulting with the chairs and occasionally dishing out some unsolicited advice, I had the chance to pay attention to what was happening during this six hour convention. Regardless of the type of meeting I attend, if I’m not leading it, I am learning from it. Here are four insights I took away from this one.

Spell out the rules

In this particular convention, there were eight and half pages of rules that every delegate received when registering. One of the first items of business is the approval of the rules and agenda. On this day they did. At other conventions I’ve seen battles break out over the rules that took more than an hour to sort out. At another convention that happened on the same day, they got into a three hour rules fight at the beginning of the convention. Ouch!

In most meetings I lead, we start with a list of 4-5 behavioral guidelines. In this meeting there were pages of detailed rules. Every meeting has a right amount of rules. Be thoughtful about what they should be, make sure everyone knows what they are, and get an agreement from people to follow them.

Use the wisdom (and power) of the group

During the voting for endorsement, a delegate made a motion to suspend the rules. He wanted to give each candidate a chance to address the convention for a second time, presumably so that delegates would have more information with which to make their decision. This wasn’t a bad idea, but the problem was that a vote had just been taken, and the results had not yet been announced. If one candidate prevailed, the motion would no longer be of value. Because the vote was still open, the chair declared the motion out of order.

The delegate got angry and appealed the decision of the chair. Without missing a beat the chair quickly stated something like, “The delegate has appealed the decision of the chair that the motion was out of order, all those in favor of sustaining the decision of the chair please signify by saying ‘Aye’.” A resounding “Aye” echoed through the hall, and the matter was quickly settled. It was a much better path than having the chair and delegate argue with each other from competing microphones.

Mix it up

During a lull in the action while waiting for the voting results, one of the chairs decided to recognize a delegate who was celebrating his 90th birthday. She led the hall in a joyful chorus of the birthday song. It was the perfect way to bring a sense of unity and release some tension during what was a hard-fought endorsement contest.

Know your process

Early in the day, I found out I would have to chair part of the convention that is the day’s most complicated, rule-laden activity. It’s a proportional voting method called walking subcaucus. It’s used to divide a hall of delegates into smaller affinity groups and then electing a certain number of delegates from each. The alternative is to elect people at large. If you’ve never seen it before; it involves lots of shouting, arm-twisting, counting, strategy and ultimately a fair amount of math.

Here’s one thing I knew before leading the activity. About half of the delegates have done this before and have a general understanding of how it works. The other half start off clueless, but do their best to catch on and generally fill their roles just fine. There are; however, a small number of campaign organizers that have studied the process and thoroughly understand it and how to use it to maximize their campaign’s advantage. Because of this, I wanted to make sure I was thoroughly updated on the process and used breaks in the action to bone up on the rules.

When it started, I felt confident and things seemed to be going well. At one point, I thought I was home free. Then I announced we would proceed to the next step and someone informed me we did not need to take that next step. The nine pages of rules I had and all my experience said we should take the next step. He told me there was a new rule in another document that would supersede our rules. Of course neither of us had that document. After some scrambling, I was able to find a copy of the document and sure enough, the rule was there. Note to self, don’t agree to do that again unless I have had a chance to confirm all the process rules myself.

Heavy process and rules can be helpful to control a group. They can also be used by savvier members of the group to achieve their own goals. If you have them, you need to understand them.

Keep on learning

Effectively leading meetings means continually learning what to do and not to do. In our work lives we all attend a lot of meetings. Some of us crazier ones even attend them in our free time. Look at each as an opportunity to develop your skills, whether from observing or practicing. With time, you’ll get better at leading great meetings.

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The number one complaint about meetings is that they are a waste of time. People say that they sit through them with one eye on the clock just waiting to get back to more important activities.

Meetings don’t have to be meaningless. If you are leading the meeting, it is your responsibility to help the group create a strong sense of purpose. They need to envision where you are trying to take them and care about reaching that destination.

You accomplish this by imagining what you will create during the meeting. It might be a new idea, a better understanding about a difficult problem, a tough decision, or a renewed sense of energy in the group.

Once you figured out the “What,” you are ready to take the next step. You must now address the “Why” question.

Suppose you imagine the purpose of the meeting is to create an efficient project plan. Why do you want to do this? If you don’t know, the meeting will likely falter. You need to determine why this meeting goal is important. Perhaps it is because…

• The team is on an extremely tight deadline.
• Resources are running thin, and the team cannot afford to waste any of its energy.

It doesn’t matter what the answer is, as long as it makes sense to you and the rest of the meeting participants.

So what happens when someone else is leading the meeting, and he or she has not developed a meaningful purpose? Simple, voice your concern and encourage the group to work together to create a clear and compelling reason for the meeting.

When it comes to creating purpose for your meetings, sooner is better than later, and later is always better than never. If you follow these strategies, you’ll never waste your time in a meeting again.

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In sports, teams call time outs. They do it when they want to think through their next move or when they want to stop the clock. You can do the same thing when running a meeting. There are at least four instances during a meeting when taking a break is a smart move.

Butts and Bladders

The first one is the obvious. People have been sitting too long and need to get up and move. I was recently appointed to a city commission. The first meeting I attended lasted four hours, without a break! By the end my chair was no longer my friend. Focusing on a meeting and focusing on one’s butt and/or bladder are mutually exclusive. And we all know which one loses when they both demand our attention. My rule is two hours max without a break. For long meetings, 90 minutes between breaks is better.

Transitions

A second time to use breaks is as a transition between major accomplishments. After completing one activity take a break, even if it is just for a few minutes to stretch. This does three things. It reinforces the fact that the group has just accomplished something. This is always a good thing, especially since most people believe meetings are a waste of time. Second, it serves as a reward. People like breaks. Give them one when they’ve earned it. Third, it helps people clear their minds of the previous task. Take the example of when you just finished evaluating an idea. Now you want to move to a more creative activity. The break will help you shut down the critical parts of the participants’ brains and engage the idea-generating parts.

Need a Plan

The third reason is when you need time to figure out what happens next. Perhaps the team has come to an impasse and everyone, including yourself seems a little unsure of how to proceed. This is a perfect time to walk away from the table for a bit. Doing so relieves the pressure of having to pull the rabbit out of a hat when everyone is staring at you. It also gives people a chance to have some informal conversations at break that might help solve the problem. This is most likely to happen if you plant a seed by saying, “We need to figure out what makes most sense in terms of how we move forward. Let’s take a break and give that a little thought.”

Tempers Flaring

There is a last situation when taking a break makes sense. When things start getting too hot and everyone needs to cool down a bit. Hopefully this a rare occurrence in the meetings you lead, but sometimes a fight breaks out and after doing everything you can think of to restore order, you run out of options. Call a break. Here’s my caution, though. Don’t call a break just because things get uncomfortable. Often, the uncomfortable conversation is exactly the conversations that needs to happen within a group. The trick is understanding the difference between a hot situation that is productive and one that is not.

Take Breaks

The break is an important and useful tool that you should use when running longer meetings. In sports, you’ll rarely see a coach criticized for calling time-out. There is plenty of criticism directed at coaches that didn’t call one when it was obvious to everyone else it was needed.

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To solve problems, we must be able to discuss them. When it comes to problems affecting our cities, states and the country; any discussion quickly becomes political. Raise your hand if you shy away from talking about politics. You’re not alone. Political talk brings out the worst in people. Besides creating discomfort, many worry about damaging relationships. But does it have to be that way?

Back in 2009 I was becoming increasingly frustrated with how people discussed political issues, particularly in online forums. Maybe I was hanging out in the wrong places online, but it seemed like the goal of many sites was to purposely rile people up. And from what I could see, some writers were awfully good at meeting that goal. The comments posted on our local newspaper’s web site, startribune.com, were prime examples of how ugly things were getting.

Then one day I had an idea. I would start a web site with a goal to discuss political issues in a reasonably civil and respectful manner. We wouldn’t be perfect, but we’d work together in pursuit of something new, different and hopefully better.

I started thinking about what needed to be different in order for this to work. Here’s what ended up on my list.

1. Everyone had to use their real name. Most of the ugliest comments in online forums are flung by people hiding behind pseudonyms. I was absolutely convinced that 90% of what gets put into writing wouldn’t be shared if the commenter was identified. I knew anonymity allowed more people to enter into the conversation who wouldn’t otherwise do so. Forcing people to identify themselves would limit participation, but I was willing to sacrifice participation for hopefully higher quality conversations.
2. Needed to include more than just hardcore political junkies. I also wanted to broaden the conversation to more people. There were plenty of websites that seemed to attract only the most extreme combatants. I wanted something that would be accessible to people who were willing to be more reasonable. My assumption was that those folks would not go looking for the conversation, so the conversation had to come to them. That’s when I had the idea to use Facebook. Lots of people used it and many looked at it every day. While Facebook had plenty of limitations, it did have the audience. It seemed like the only viable platform for pulling in more than just a couple people.
3. The site would need to be moderated. The moderator’s job would be to start discussions and keep people following the site’s guidelines. I thought I could moderate it all myself, but what I discovered was that multiple moderators from differing political perspectives worked best. Ideally the site would be moderated by someone who was completely neutral. My guess was that those folks didn’t exist and if they did wouldn’t be interested in moderating a political discussion site. And even if they were attempting neutrality, participants still wouldn’t believe them to be neutral. The answer was to use moderators who liked politics and were open about where they stood on the issues.
4. Make the site local. This was my second best idea, after making people use their real names. National political issues are too big and seemingly too far removed from our ability to influence. Plus they are extremely well covered. So I decided to make the scope of the site conform to the city in which I live, Edina. The posts would have an Edina angle. We would focus on schools, city government, and locally elected politicians in the state legislature. Keeping it local would mean participants might know each other or at least have common acquaintances. My belief was that people would be on their best behavior in front of friends and neighbors. In addition, it was my hope that local politicians would follow the discussion and might even be influenced by it.
5. We would need to establish some expectations. People were so used to nastiness in political discussion, I knew I’d have to make our goal very clear. I asked people to keep their posts friendly and respectful, telling them to ask tough questions, point out inconsistencies, challenge ideas, promote their favorite candidates, but to refrain from taking pot shots just to rile people up. I suggested that they get beyond opinions. I wanted people to learn something, so I encouraged participants to provide links and data that backed up their conclusions.

I launched the site, giving it the name Politics In Edina. I purposely focused on promoting it’s nickname, PIE. After all, what’s more friendly than a nice piece of pie. I started off inviting people I knew, which I found out was mostly people who shared my political beliefs. Over time people of all political beliefs began to “like” the page.

So far it seems to be working reasonably well. We have our good days as well as those moments when we could have done better. There are people from both sides of the political spectrum who before may not have talked to each other at all. Now they do, albeit possibly only on this forum. Most of the posts and comments are being generated by about 25 people. And yet there are 357 people who have “liked” the site and are seeing posts in their news feeds whenever they catch up with Facebook.

My sense is that few if any of the “regulars” are changing their minds about much, but I do think they are at least learning to better understand how the other side sees things. I know I am. I would like to think the 325 people who just read from the sidelines are learning more about the issues and feeling more connected to what’s going on in their community.

The site continues to evolve, and I’m learning a lot everyday. I get plenty of feedback from folks. They tell me what they like and what they don’t. I do my best to listen and incorporate their suggestions. I think the idea works well enough that every community ought to have a site like this. It just needs someone willing to bring it to life and nurture it as it grows. Maybe that’s you. Pick a name, set up some rules, invite a few friends. Who knows what will come of it.

And if you do, stop over at PIE and let us know how things are working out on your site. Maybe we can learn something new.

How good is your team? How would you rate its effectiveness? Its efficiency?

The secret to improving teams is to occasionally assess where they are at and then take action based on what you discover. In the perfect world you could monitor them, and instantly notice when things aren’t right. It would be like glancing at the gauges to see if all is well.

Unfortunately, most team leaders don’t have the gauges in place to do this sort of monitoring. Rather, they occasionally check in to determine levels of teamwork. It’s a judgment call that compares the current situation to an ideal situation. The ideal is defined as the following characteristics of team effectiveness. Look over the list and see how well these statements apply to your team.

1. We have a clear sense of purpose.
2. We have measurable objectives.
3. Our purpose supports the larger organization’s purpose.
4. We know how the team will be evaluated.
5. We understand our customers’ expectations.
6. Groups and individuals that support us understand our expectations.
7. We agree on the process for completing our work.
8. We each do our “fair share” of the work.
9. We have access to the resources we need.
10. We effectively make decisions.
11. We communicate openly on the team.
12. We communicate openly with interested parties outside of the team.
13. We effectively resolve conflicts.
14. We quickly address problems that are hurting the team.
15. We each understand what is expected of us.
16. We support one another.
17. We continuously monitor our performance.
18. We work at continuously improving our performance.
19. Our team achieves (will achieve) its goals and objectives.
20. We each feel good about being a part of this team.

If it seems that few of these characteristics describe your team, it’s time to take action. With the right help and the willingness to make a change, your team can do amazing things.

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Whenever I do a communication workshop, I typically pose the question “What does an eye roll mean?” After giving folks a moment to think, I start surveying the room for answers. I’m always surprised by how many distinctly different answers I hear. While everyone agrees that an eye roll is projecting negativity, there is very little agreement on the specifics. Some think it shows disbelief. Others go with frustration. Still others interpret it as a dismissal of the idea and maybe even the person uttering it.

Here’s the problem. Few, if any of us, would ever consider the possibility that an eye roll could mean anything other than our original interpretation. We see it. We are certain of its meaning. More times than not we are wrong. Since so much information is conveyed via body language, our ability to be effective in this area means getting much better at correctly interpreting what we see.

My advice is simple. Pay attention, but don’t make assumptions. When you notice something that you believe has meaning, use it as a springboard for more conversation.

Let’s say you are talking with someone and after making a suggestion you see an expression come over the other person’s face that you interpret as dislike for your idea. Now you might be right or perhaps you are not. Even if you are, do you know why the person doesn’t like your suggestion? That could be important information. Instead of proceeding based on your belief that the person is now against you, open up a conversation based on your guess about what you observed. You could say something like, “Looks like maybe you’re not crazy about what I just said. Am I reading you right? I’d like to know more about what you are thinking.” Your goal is to encourage more conversation so clarity increases with the exchange of language.

As a warning, you have to be careful about when and how you pursue these conversations. Once I was presenting a workshop and noticed a participant cut loose a big eye roll in response to something I had just said. Or at least that was my assumption. Anyway, I decided to engage, and said, “Now that was quite the eye roll. What would you like to say?” She ignored my offer and I moved on, feeling slightly confused.

After the meeting, she invited me to chat in the hall. It turns out my assumption was wrong. I thought it was targeted at me. In reality it was meant for a friend across the table, and the goal was to mock another person who was in the room. She was upset that I outed her and probably alerted the person she was mocking to the bad behavior. Funny that she didn’t even seem to consider that maybe not doing the eye roll in the first place would have been the better option.

I follow up on many body language hunches. Some are confirmed. Others show my assumptions to be wrong. Most work out just fine. With my one caution in mind, I encourage you to start paying more attention to body language. Ask about what you notice. It’s the best way I know to increase understanding.

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