One of a series of workshops prepared for the University Library System (ULS) Leadership Program at the University of Pittsburgh. Covers how to make meetings more productive and deal with common problems, for example, getting people to participate and managing dysfunctional behaviors.

1. ULS Leadership Program
Karen Calhoun
22 October 2012
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

2. What You Said About Problems
with Meetings
 Lack of agendas*  Unproductive meetings;
 Hard to schedule * meetings held “just
 Tracking outcomes and
because”
assignments; following  Attendees unprepared
up *  Too many meetings
 Better facilitation; getting  Meetings too long
people to participate  Traveling between Thomas
 Clearer, better, more and Hillman when
creative and innovative meeting is not productive
outcomes  Technology in 272 not
 Effective use of meeting good for virtual meetings
time
*Top three
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3. Agenda Topic Time
Arrival, social time, & What You Said 10:00-10:15 am
Why have a meeting?
10:15-10:30 am
Your role as chair – are you willing?
Ground rules
Getting people to participate 10:30-10:45 am
(handouts)
Short break 10:45-11:00 am
Designing a meeting – Agendas 11:00-11:45 am
(exercise)
Outcomes, assignments, following up 11:45-12:00
(handouts)
Lunch and social time 12:00-12:30 pm
Dealing with process problems 12:30-1:15 pm
(exercise)
What have you learned today? 1:15-1:45 pm
(exercise)
Close and get on shuttle 1:45-1:50 pm
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4. Why Have a Meeting?
 Inform and gather input  Make or validate
 Kick off a project or decisions
process  Establish new ways of
 Evaluate work in doing things
progress; identify next  Provide forum for airing
steps/assignments concerns or asking
 Evaluate completed work questions
 Plan and/or prioritize  Solve problems
 Motivate  What else?
Can you classify the meetings you
are going to next week?
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5. Does the meeting have a clear
purpose or purposes? If not (and
you are in charge) DON’T MEET!
 Alternatives to meeting
 Weekly newsletter?
 Post info on SharePoint?
 Plain old memo, report or email?
 Have an informal conversation(s) on phone, in person,
via email?
 Combine with something else?
 What other ideas?
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6. Kinds of Meetings – Face-to-Face
and Virtual
 Stand up meetings – operational – very short –
sometimes daily
 Weekly / tactical / progress review
 Monthly / strategic / longer term planning
 Formal governance meetings
 Quarterly/Semiannually etc. – long time horizon,
sometimes off site (less often virtual)
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7. Your Roles as Chair
+ Delegator:
Be specific – who,
what, when, how?
Chair
+ Sometimes:
Recorder – if you
can’t recruit one
Organizer Facilitator
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8. Based on ideas in Haycock 2011:
http://www.slideshare.net/KenHaycock/effective-meetings-7169529
Am I Willing to …
 Invest my time in planning meetings?
 Invest my time in capturing actions, decisions,
following up and communicating?
 Model the behaviors that the organization needs?
 Encouraging and engaging in dialogue?
 Building consensus?
 Listening?
 Facilitating listening and 2-way learning?
 Communicating sideways, up and down?
 Engaging in crucial conversations (managing conflict)?
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9. Chair as Facilitator
 Reflect the group, not yourself
 Observe and manage meeting progress
 Manage disruptions and conflict
 Develop people
 Encourage
 Seek participation
 Clarify
 Summarize
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10. Ground Rules and Norms – for
everyone in the meeting
 Arrive on time, end on time
 Come prepared
 Be respectful and honest in communications
 Comments succinct and on topic
 Don’t interrupt
 Seek first to understand
 Follow up actions that are assigned to you
 Signs for “accept,” “can live with,” and “cannot accept”?
 Oral reports okay or not?
 What happens when someone misses a meeting or is frequently
late?
 Confidentiality?
 What else?
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11. Getting People to Participate
 Takes practice!
 Tell less, ask more - Ask questions
 See handouts
 Listening Observer Worksheet
 Roles People Play in Groups
 Data Collection/Discussion Methods and Techniques
 Linear Problem Solving/Decision Making Model
 Brainstorming Rule Sheet
The handouts are used with thanks to Chet Warzynski, Roxi Bahar, and Clint Sidle,
Cornell University Organizational Development. They are taken from their
“Discovering Leadership” Workshops, 1999-2000.
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12. Take a Break!
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13. From Endicott , Lazar and Ford 2006
http://www.slideshare.net/ringer21/too-much-time-wasted-in-meetings-why
Meeting Traps Leadership:
Poor planning
No agenda
Insufficient follow-up
Capabilities: Focus:
Not enough knowledge about conducting meetings Disruptive behavior
Right people not present Delayed decisions
Participants are unprepared Unclear objectives
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14. Designing a Meeting (Exercise)
 Work in pairs – 30 minutes (15 minutes each person)
 15 minutes - reporting out
 In pairs, study the following handouts:
 Key Questions for Meeting Designers
 Meeting Design Exercise
 Roles People Play in Groups (from prior exercise)
 Data Collection/Discussion Methods and Techniques (ditto)
 Meeting Agenda
 Work together to design and produce agendas for two upcoming
meetings using these handouts
 Reporting out: Discuss the process of completing your Meeting
Design Exercise form and describe what you learned from the
exercise (max 2 minutes each person)
Handouts are from “Discovering Leadership” workshops 14

15. Actions and Decisions - Outcomes,
Assignments, Following Up
 Identify actions and/or decisions/proposals made
 Assign responsibility and time frame for actions
 Create action log and use it to track progress and
encourage accountability
 After the meeting, ask yourself: Who needs to know? What
and when?
 Follow up with other stakeholders as needed (esp. if all the
stakeholders were not in the room)
 Communicate results (e.g., post agendas and action notes
to SharePoint and announce their availability)
 Keep “parking lot” of undiscussed topics
 What else?
15

16. Lunch!
16

17. Dealing with Process Problems
 Apathy  Late arrivals
 Fear  Conflict avoidance
 Blocking  Inattention
 Negativity  Side conversations
 Cynicism, sarcasm  Straying off topic
 Dominating  Multitasking (e.g., working
 Interrupting on a regular on cell phone or tablet not
basis related to meeting)
 Withdrawal, “checking  Sniping
out”  What else?
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18. Coping with Dysfunctional Behaviors in Meetings
(Exercise)
 Purpose – Review and test various coping strategies
 Work alone – 5 minutes – examine the situations in the
Meeting Management Worksheet (handout)
 Work in groups of 4 – 20 minutes – try to achieve group
consensus on the best way to rank the suggested responses
(1 = best suggestion; 2=middle; 3=worst suggestion). Write
your responses on the flip chart.
 Karen distributes Meeting Management Suggested
Rankings Sheet and explanatory notes. Groups compare
their responses to the Suggesting Rankings – write on flip
chart (see next page) – 5 minutes
 Group discussion of the questions on the next slide – 10
minutes
Credit: Doyle, Patrick, and C.R. Tindal. 2003. “Meeting Management:
Coping with Dysfunctional Behaviors.” In The Pfeiffer Book of Successful
Leadership Development Tools, 291–304. San Francisco CA: Pfeiffer.
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19. How to Write Your Results on the
Flip Chart
Situation One - Saboteur
Your Group’s Ranking Doyle and Tindal Suggested Ranking
# #
# #
# #
Situation Two - Sniping
Your Group’s Ranking Doyle and Tindal Suggested Ranking
# #
# #
# #
Situation Three Etc.
19

20. What are the best ways to cope
with dysfunctional behaviors?
 Which of the behaviors in the exercise did you
recognize? What were your reactions to being in the
chair role and deciding how to deal with the
dysfunctional behaviors?
 What, if any dysfunctional behaviors occurred in your
subgroup as you worked toward consensus? How did
your subgroup deal with these?
 We did not discuss coping with conflict. What
interest might you have in covering conflict
management in an hour-long future workshop?
20

21. Closing Exercise – What Have You
Learned Today ?
 Work again in pairs – 10 minutes (5 minutes each
person) – answer this question:
 What have you learned today that you will use tomorrow
or before the end of the week? How will you use it?
 How will you evaluate your progress over the next six
weeks or so?
 Reporting out and group discussion – 15 minutes
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22. Thanks for coming!
Please don’t
forget to fill out
the evaluation
form in
DropBox!
Photo by Edgar Barany. CC-BY-NC.
http://www.pragjesu.info/prague-autumn-leaves-l.htm
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