Here's an opening activity that requires the participants to come up with their own definition of an effective meeting.

Synopsis

Teams of participants each write a definition of an effective meeting in exactly 16 words. A panel of judges selects the best definition. Later, the teams reduce their definitions to exactly eight and four words.

Purpose

To identify the essential characteristics of an effective meeting

Participants

Minimum: 6

Maximum: Any number

Best: 12–20

Time

10–15 minutes

Supplies and Equipment

• Paper
• Pens

Flow

Assign teams. Divide the participants into three to five teams, each with two to seven members. Make one of the teams a panel of judges.

Get started. Ask this open-ended question:

What is an effective meeting?

Ask each team to come up with a response in exactly 16 words—no more, no less.

Assign a three-minute time limit.

Review the 16-word responses. Ask each team to read its response. Encourage everyone to listen carefully so they can “borrow” ideas from other teams’ statements for later use. After listening to all responses, ask the panel of judges to identify the best response.

Shrink to eight words. Ask the teams to rewrite their responses in exactly eight words. In this process, they may borrow ideas from other teams’ statements. Suggest that teams reduce the size of their responses by removing unimportant ideas, superfluous words, and redundant language. Assign a three-minute time limit.

Judge the eight-word responses. As before, ask each team to read its response. Instruct the panel of judges to identify the best eight-word response.

Reduce by 50 percent. Now ask each team to reduce its statement to one-half of its current size (to exactly four words) while retaining the essential idea. As before, select the best response.

Link to the Meeting

Proceed to the scheduled meeting. Encourage the participants to recall and implement the key factors related to an effective meeting.