Reinforce ground rules
A Brilliant Meeting includes ground rules that are developed and used by groups, but preferably adopted throughout the organisation. These rules are statements of values and guidelines that a group consciously establishes to help individual members decide how to act during a meeting. To be effective, ground rules must be clear, consistent, agreed-to and embraced by all participants.
Brilliant Meeting ground rules
Arrive on time, with relevant, well-prepared content
Choose your attitude
Turn off all personal communication devices: phone, Blackberry™, laptop, etc.
Imagine your Chief Executive Officer (CEO) or Managing Director (MD) is present
Obey the agenda and stay until the end of the meeting
Never use jargon and avoid distracting side conversations
Participate actively – ‘silence is acceptance’
Learn what you do not know, share what you do know
Accept and fully support consensus decisions
Named actions must be completed
See www.meetingexpert.co.uk for more suggestions and examples.
It is worthwhile detailing these meeting ground rules in the meeting invitation, either as a link to the organisation’s intranet (if available), or as a document that can be printed (for external participants), to reinforce their inclusion as part of the meeting process. The meeting ground rules should also be displayed at the meeting venue to remind participants what behaviour is acceptable and that these rules are positively encouraged as part of the values of the organisation.
Distribute briefing notes
Ensure that any information that needs to be accessed before the meeting is sent to the participants early enough to allow sufficient time to complete any necessary reading or further research. Be careful of issuing, in advance, a full transcript of the information as the consequences could include: a reduction in the effectiveness of the presentation or discussion, a reduction in the impact and, ultimately, a reduction in participation. Briefing documents include, but are not limited to: reports, drawings, proposals, technical certifications, financial statements and projections.
Briefing information may need to be collated from a variety of sources. However, in order to keep the material relevant and concise, it is worth detailing the precise format required for inclusion. For example, you could insist that only the facts are presented. Alternatively you could allow the briefing papers to present the facts and propose a number of scenarios on the way forward. However, be aware that this type of persuasion might constrict an open discussion and hamper further idea development.
What is important, for non-subject matter experts, is that the briefing papers:
- are concise;
- state the key message clearly;
- act as an executive summary rather than in-depth specialist detail;
- are clearly presented for maximum impact.
Invest in a copy of Jon Moon’s book How To Make An Impact. This is essential reading for anyone wanting to influence, inform and impress with reports, presentations and business documents. www.jmoon.co.uk
Whilst we do not suggest the trivialisation of strategically important issues, briefing documents must be suitably brief and accessible to non-specialists or they risk not being read at all.
Collate presentations in advance
To ensure that all presentations run smoothly during the meeting, especially if they are to be combined into one, send information on file formats and timescales by which any material should be submitted by contributors. For example:
PowerPoint™ presentation in version 2007 or earlier
No later than Monday 1 December, emailed to ........................................
Presenters all too readily fill their PowerPoint™ slides with images, thereby making the file sizes too large for sending via email, and slowing transitions when delivering from a USB memory stick.
If you are collating all the PowerPoint™ presentations in advance of the meeting, ensure that the authors reduce the file sizes before emailing them to you.
To compress images within a PowerPoint™ presentation (which generally does not reduce the visible quality) do the following, which will significantly reduce the overall file size:
On any PowerPoint™ slide select an image by clicking with the left mouse button. Now click with the right mouse button and choose ‘Properties’ and ‘Format Picture’. Choose a lower output resolution suitable for Web pages and projectors, and select the option to apply this change to all images in your presentation.
Now when you re-save the presentation, the file size will be greatly reduced; just perfect if presentations are being sent by email.
Collating presentations in advance of the meeting will ensure smooth presenter transitions and minimal meeting disruption; after all it is suggested that it takes 10 minutes, on average, for a meeting to ‘get back on track’ after an unscheduled break or interruption.
Schedule catering and breaks
Refreshments
Refreshments provide participants with the necessary energy to maintain their attention; typically this manifests itself as coffee and chocolate biscuits. As much as these are anticipated, they are not necessarily the best choice for the meeting or a great choice from a nutritional point of view. Your participants may not immediately embrace the decision to replace the chocolate biscuits with light healthy snacks, but in fact replacing high-sugar foods with snacks such as fresh fruit and cereal bars will result in a prolonged energy injection, rather than the high peak and low trough of sugary foods.
To maintain energy levels, replace biscuits or pastries, which are energy-dense and calorific, with foods rich in natural sugars, such as fruit and cereal bars, which are absorbed slowly, without a big sugar rush.
Scheduling refreshments can also be used to gently encourage participants to arrive at the meeting space on time – complimentary fresh coffee should be more enticing than having to purchase a vending machine alternative. This may also stop participants from wandering back to their desks during natural breaks and lunch.
Lunch
If lunch is required, first check with the participants for any special dietary requirements. If possible, schedule the food to be delivered to a location outside of the meeting room, thus minimising disruption to the meeting. Ensure that timings are detailed to both the caterers and also the meeting leader, especially if hot food is being provided. Also schedule when the lunch break is to end, so that the catering staff can ensure the leftover food and crockery are removed in good time.
Breaks
Concentration begins to suffer after 45 minutes of uninterrupted sitting. Schedule breaks where participants are encouraged to get up and move around for at least five minutes.
Scheduling breakout sessions
Breakout sessions can also improve concentration levels as well as increasing input from the ‘quieter’ members of the group. Those participants not comfortable contributing as part of a large group may be more willing to give their point of view during these smaller sessions. Breakout groups will require more physical space and a possible duplication of resources, but having participants compare and contrast information in smaller groups can lead to all manner of new thinking.
Meeting notes
Not every meeting will have a designated note taker; in fact most meetings rely on individuals to make their own notes, choosing instead to capture only information on resulting actions. This decision is influenced by the meeting type and purpose. However, if a note taker will be in attendance, it is now time to determine the format in which notes should be captured, written up and circulated. Rather than simply relying on handwritten notes, which has the potential to take days to type up and circulate, is there suitable technology you could use to automate this? Chapter 13 gives more information on what technology may be available to assist with the recording of the meeting notes.
If formal meeting notes are to be used it is important that the process is in place and communicated in advance of the meeting.
Individual or group responsibility
Let the participants know in advance of the meeting if a note taker will be in attendance to record the meeting and in what level of detail. This will let the participant prepare any resources for making their individual notes.
Issue a meeting note template
In order to accurately record the meeting information, issue the designated note taker with a meeting note template. This can either be used electronically during the meeting, or recorded by hand, and transcribed immediately afterwards. To download example meeting note templates, visit www.meetingexpert.co.uk.
Brief the note taker
Ensure that the note taker is familiar with any jargon that may be used; this will aid the flow of the meeting. Also ensure that the note taker knows the participants by name – normally contributors will be recorded by their initials for speed of capture.
Collate all relevant material in to a single file
Whether you choose to use technology or not, essentially the notes from your meeting should be circulated in a format that incorporates different types and sources of information as simply as possible. Why? Because too many different files attached to an email are quite daunting to receive and it then becomes increasingly likely that the email will not be opened, let alone read.
Distribute notes promptly after the meeting
The longer the period before participants receive the meeting notes, the higher the probability of forgotten action items and a reduced enthusiasm to advance the project.
Aim to distribute notes within two to three days.
Meeting invitation
Finally, send out the meeting invitation to the participants that you have selected previously. The invitation should include some or all of the following information (dependent on the formality and frequency of the meetings) and should be as appealing as possible.
- Meeting title – to include meeting purpose. If the meeting is of a confidential nature, be careful with the wording of the title as this could be seen in electronic calendars, etc. If sending an electronic invitation use the ‘confidential’ options available.
- Meeting date.
- Meeting times, start and end.
- Meeting location (include a map/directions if necessary).
- Meeting objectives.
- Meeting agenda.
- Meeting ground rules – circulate the Brilliant Meetings ACTION PLAN.
- Details of the other invitees.
- Your contact information, in case of an emergency.
- What facilities are available to those who arrive early, so they can make the best use of their time. Refreshments, Internet, telephone, hot-desk facility, for example.
- What equipment will be available for use during the meeting.
- In what format contributors should bring (or forward in advance) presentations/content etc.
- Dress code (business suit or ‘dress down Friday’?).
If this is a new group, or it includes external participants, where possible also include a short biography on individual participants, detailing why their presence is a meaningful addition.
For one-off meetings or the first meeting of a new group, it would also be helpful to incorporate an executive summary – probably written by the meeting leader – as to why this meeting is strategically important to the organisation and to the individuals invited. If participants can identify a clear ‘What’s in it for me?’ they will be more likely to accept the invitation and invest more of their time in preparation.
If there are several weeks between the initial invitation, the draft agenda and the meeting itself, then diarise a reminder to chase up responses and briefing material at least 24 hours before they are due, as well as sending out a reminder about the meeting itself.
Additional preparation
If the meeting is being held off-site or includes people from outside the organisation visiting your site, there may be additional preparation required. Consider the following:
- allocation of car parking spaces;
- visitor passes/name badges;
- security clearance;
- distribute the postcode of the venue for satellite navigation entry;
- send a map and directions, along with public transport information.
