Choosing your participants
The meeting objectives have been determined and, in order to accomplish them, input is required from numerous contributors. The right balance of participants needed to achieve the meeting goals must now be decided upon. When selecting the participants, consider job roles, experience and perhaps even personalities, all with the end goal in mind. With too few people involved, a decision may be reached quickly, but was the breadth of knowledge, experience and stakeholder involvement present, to ensure support and implementation? With too many participants the time needed to hear and consider input from everyone might prove too long. Within a larger group, there is an increased likelihood of smaller fragmented groups forming, leading to difficulties in reaching consensus decisions and maintaining control of the group.
The purpose of the meeting will determine the participants whose presence is necessary in order to achieve the objectives and these will include the following:
Except for those who have the luxury of optional attendance – such as executive sponsors – the participants selected to attend are those who have a direct role in the proceedings and a stakeholding in the outcome.
Overcoming physical barriers
Just because a chosen participant is based remotely should not preclude them from being invited to the meeting. The preferred method of inclusion would be to use video conferencing, allowing the remote participant to take an active role in the meeting, whilst being visible to all. As well as video, there are other conferencing options through which remote participants can be included effectively, such as telephone and data conferencing. Chapter 13 provides an overview of available equipment and guidance of best practices.
Attending only part of the meeting
Consider inviting subject matter experts, internal and/or external, for only the section of the meeting that is relevant and valuable to both them as individuals and the group. Try to schedule these participants close to a break in the meeting to limit potential disruptions.
Personalities
Managing participation once the participants are assembled is the job of the meeting leader, and in Chapter 15 we take a closer look at the differing types of personalities that could be sitting in the room.
An ideal group dynamic will be a blend of personality types. A meeting room full of extroverts may be difficult to manage as everyone competes to have their opinions heard and, by the same measure, a room full of introverts might challenge even the best leader to encourage meaningful participation.
Who to leave out
Coinciding with the introduction of Brilliant Meetings, now is the ideal time to have a hard look at who has been attending meetings, and who should be attending meetings in the future. Just because someone has always taken part in a certain series of meetings, does not mean that they should automatically be included in the future.
Perform a ‘meeting audit’ to evaluate the contributions made by each participant. To download a meeting audit checklist visit www.meetingexpert.co.uk.
In order to assist in the decision-making process of who should be included in a forthcoming meeting, review the following list.
- From the previous meeting notes, review contributions made by individual participants. Does their name appear regularly in the meeting notes, either for contributions made during the meeting or because they have been assigned actions?
- Consider what preparation these people make before a meeting. Are they motivated to participate actively and carry out the required pre-meeting preparation?
- Rate their overall value to the meeting.
- What value do they take away from the meeting?
- Where and with whom do they share the outcomes of the meetings?
- What would be the impact on the group dynamics if an individual was not invited to the next meeting?
If it is decided that the presence of an individual is no longer required, suggest that, instead of inviting them to future meetings, it would be a better use of their time to receive a copy of the meeting notes only.
Assign meeting roles
For some meetings, tasks need to be delegated before the meeting starts, so that participants arrive knowing what additional role is expected of them. Whether it is a task to ensure that the meeting leader is keeping to time, or the recording of questions and answers given, all these additional responsibilities should be decided upon before the meeting commences. This will also help to define any additional equipment needed, such as flip chart, whiteboard, projector, etc. (See Chapter 13 for additional information.) Not all of the following roles will be appropriate for every meeting, in fact for many less formal meetings it may be only a meeting leader that is required, but they should be considered as follows:
- meeting leader;
- note taker;
- scribe to write notes/record questions on flip chart or interactive whiteboard;
- timekeeper;
- independent facilitator;
- presenters;
- audio visual technician.
If these or any other roles are to be assigned to participants, get their approval beforehand – a quick phone call or email should suffice – so that the meeting invitation and other information can be circulated with details of these duties included.