CHAPTER 11

Establish Ground Rules

Setting guidelines at the beginning of a meeting encourages everyone’s participation and keeps the conversation on track. The guidelines don’t have to be rigid or overly formal but should serve as a set of shared expectations for behavior that reflect your time constraints, the size of your group, and your meeting’s intentions and goals. For example, your group may decide to let only one person speak at a time, not allow interruptions, set time limits on contributions, table issues that aren’t easily resolved, limit conversations that stray from the topic at hand, and make sure that everyone is heard from.

If you’re meeting with the same group of people on a regular basis, the group can develop these guidelines together. Otherwise, suggest some ground rules at the beginning of your meeting, and get buy-in from the attendees.

Specifying ground rules signals to participants that you intend to keep things moving efficiently.

• Reassert that you’re committed to beginning and ending on time (and then really do it).
• Ask for everyone’s participation and openness to new ideas.
• Agree to listen to each other and limit interruptions—and as the leader, enforce that rule.
• Clarify how decisions will be made. Let the group know right up front if this will be a group-decision meeting, a meeting that calls for participants’ input, or a meeting that shares a decision that has already been made.
• Explain your policy on multitasking and device use.

You may also need to establish ground rules for specific agenda items:

• Clarify constraints that exist for any issue that will be under discussion—for example, upper-management decisions or policy or budget restrictions that may limit the group’s range of options.
• Identify the final decision maker for each item— especially if it’s not someone in the meeting (such as the CEO or department manager).

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Martha Craumer is a senior writer at The Boston Consulting Group.

Adapted from Running Meetings (20-Minute Manager series; product #17003), Harvard Business Review Press, 2014; and Martha Craumer, “How to Run an Effective Meeting: The Basics.”