Leading Meetings

How do you make meetings effective?

Effective and time-efficient meetings should produce work that is important to the school, promote collaborative working practices and create efficacy. Well-run meetings are one way of influencing the working culture of a school. What you pay attention to will be counted as important. But how do you achieve these ends?

As an introduction to running meetings this page contains top tips for leading effective meetings and a template for designing an agenda.

Running effective meetings

How to run effective meetings

This is a helpful video providing hints on how to organise an effective meeting - it is all about communication.

The presenter makes the following 3 points:

  • Recognise their reality - 'why should I care about this?' - think about audience needs so you can communicate and connect with them
  • Point out the pain before providing the prescription - we need to sell the 'why in' before we get the 'buy in'
  • Give them the 3 G's - grab them (think about the opening of the meeting (get their attention)), give them (give them the content) and goodbye (maybe a call to action)

"A meeting is an event where the minutes are kept but the hours are lost." Grainne Hallahan, Put the science behind meetings on the agenda, Tes 4 October 2019)

Reflect

  • Read the blog: How to run effective meetings. Click this LINK.

  • Highlight the protocols you would like to see in your meetings.

  • Discuss: which protocols that would be most challenging to implement and what strategies can be used to overcome the challenges faced.

  • Reflect: Could we use the IB Learner Profile to support running effective meetings?

Top Tips for running effective meetings


Top Tips for running effective meetings

How to produce work through meetings

Role of the Facilitator (sometimes called Chair)

"A highly skilled facilitator is much like an accomplished dancer. One notices the dance but not the dancer. She directs process yet is supremely flexible. She follows principles, not rules. She improvises. She knows her own cognitive styles and stretches beyond them when it serves the group. She is comfortable with who she is and sets aside judgements about others. She is clear in the moment about her intentions. She thinks beyond activities to outcomes. She is reflective and learning from experience. She can direct or request, be firm or soft, serious or light, focus on task or on relationships. She has abundant knowledge about processes and groups. She is effortlessly competent with many facilitation moves." (The Adaptive School: A sourcebook for developing collaborative groups, Garmston.R.J., & Wellman B.M, 2013:95)

PLANNING: Like effective lessons, effective meetings need to be well planned. But what does this mean?

Be clear on outcomes: From the outset people need to know why they are meeting and what they are expecting to achieve (i.e. the outcome of the meeting). Are you meeting to receive and discuss status reports? Or are you calling a meeting to generate ideas? Do you want decisions, and if so on what? Do you want to make recommendations, and if so on what? It is useful to plan with the end in mind. Try completing the following sentence: ‘By the end of the meeting I want the members of the meeting to…..” Post outcomes in the meeting room - this forces you to construct clear goals.

Each agenda item needs to justify its existence: Justify each item on the agenda so that people feel it is worthwhile focusing on it. There needs to be a clearly articulated reason for each item on the agenda. It could be to discuss, analyze, explore, inform, summarize, recommend, decide etc. Don't just recycle agenda items from one meeting to the next.

Structure the agenda:

  • Only put on the agenda items which have to be there in order to fulfill the meeting outcome. Make sure that the purpose of each item is clear.
  • Who needs to attend the meeting to accomplish the outcomes? If some of the items on the agenda are not relevant to particular people do they need to attend for some or even all of it?
  • Carefully sequence the order of items – it is wise to put those items which require specific action (e.g. recommendations or decisions) at the top of the agenda to ensure that discussion is not rushed.
  • Frame agenda items as professional inquiry questions - this makes it more goal-oriented.
  • Assign specific topics to members of the meeting – this creates ‘buy in’ and greater levels of involvement.
  • Start and end meetings on time – and thus respect the time each member has given.

Provide appropriate information ahead of the meeting: people’s time is precious. Therefore ensure that they have enough time ahead of the meeting to prepare for it.

  • Commission papers relevant to appropriate items on the agenda and ensure that they are circulated in a timely manner so that members have sufficient time to read and reflect on them (in classrooms we call this flipped learning).
  • Draft an agenda and circulate to all members well ahead of the meeting asking for their input. Get feedback on the draft agenda from members. You need to be participative right from the start.

EXECUTION

Define roles:

  • The facilitator (sometimes referred to as Chair) is responsible for process and not content. They should be skilled in strategies to engage people to participate. They have no decision-making authority. They are neutral and acceptable to all members of the group. The facilitators' job is to focus group energy, keep the members on task and direct the process that enable the group to problem-solve, share information, evaluate and make decisions efficiently and effectively.
  • The recorder, like the facilitator, holds a neutral position. Their role is to provide a visual representation of the meeting, especially the actions that were agreed against the meeting outcome and purposes for each agenda item.

During the meeting:

  • Use time allocations to focus on agenda items.
  • Use facilitation activities to engage all members all the time - e.g. take a moment to jot down your ideas, Pair-Share for ideas etc.
  • At the end of each agenda item, quickly summarize what was said, and ask people to confirm that it's a fair summary. Then make notes regarding follow-up.
  • At the end of the meeting the recorder should summarize all decisions and next steps.
  • You could use a Padlet as a collaborative tool for all members of the meeting to record what has been agreed.

After the meeting:

  • Prepare the meeting summary. Check for accuracy with those who attended and then forward to all members of the team and relevant stakeholders.  

An idea to start a meeting ...

Questions to ask:

Setting the agenda

Setting the agenda is a way of thinking requiring careful planning if the meeting is to be successful.

Meeting Template

Making decisions

Checklist for making decisions

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