Frequent Meeting Problems and What You Should Do About Them

Frequent Meeting Problems and What You Should Do About Them

by | Jul 14, 2016 | Communication Skills, Facilitation Skills, Leadership Skills, Managing Conflict, Meeting Structure, Meeting Support, Meeting Tools

Five Meeting Problems and What You Should Do About Them

Don’t let meeting problems become a burden

Ever develop that sense of deja vu about not getting anywhere during a meeting?

Meeting problems are indicative of resistance that is generated during a meeting. However, resistance can be prevented and mitigated with professional behavior. Here’s what to do about the most common meeting problems.

1.  Meeting Problems — Lack of clear purpose

All too frequently, meetings are held for the primary benefit of the meeting leader, typically the group’s director, supervisor, or project manager. The session leader has decided to schedule a series of weekly meetings in advance, typically for their convenience. They anticipate needing the time of others to raise the fog high enough so that they can determine what they need to get done over the next week, until the next meeting.

SOLUTION FOR MEETING PROBLEM — #1:  

Carefully articulate the purpose and deliverable of the meeting, preferably in twenty-five words or less. If you are unable to clearly explain why you are having the meeting and the meeting’s desired output (i.e., “What does ‘DONE’ look like?”), then you are not prepared to be an effective meeting leader. If you are the participant, demand a written statement that details the purpose, scope, and deliverable of the meeting, preferably in advance, or don’t attend.

2.  Meeting Problems — Unprepared participants

Lack of clear purpose (mentioned above) is the main reason participants show up unprepared. Before and sometimes during the meeting, they remain unclear about what “showing up prepared” looks like.

SOLUTION FOR MEETING PROBLEM — #2:  

Beyond a written statement about the meeting’s purpose, scope, and deliverables, participants need an advanced understanding of the agenda. The agenda explains how the meeting will generate results so that participants can get out. Nobody wants more meetings or longer meetings. Detailed questions determine agenda topics (e.g., What are our options?). Ideally, participants should know the questions to be asked during the meeting before it begins, so that they can attend prepared and ready to respond.

3.  Meeting Problems — Biased leadership

Nothing will restrain the input of participants faster than a leader who begins to emphasize their answer. Participants will then hope the leader exposes an entire position before they begin to make contributions, so that they know where they stand, and avoid embarrassment about being “wrong”.

SOLUTION FOR MEETING PROBLEM — #3:  

Leaders should embrace neutrality. If they want others’ input and opinions, then ask and listen. If they don’t want others’ ideas, they should not have a meeting. There are more cost-effective means for informing and persuading than hosting meetings. Being neutral is like being pregnant, you either are or you’re not—there is no grey area.

4.  Meeting Problems — Scope creep (strategic and tactical blending)

All too often, meetings dive deep into the weeds (i.e., HOW or concrete methods) or challenge the purpose (i.e., WHY or ultimate intention). Nobody wants more meetings, they only want results.

SOLUTION FOR MEETING PROBLEM — #4:  

To avoid scope creep in the meeting, carefully craft a written statement reflecting the scope (see item number one above). Carefully police the scope of an issue so that participants don’t go too deep into the weeds. Thus ensure that others do not argue about the reason for a project, as project approval is beyond the scope of most meetings. For pertinent strategic issues that are beyond the scope of the meeting, capture them in a “Refrigerator” (aka “Parking Lot”) to preserve them until you can meet in a workshop forum that discusses strategic issues, their implications, and what needs to be done about them (recommendations).

5.  Meeting Problems — Poor or non-existent structure

Lack of structure applies both at the meeting level (i.e., agenda) and within each agenda step. Structure enhances flexibility and gives you a method for delivering ‘done’. Most leaders are competent at soliciting ideas (i.e., creating a list) but remain frail during the analysis activity. Therefore, use our Meeting Pathway and Meeting Canvas regularly.

SOLUTIONS FOR MEETING PROBLEM — #5:  

Determine in advance:

  • What are you going to do with the list?
  • How will you lead them to categorize items?
  • Should you categorize, or perhaps push on to specific measurable details?
  • If prioritizing, have you separately identified the criteria?
  • How are you going to lead the group to apply the criteria to the options that lead to a prioritized list?

 

6. Dealing with the Meeting Problem — “They’re all Priority One!”

A group would not prioritize a list of activities because they felt that all were very important and that prioritizing them would allow some to drop off and not get done. The support organization had only a limited number of resources and limited time. First of all, how do you get a group to set priorities?

Meeting Problem

Dealing with Meeting Problems

SOLUTIONS FOR MEETING PROBLEM — #6:  

  1. Separately develop the criteria that prove the importance of the activities.
  2. Admit that all the actions are top priority or they would not have been discussed.
  3. Ask them to prioritize the criteria, one relative to each, other using the Bookend tool.
  4. Build a Decision-Matrix to align the criteria with the activities and develop a sense of relative importance, without omitting anything.

7. Dealing with the Meeting Problem — “Don’t Measure Me”

An organization is culturally biased against SMART measures and hard objectives during a business process improvement initiative. Hence, history has caused them to resist, cheat, or fall victim to objective measures. Since the facilitator must get the group to define SMART measures and objectives, what should they do?

SOLUTIONS FOR MEETING PROBLEM — #7:  

  1. Follow a method that allows the group to define their measures—by first defining the rewards, benefits, risks, challenges, and then associated measures.
  2. To ensure that key measures have been identified, ask participants to draw upon benchmarking of competitors and other industries
  3. Have the group identify their concerns with SMART objectives and develop strategies or actions to address their concerns. Consider the Content Management tool.

8. Dealing with a Meeting Problem — One-Day Wonder

A diverse group has one day to define an improved critical scheduling process. Because the improved process needs clear roles and responsibilities, how do we get them going?

SOLUTIONS FOR MEETING PROBLEM — #8:  

  1. Define a limited deliverable very clearly with the project manager. Focus on what can be done within the time frame.
  2. Have the participants complete before the workshop, such as benchmarking, assessment tools, etc.
  3. Conduct a quick team-building exercise at the start to pull the team together as quickly as possible.
  4. Timebox steps as necessary with precise rhetoric that questions “Did we get the most important stuff?” and NOT “Did we get everything?”.

9. Dealing with Meeting Problems — Two Groups

We have two groups, each from a different office, yet each is jointly responsible for a project. One was actively involved upfront (the project manager is from that area) while the other was not involved in the initial meetings. The second group feels no ownership even though they have a key role. How do you get them together?

SOLUTIONS FOR MEETING PROBLEM — #9:  

  1. Meet with the second group first in developing the workshop and to help them understand what has developed, their role, and clarify the issues that concern them.
  2. Meet with executive management to reinforce their support for the project because their visible support motivates others.
  3. Launch a formal kick-off meeting and provide some team-building exercises.

10. Dealing with Meeting Problems — Executive Solution

A workshop designed to focus on business process improvement opportunities. The workshop develops the goals, objectives, principles, and strategies of the initiative. The executive participated in the workshop. However, after the workshop, the executive decided to change the output to suit himself.

SOLUTIONS FOR MEETING PROBLEM — #10:  

  1. Publish the original results for distribution to all stakeholders as soon as possible.
  2. Also, have the project manager intervene on behalf of the project team members.
  3. Carefully document the risks and rewards associated with the mandated change.
  4. Next time, emphasize ground rules about consensus building and educate the executive, before the workshop, on empowerment, ownership, and accountability.

 

It’s not easy to lead a successful meeting. No one ever said it was. Success begins with clear thinking and understanding of how to avoid the most common problems with meetings.

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Don’t ruin your career by hosting bad meetings. Sign up for a workshop or send this to someone who should. MGRUSH workshops focus on meeting design and practice. Each person practices tools, methods, and activities daily during the week. Therefore, while some call this immersion, we call it the road to building high-value facilitation skills.

Our workshops also provide a superb way to earn up to 40 SEUs from the Scrum Alliance, 40 CDUs from IIBA, 40 Continuous Learning Points (CLPs) based on Federal Acquisition Certification Continuous Professional Learning Requirements using Training and Education activities, 40 Professional Development Units (PDUs) from SAVE International, as well as 4.0 CEUs for other professions. (See workshop and Reference Manual descriptions for details.)

Want a free 10-minute break timer? Sign up for our once-monthly newsletter HERE and receive a free timer along with four other of our favorite facilitation tools.

 

“Customer Moat: Unveiling the Secrets of Business Strategy”

“Customer Moat: Unveiling the Secrets of Business Strategy”

by | Jun 16, 2016 | Leadership Skills, Meeting Tools

Eddie Sung (Author) has released an easily readable book, Customer Moat: Unveiling the Secrets of Business Strategy, that some might call a primer.

Although his discussion does not break new ground (like “Blue Ocean Strategy“), he brings life and enjoyable reading to the basics of profit-building, illustrating the complex interrelationship of customer voice mixed with market factors that lead to profit. Thus, his story builds the analogy of a “moat” serving to isolate customers from competitive choices and alternatives.

His experience derives from a family-owned retail business and his rhetoric is biased by simple decision-making. Readers from more complicated commercial, industrial, and institutional environments may lack an easy conversion to their complex reality of multiple purchasing voices and influences within one customer organization. However, Eddie provides an excellent series of end notes and bibliography to both support his claims, thus making it easy for you to dive deeper based on your own, discrete scenario, and customer moat perspective. Therefore, his primary thesis builds upon eight “customer moat builders” including (alpha sort):

“Customer Moat: Unveiling the Secrets of Business Strategy”

Customer Moat Protection

  1. Branding
  2. Cost
  3. Distribution
  4. Location
  5. Networking
  6. Scale
  7. Supply
  8. Value

(Part One)

The early premise provides a clear compendium of his MBA background and research.  His explanation that customer moats impact market share, profit margin, and price is basic, although nicely illustrated.  This section provides more value in growing and retaining a customer base than it does in providing insight into acquiring new customers and markets.  He stresses “. . . how businesses hold on to their customers.” through operations, scale, positioning, and control.  He concedes later “ . . . it is better to foster repeat customers. . . keeping existing ones is often more cost-effective.” and “The main purpose of the Brand moat builder is not to get new customers per se but to keep existing customers returning.”

(Part Two)

His detailed discussion about the eight customer moat builders remains vibrant and research-supported.  While some of his examples are classic business tales (e.g., Ohno’s Five-Whys at Toyota), his writing style keeps the reader engaged as the pages turn quickly.  However, he again primarily illustrates his claims with simple retail examples including 7-Eleven, Amazon, Costco, Krispy Kreme, McDonald’s, Southwest Airlines, Starbucks, Toyota (automobiles), Walgreens, and Wal-Mart among others.

His discussion on Network Effect (Scale) provides some of the freshest material and does not pre-supposes that he has the answers, he does offer up some excellent questions:

  • “How do we get customers to enhance the experiences of other customers?” and
  • “What types of information do our customers possess that we can use to improve their future experience?”

In the end, you should buy this book. Although I’ve never met him, I’m convinced that Eddie is a “good guy” and he certainly researched well, worked hard, and wrote clearly to make this book on customer moats available. Treat it somewhat as an updated “In Search of Excellence” as the takeaways are clear and valid, even fun. Be forewarned however that clear actionable takeaways may be lacking for readers who are not directly in the retail sector.

 

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Don’t ruin your career by hosting bad meetings. Sign up for a workshop or send this to someone who should. MGRUSH workshops focus on meeting design and practice. Each person practices tools, methods, and activities daily during the week. Therefore, while some call this immersion, we call it the road to building high-value facilitation skills.

Our workshops also provide a superb way to earn up to 40 SEUs from the Scrum Alliance, 40 CDUs from IIBA, 40 Continuous Learning Points (CLPs) based on Federal Acquisition Certification Continuous Professional Learning Requirements using Training and Education activities, 40 Professional Development Units (PDUs) from SAVE International, as well as 4.0 CEUs for other professions. (See workshop and Reference Manual descriptions for details.)

Want a free 10-minute break timer? Sign up for our once-monthly newsletter HERE and receive a free timer along with four other of our favorite facilitation tools.

 

The Most Effective Facilitators Stop Saying “I” — Use Pluralistic Rhetoric

The Most Effective Facilitators Stop Saying “I” — Use Pluralistic Rhetoric

by | Jun 9, 2016 | Communication Skills, Leadership Skills

As an effective facilitator, stop saying “I”

Learn to naturally substitute the plural “we” or “us”.  However, for others, it remains a significant challenge. Therefore, if challenged, consider this opportunity as the number one change you can embrace to become a more effective facilitator. Stop saying “I”.

We have witnessed many people using the word “I” over three times in one sentence and over one dozen times in one minute. In other words, don’t be that person.

For instance, look at these examples drawn from numerous self-directed comments.

  • “I am going to . . .”
    • could be, “We are going to…”
  • “I believe . . .”
    • Could be, “Do you believe…”
  • “I can agree . . .”
    • Could be, “Will you support…’
  • “I can see it both ways . . .”
    • COULD BE DELETED ENTIRELY, reflect both ways instead.
  • “I expect . . . ”
    • Could be, “We may see …”
  • “I got it.”
    • Should be, “Do you all understand that…”
  • “I like it . . .”
    • Should never be spoken.
  • “I like that one . . .”
    • Should never be spoken.
  • “I need . . .”
    • Should always be, “We need…”
  • “I need your input . . .”
    • Should be “We need your input…”

 

Look at these …

  • “I propose . . .”
    • Is never the role of the facilitator.
  • “I see . . .”
    • Should be, “Do you all see that…”
  • “I see nodding . . .”
    • Needs reflection of WHY they are nodding.
  • “I think . . .”
    • You were hired to facilitate, not think.
  • “I think we have . . .”
    • Substitute with “It appears…”
  • “I want . . .”
    • Again, “We need…”
  • “I would like . . .”
    • Again, “We need…”

 

Now for our favorite …

____________________________________________

  • “I’d like you to help me . . .”
    • But we hired you to help us!

____________________________________________

Followed by …

  • “I’ll talk about . . .”
    • Shut up and listen.
  • “I’m hearing . . .”
    • Should be, “We’re hearing that…”
  • “I’m very interested in . . .”
    • Could be, “We would all benefit from knowing…”
  • “What I would like you to do . . .”
    • Should be “What we need to do now is…”
  • “What I’d like to do . . .”
    • You don’t need permission to do your job, just do it.
  • “What I’d like to do now is . . .”
    • Should be, “What we are going to do next is…”

 

Or, using a first-person variant such as:

  • “Sounds to me . . .”
  • “My thoughts . . .”
  • “Can you tell me . . .”
  • “Tell me . . .”
  • “Help me . . .”
  • “My meeting . . .”

 

Our favorites are in bold font (“Help me”) 

Since we are led to believe that the reason for engaging a facilitator is to help us (participants), simply use integrative rhetoric, substituting the plural “we” or “us” such as “We need . . .” or “We are going to . . .”  The biggest challenge for many is that they remain unconscious as to what they are saying, how many times they are saying “I”, and the negative impact it has on their persona as an effective facilitator.  When a meeting leader frequently uses the word “I”, such as “I”. . . believe . . .  want . . . think . . .  hope . . . need . . . feel . . . etc . . . focus becomes directed at them instead of the issue at hand, most importantly, the meeting deliverable. Therefore, guess who will own the deliverable at the end of such a meeting?  The “I”s have it

Illness or Wellness

“I”llness or “We”llness

How to Influence Ownership

To ensure that ownership of meeting output is owned and shared by everyone, and to help you become a more effective facilitator, look at the difference between the following two terms:

  1. Illness
  2. Wellness

The simple (and somewhat humorous, albeit coincidental) difference is contrasting the first person singular to the first person plural. Above all, the focus should always be on the issue and the participants, not on the facilitator.

Record yourself some time, listen to the recording, and count the occurrences of the word “I.”  You may be surprised, and if so, now you can do something about it to become a more effective facilitator.

Finally, stay vigilant about saying “Thank you” too often. Optimally, you should probably never say “Thank you”, but we understand the need for you to be natural as well. However, if you are constantly thanking participants for their contributions, who does it appear the deliverable is built to serve? Therefore, transferring ownership of the meeting output begins with integrative and pluralistic rhetoric. Avoid the colloquial and stay conscious. After all, you should be there to serve them, not the other way around.

Build Immediate Results, Create Long-Lasting Impact

Our hands-on approach to meeting leadership, facilitation, and design offers immediate improvements in the productivity and effectiveness of your meetings. By focusing on purpose-driven agendas, engaging facilitation, and clear processes, we empower professionals to create meetings that yield results, enhance decision quality, and foster meaningful participation. 

Are you ready to transform your meetings into opportunities for impactful decision-making and innovative problem-solving? Explore our curriculum and discover how structured training in meeting leadership and facilitation can elevate your team’s potential and enhance every session’s effectiveness.

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Don’t ruin your career by hosting bad meetings. Sign up for a workshop or send this to someone who should. MGRUSHworkshops focus on meeting design and practice. Each person practices tools, methods, and activities daily during the week. Therefore, while some call this immersion, we call it the road to building high-value facilitation skills.

Our workshops also provide a superb way to earn up to 40 SEUs from the Scrum Alliance, 40 CDUs from IIBA, 40 Continuous Learning Points (CLPs) based on Federal Acquisition Certification Continuous Professional Learning Requirements using Training and Education activities, 40 Professional Development Units (PDUs) from SAVE International, as well as 4.0 CEUs for other professions. (See workshop and Reference Manual descriptions for details.)

Want a free 10-minute break timer? Sign up for our once-monthly newsletter HERE and receive a free timer along with four other of our favorite facilitation tools.

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How to Be Precise with Three Meeting Transition Questions: Do NOT Ask “How Do You Solve Global Hunger?”

How to Be Precise with Three Meeting Transition Questions: Do NOT Ask “How Do You Solve Global Hunger?”

by | May 26, 2016 | Communication Skills, Meeting Structure, Meeting Support

Meeting Transition questions is highly effective because you cannot develop a plan, any plan, such as a marketing plan, by asking “What is the marketing plan?” The question is so broad as to be dull, ubiquitous, myopic, and broad (DUMB).

How to Be Precise with Three Transition Questions: Do NOT Ask “How Do You Solve Global Hunger?”

Three Transition Questions for Clarity and Precision

It’s not easy for participants to respond to broad questions like “How do you solve global hunger?”  While appropriate, the question’s scope is too broad (and perhaps vague) to stimulate specific, actionable responses like “We could convert those abandoned mine shafts in Somalia and create food storage areas.”

Three Appropriate Yet Powerful Transition Questions

Extemporaneous leaders should develop a tendency to modify three core transition questions during meetings instead of asking broad questions like, “Are we OK with this list?” or, “Can we move on?” Therefore, use more structure and precision by relying on transition questions with these three simple, pertinent, and clear questions that can be modified to your own situation:

  • Do we need to clarify anything (e.g., on this list)? (First test for clarity and shared understanding only, not necessarily agreement).
  • Do we need to delete anything (e.g., from this list)? (Next test for appropriateness, relevancy, and potential redundancy).
  • Do we need to add anything (e.g., to this list)? (Finally, scrub for omissions or something significant that needs to be considered in addition to what has been already captured).

The three detailed transition questions make it easier for meeting participants to analyze, agree, and move on. Consequently, after participants have agreed they understand, have been provided an opportunity to remove something they cannot support, and have been challenged to add something they may have missed, you are prepared to properly transition.

The clarity and precision of the three transition questions demand more rigorous thinking and encourage the focus most people need to apply thorough analysis. Make it easier for your participants, and avoid the vague, extemporaneous questions that result in the worst deliverable you could ever develop in a meeting—another meeting.

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Don’t ruin your career by hosting bad meetings. Sign up for a workshop or send this to someone who should. MGRUSH workshops focus on meeting design and practice. Each person practices tools, methods, and activities every day during the week. Therefore, while some call this immersion, we call it the road to building high-value facilitation skills.

Our workshops also provide a superb way to earn up to 40 SEUs from the Scrum Alliance, 40 CDUs from IIBA, 40 Continuous Learning Points (CLPs) based on Federal Acquisition Certification Continuous Professional Learning Requirements using Training and Education activities, 40 Professional Development Units (PDUs) from SAVE International, as well as 4.0 CEUs for other professions. (See workshop and Reference Manual descriptions for details.)

Want a free 10-minute break timer? Sign up for our once-monthly newsletter HERE and receive a timer along with four other of our favorite facilitation tools, free.

Related article

Differences Between Skills of Project and Program Management

Differences Between Skills of Project and Program Management

by | May 19, 2016 | Communication Skills, Facilitation Skills, Leadership Skills

Close analysis of the PMBOK® (version 5) suggests that all skills required for effective project management are also required for program management.

The differences between project management and program management reflect the prioritization and relative importance of skills to each role.

At a high level, both project management and program management require:

  1. Conceptual skills
  2. Design skills
  3. Human skills
  4. Technical skills

However, there are clear differences between the day-shift manager at a fast-food restaurant and a program manager running a multi-billion, multi-cultural, multi-year project. Both require the skills listed above, but differences lie in their relative importance, or prioritization. If comparing the three roles on a simple basis, you might agree to the following levels of importance, where a solid Powerball is High and an empty Powerball is Low:

Differences Between Skills of Project and Program Management

While your environment may be ‘unique’ and therefore not like the above, there must remain differences. Most noteworthy on the aggregate, ‘human’ skills are the most important, followed by technical skills. Since human skills rely hugely on communication skills, and effective communication relies largely on ‘listening’ skills, then arguably facilitation remains one of the most important skills for project management and program management, since the core skill of facilitation is “active listening.”

Program Management in 3-D

Expand the logic further by using Mackenzie’s “The Management Process in 3-D” as a guidepost.  Here we see (from an area perspective) that “People” represent one-half of the pie. People require ‘leadership’ skills depending on the function of ‘communications’ to ensure understanding and bring about purposeful action.

Differences Between Skills of Project and Program Management Program Management: Mackenzie's Management Process in 3-D © 1969 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College

Program Management: Mackenzie’s Management Process in 3-D © 1969 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College

Therefore, we would argue that facilitation skills are more important for project managers than program managers. With a project manager, there may be more than one right answer. For most program management, conditions and assumptions drive optimal solutions. Both manager types need to be skilled, but the relative importance of those skills varies across management types.

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Don’t ruin your career by hosting bad meetings. Sign up for a workshop or send this to someone who should. MGRUSH workshops focus on meeting design and practice. Each person practices tools, methods, and activities every day during the week. Therefore, while some call this immersion, we call it the road to building high-value facilitation skills.

Our workshops also provide a superb way to earn up to 40 SEUs from the Scrum Alliance, 40 CDUs from IIBA, 40 Continuous Learning Points (CLPs) based on Federal Acquisition Certification Continuous Professional Learning Requirements using Training and Education activities, 40 Professional Development Units (PDUs) from SAVE International, as well as 4.0 CEUs for other professions. (See workshop and Reference Manual descriptions for details.)

Want a free 10-minute break timer? Sign up for our once-monthly newsletter HERE and receive a timer along with four other of our favorite facilitation tools, free.