Compelling Reasons for Structured Meetings | Positive Impact on Stakeholders

Compelling Reasons for Structured Meetings | Positive Impact on Stakeholders

by | May 28, 2015 | Leadership Skills, Managing Conflict, Meeting Support

Using structured meetings with facilitation and professional meeting design quickly gets people to focus on the right question at the right time.

Structured meetings capture broad and specific wisdom by sticking to facts. Groups fail (or operate at poor levels) either because they don’t care, don’t have the talent, or don’t know how. Knowing that there is almost always more than one right answer, and with a sincere effort toward ever improving, our method focuses on group decision-making, planning, analysis, and prioritization. Since nearly all of our contacts come from ‘word-of-mouth’, an alumnus called us to help justify a private workshop. Our private workshops include leadership, facilitation, and meeting design. We built this content for their benefit.

Fact One

A lot of meeting time goes unproductive and an entire meeting may be viewed as a waste of time.

  • A meeting involves real costs as the frequency and length of meetings continue to grow around the world.
  • Studies prove that a normal meeting falls short of being 50 percent productive.
  • Poorly run meetings prevail and some people and their entire culture now have “meeting dementia.”
  • A meeting can create a common understanding and higher quality decisions than people on their own.

So What?

With structured meetings, groups can avoid 25 to 35 percent of costs or lots of U$D per year.

  • While groups lose money due to running a poor meeting, individuals are forced to work longer hours to make up for it.
  • The negative culture of a group causes the loss of highly valued people.
  • A major company found a 400 percent increase in productivity using a collaborative project when compared to using serial interviews and combining requirements in a similar project.
  • It has been observed that many ‘requirements’ are not ‘bad’, rather higher costs are driven by what is omitted or missed.

Now What?

Therefore, on a pilot basis, embrace a structured approach to running a meeting.

  • Secure commitment to improve meeting efficacy and to support workshops when advised.
  • Enable the supplies and other resources to support the benefit of structured meetings.
  • Empower select people with expert, professional training.

Fact Two

Members spend hundreds of hours leading without training in structured meetings or facilitation. Unstructured meetings lead to confusion and even contrary understanding.

  • Frequently people find themselves in violent agreement with each other.

 

  • The following list highlights 14 frequently mentioned problems by over 1,000 managers (alpha sort):
    Compelling Reasons for Structured Meetings -- Positive Impact on Stakeholders

    Structuring Meetings

    • Disorganized
    • Dominators
    • Getting off subject
    • Inconclusive
    • Ineffective for making decisions
    • Ineffective leader/ lack of control
    • Interruptions (inside and out)
    • Irrelevant information discussed
    • No goals or agenda
    • Poor preparation
    • Rambling discussion individuals
    • Started late
    • Time wasted
    • Too lengthy

So What?

The problems listed above have a negative impact on the people and their culture.

  • Organizations may regress compared to their competitors and other options.
  • Members are not taught to think about options and other opportunities.
  • Partial growth becomes the norm rather than rapid growth, as breakthroughs get missed.
  • The culture trends toward becoming reactive rather than proactive, following rather than leading.
  • Some members are satisfied with any decision and remain unaware of the importance of decision quality.

Now What?

Therefore, promote a new effort toward meeting efficacy and group focus, starting with properly trained leaders.

  • Ratify funds to be used both internally for supplies and externally for professional training.
  • Enable members to provide comments and feedback to ensure ‘perfect practice’ of new skills learned.
  • Given the importance of meetings and effective facilitation, build a Community of Excellence.
  • Appreciate the value of ongoing training and anticipate advanced training in the future based on in-house meeting design.

Benefits

  • Ability to test for the quality of outputs before meetings end (the worst deliverable of any meeting is another meeting)
  • Agendas, tools, and outputs become more consistent
  • Analysts obtain higher-quality information
  • Coherent communication among meeting participants, project, steering, and other teams
  • Members learn HOW TO THINK, and become more effective from “board room to boiler room”
  • Faster results: Facilitated sessions speed up the capture of information, especially when meeting participants (aka subject matter experts) arrive and know in advance the questions and issues that need to be answered
  • Fewer omissions—Projects speed up with an increase in clarity and a reduction in uncertainty
  • Heightened involvement by all stakeholders
  • Higher quality results: Groups of people make higher quality decisions than the smartest person in the group. Facilitated sessions encourage diverse points of view that enable the group to identify new options. And, it is a proven fact that people or groups with more options make higher-quality decisions.
  • Major reduction of total resources compared to serial interviewing techniques
  • People excite people: Facilitated meetings can lead to innovation and become the catalyst for innovative activities because multiple points of view create a richer (360-degree) understanding of a problem, rather than a narrow, myopic view.
  • Transfer of ownership: Facilitated sessions build further action by creating outputs that support follow-up
  • Witness a decline in smart people making dumb decisions

Glossary

Stakeholders, including both internal and external customers and the project team, are all affected by the outcome.

Workshops are meetings focused on a single topic and output, NOT simply informational exchange, rather they build. Like projects, workshops have at least three phases: preparation, the workshop itself, and activities after:

  1. The key to preparation is meeting with members to agree on objectives, estimate and plan the workshop, prepare the members, develop agendas, and finish the logistics.
  2. The workshop itself is an environment with the use of visuals striving for win-win situations, defined as consensus.
  3. The final phase completes the output, resolves open issues, and communicates with stakeholders about the next steps.

❖   Interactive design (defined): A structured meeting designed to extract high-quality information from stakeholders in a compressed time frame using a proven methodology, visual aids, and a workshop process to enhance communications— use a neutral facilitator to guide members through a structured, yet flexible approach, towards a common goal (ie, deliverable).

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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.

Ignite Your Will and Create Meaningful Change in Your Community

Ignite Your Will and Create Meaningful Change in Your Community

by | May 21, 2015 | Leadership Skills

In Brian Aull’s book The Triad: Three Civic Virtues That Could Save American Democracy, you’ll find an insightful approach to living in any democracy. For over a decade, the MG Rush Leadership Technique has also promoted a ‘trivium.’  The “Law of Threes” is found in many of the world’s great philosophies, such as Jainism’s Faith, Right Knowledge, and Right Conduct, or St. John’s Apocryphal Thought, Word, and Deed. Let’s explore Aull’s suggestions for improving your community. Note carefully how they align with these timeless principles.

Ignite Your Will and Find a Way to Improve Community

Brian Aull Ph.D. (M.I.T.)

Aull seeks to counteract the forces that ‘atomize’ or fracture society, promoting selfishness and materialism. Drawing from his experiences growing up in the Midwest, Aull presents a framework that transcends traditional political labels, describing it as neither ‘liberal’ nor ‘conservative,’ but simply sensible. This is not an academic book; instead, it offers common-sense reflections on how society has evolved, particularly how politicians, voters, and other stakeholders have distorted the once-promising landscape of the United States in the 20th century. His urgent message calls for approaches that prioritize community improvement above all else.

Aull makes a compelling argument for citizen-driven change, asserting that the political system is stagnant and ineffective—a point few would dispute. His concern stems from the many well-intentioned individuals who are waiting for change to happen, rather than actively initiating it. He begins by critiquing the current two-party system and delves into the influences of money, media, and ideological extremism in politics.

He then contrasts competition and collaboration in a free market, employing the ‘Gallant and Rude’ effects to illustrate his points. Aull emphasizes the importance of developing a society based on the ‘collaborative functioning of diverse parts,’ setting the stage for his core message and call to action, centered on:

  • A spirit of service,
  • A commitment to learning, and
  • Building community.”

A Pathway to Building a Better Community

Aull lays out his arguments with personal passion, using coherent examples in an easy-to-read style. When discussing the spirit of service, he urges voters to elect leaders of good character—those who prioritize the common good. His exploration of what constitutes ‘common’ is particularly insightful and worth reading. As he emphasizes a commitment to learning, some readers may recognize the disadvantages of living in the U.S., particularly in relation to education and opportunity.

Aull’s discussion on building community is perhaps his most persuasive. He candidly reveals that his wife is the daughter of an African American father and a white mother, adding depth to his call for unity. The benefits of building community, he argues, culminate in a call to service (the will to act) and learning (the pursuit of wisdom). Aull underscores that the beauty and power of a thriving community come from balancing individualism with diversity, ultimately fostering a strong sense of shared purpose.

Drawing on both historical and contemporary experiences, Aull makes a compelling case for virtues like civility, freedom, and compassion. He argues that freethinking individuals exhibit true humanity and that those with good character are inherently compassionate. He advocates for a vibrant free market with a social conscience, citing examples of companies that perform well financially while upholding ethical standards. Aull calls for a smaller, more responsive government that works closely with citizens to ensure fairness for those who cannot advocate for themselves, particularly the elderly and infirm. His practical suggestions on voting, Congress, and lobbying merit serious consideration.

Humane and Compassionate Decision-Making

Aull offers an engaging discussion of Adam Smith, Karl Marx, and the ‘invisible hand.’ He reminds us that:

‘No society can surely be flourishing and happy, of which the greater part of the members are poor and miserable.’

He debunks myths about free enterprise while respecting individual rights. He urges us to imagine the state of our environment—air, water, and land. An environment that largely enforces no consequences for those who pollute.

He redefines prosperity, not as financial wealth, but as the freedom to pursue meaningful goals without the constant burden of money. His logical approach to healthcare includes startling facts, and his treatment of economics and race issues is grounded in eye-opening statistics about the long-term impact of the slave trade on Africa and the wealth it generated for Europeans and Americans.

Educators will appreciate his persuasive case for increasing pay for effective teachers. Scientists will value his commitment to keeping religion honest through rational inquiry. Humanitarians will be moved by his hopeful vision for the future. We urge others to read this book and embrace its call to action. And you should too.

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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 and methods daily during the week. While some call this immersion, we call it the road that yields high-value facilitation skills.

Go to the Facilitation Training Store to access proven, in-house resources, including full agendas, break timers, forms, and templates. Also, take a moment to SHARE this article with others.

To Help You Unlock Your Facilitation Potential: Experience Results-Driven Training for Maximum Impact
#facilitationtraining #meeting design

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94 Different Purposes of Meetings Yield Three Common Themes

94 Different Purposes of Meetings Yield Three Common Themes

by | May 14, 2015 | Meeting Agendas

While by no means ‘exhaustive,’ we researched and assembled various meeting types and purposes of meetings from dozens of sources, too many to provide attribution for a brief blog (write us if you want more detail). Therefore, we found it humorous that the world does not even agree on the definition of a ‘type.’

We discovered the purposes of meetings or meeting types are stratified by numerous factors, topologies, and types. However, you will discover three dominant themes that include planning, decision-making (prioritization), and problem-solving:

purpose of meetings

Illustration of Author After Completing This Article on the 94 Purposes of Meetings

Stratification Factors Behind the Purposes of Meetings

  1. Audience (e.g., shareholder vs. stakeholder)
  2. Deliverable (output)
  3. Location (onsite vs. offsite)
  4. Meeting leader role (manager vs. facilitator)
  5. Outcome (desired)
  6. Resource (e.g., production vs. project)
  7. Rules (e.g., open vs. private)
  8. Size (quantity of participants and size of venue)
  9. Style (e.g., face-to-face vs. virtual)
  10. Timing (variations included chronology, duration, frequency, and preparation time)
  11. Topic (e.g., financial review vs. party), and
  12. Variants of the above

Possible Topology for the Purposes of Meetings

Some sources provided context and justified their topology. We especially love the following comment because it is so definitive, albeit wrapped in truth (sources -Seth Godin and others):

“There are three types of meetings. Meetings are marketing in real time with real people. Therefore, a conference is not a meeting. A conference is a chance for a circle of people to interact. There are only three kinds of classic meetings:

  1. This is a meeting where attendees are informed about what is happening (with or without their blessing). While there may be a facade of conversation, it’s primarily designed to inform.

  2. This is a meeting where the leader actually wants feedback or direction or connections. You can use this meeting to come up with an action plan, or develop a new idea, for example.

  3. This is a meeting where the other side is supposed to say yes but has the power to say no.”

—OR—

“While there are a variety of reasons to call for a group meeting (some of which have little to do with decision making or problem solving), for our purposes we will categorize decision-making meetings into one of the following.

  1. Strategy
  2. Problem solving
  3. Operational decisions
  4. Evaluation”

—OR—

“There are six types of meetings:

  1. Organizational meetings;

  2. Regular meetings;

  3. Special or emergency meetings;

  4. Work sessions;

  5. Public hearings; and

  6. Executive sessions.”

We did little to clean up or edit the following and did not attempt to defend it, but rather to share it. Therefore, when redundancies were obvious, we combined some definitions. Additionally, some purposes of meetings or meeting types were provided without definition. Some purposes of meetings or meeting types may appear redundant, but due to rhetorical differences, we could not be certain if they were identical or not, so we kept them as discrete purposes of meetings or meeting types.

The 94 types or purposes of meetings we identified are as follows.

  • Ad hoc Meetings:

A meeting called for a special purpose. For example, a team of individuals chosen by the company to join a trade show and represent the company. The meeting discusses the important things and activities during the event.

If the meeting participants are solely board and directors members of the organization, definitely it is termed as a board meeting.

  • Brainstorming Meetings

  • Breakout Meetings

  • Business Meetings:

With customers, clients, colleagues, etc.; often require presentations.

  • Class Meetings

  • Client Meetings:

Some organizational teams start working on a new project and possibly a new client through a discussion.

Some of your employees and managers may work closely with suppliers, customers or business partners on projects such as joint product development or supply chain improvements. Bringing external groups into meetings with your employees helps to strengthen business relationships and gives your employees a greater sense of customer focus.

  • Combination Meetings:

A type of meeting according to wherein two or more of the meeting categories get covered in a single meeting session.

  • Commitment Building Meetings

  • Community Meetings:

To interpret decisions, get input, build relationships, gain trust, etc.

  • Conference Call Meetings

  • Conferences:

A highly structured, moderated meeting, like a presentation, where various participants contribute following a fixed agenda.

  • Coordinating Meetings:

To assure all know what’s happening when and who is responsible.

  • Creative Meetings:

To define new markets, create new products, etc.

  • Discussions:

A meeting where the leader actually wants feedback or direction or connections. You can use this meeting to come up with an action plan, or develop a new idea, for example.

  • Emergency Meetings:

A meeting is called to address a crisis, whether internal or external. Such meetings are often arranged with very little notice. If the emergency meeting conflicts with another appointment, the emergency meeting typically takes precedence. If a serious problem, such as a fire or major financial loss occurs, it’s essential to inform the whole company so that all employees understand the implications and the changes that will occur. In the event of a serious fire, for example, employees may have to work in temporary accommodation with limited access to telephones and other resources. A major disaster or loss may lead to redundancies or even closure. By communicating openly in the meeting, you can reduce feelings of uncertainty in the workforce and avoid the risk of rumors spreading.

  • Evaluation Meetings:

Meetings are held to evaluate a new process, structural modification, new program, etc. Held to establish a set of evaluative criteria based on the goals of the new program or process.

If allowed by charter, these meetings are closed to the public and press and generally are held for discussion of legal (litigation, advice from counsel, etc.), personnel, or other confidential matters. There are very specific legal provisions for closing the meeting such as recording the vote of council members who authorized the meeting and recording the circumstances of the meeting in the official minutes of the municipality. Executive meetings are typically held in accordance with the strict mandates of the Open Meetings Act.

  • Family Meetings

  • Feedback Meetings:

Feedback meetings are conducted when the purpose is to let individuals provide reactions and feedback to one or several participants on a certain presentation or project.

  • Feedforward Meetings:

When there is a need to make status reports and present new information, participants gather for a feedforward meeting. Otherwise known as reporting and presenting.

  • Financial Review (or Update) Meetings

  • Holiday Meetings

  • Information Sharing Meetings:

Where attendees are informed about what is happening (with or without their blessing). Designed primarily to inform.

  • Interdepartmental Meetings:

To get input, interpret decisions and policies, share info, etc.

  • Introduction Meetings

  • Investigative Meetings:

Generally when conducting a pre-interview, exit interview, or a meeting between the investigator and representative

  • Investor Meetings

  • Keynote Speeches

  • Kickoff (or First) Meetings:

The first meeting with the project team and the client of the project to discuss the role of each team member. This initial gathering is called a kick-off meeting. It is also during this time wherein members are assigned individual tasks on the project.

  • Large Conference Meetings

  • Leadership Meetings

  • Management Meetings:

A conference among managers and supervisors is called a management meeting. If the meeting participants are solely board and directors members of the organization, definitely it is termed as a board meeting.

  • Manager Meetings

  • Meetings to Plan Bigger Meetings

  • New Business Pitch Meetings

  • New Product Launch Meetings

  • Off-site Meetings:

Also called an “offsite retreat” and is known simply as a meeting in the UK.

  • One-on-one Meetings:

A meeting is not necessarily composed of a group of individuals. A discussion of two individuals is called a one-on-one meeting. Your boss may sometimes conduct a one-on-one meeting with you and the other employees individually to talk about your performance appraisal.

  • Online Meetings

  • Open Meetings:

Best used for internal team collaborations. No designated host is needed. Anyone start meetings at any time.

  • Operational Decision Meetings:

Make decisions such as staffing, purchase, or work method decisions. The issue here is the establishment of a set of criteria (derived from the goal of the decision and claimant issues) by which to evaluate alternatives.

  • Organizational Meetings:

Usually very soon after each election, a meeting may be necessary to establish the procedures concerning the conduct of council meetings. Local practices may vary, but generally, the meeting should establish: regular dates, times, and locations for routine council meetings; rules of procedure for conducting business at meetings (Robert’s Rules, etc.); and assignment of council member duties (i.e., mayor pro tempore, committee chairpersons, etc.). Many municipalities adopt and publish a schedule of meeting dates for an entire year, while charter sets others.

This is a meeting where the other side is supposed to say yes but has the power to say no.

If certain structuring and future resolutions need to be made, a planning meeting can be called.

  • Political Meetings

  • Pre-Bid Meetings:

A meeting of various competitors and or contractors to visually inspect a job site for a future project. The future customer or engineer who wrote the project specification to ensure all bidders are aware of the details and services expected of them normally hosts the meeting. Attendance at the Pre-Bid Meeting may be mandatory. Failure to attend usually results in a rejected bid.

  • Presentation Meetings:

A highly structured meeting where one or more people speak and a moderator leads the proceedings. The purpose is usually to inform. Attendees provided an opportunity to ask questions but typically permitted limited participation.

  • Private Meetings:

Used for managing meetings, where the host has control. The meeting starts when the host opens the meeting. Host controls who can or cannot enter live meetings and host controls role delegation.

  • Problem-Solving Meetings:

When a specific problem emerges, usually manifesting itself in the form of some type of response from a dissatisfied stakeholder or claimant, a problem-solving meeting is held. These meetings take one of two general forms.

      • Solve the immediate problem— The focus of this type of meeting is to determine how to satisfy the immediate concerns of the dissatisfied stakeholder. For example, if a specific customer has received a batch of defective parts, the issue might be, How to we get non-defective parts to this customer?
      • Solve the long-range problem—the focus of this type of meeting is to reduce the likelihood of a given type of problem surfacing in the future, by diagnosing the cause(s) of this recurring problem and developing a solution consistent with these causes that solves the problem. In the above example, the problem might be defined as, How do we reduce the likelihood of defective parts being produced?

  • Production Meetings

  • Project Meetings:

Project meetings bring together people from different departments working on a specific task, such as new product development or business reorganization. They take a number of different forms, including planning and progress meetings, brainstorming sessions, or design and review meetings.

  • Project Planning Meetings

  • Public Hearings:

The council holds public hearings when it is considering a subject having unusually high community impact and when it is considering items for which local, state, or federal regulations mandate such hearings. The main purpose of such a hearing is to obtain testimony from the public. An issue on which a public hearing is held may be the subject of several work sessions and may generate potentially more citizen participation than can be accommodated at a regular meeting with its other normal business items.

An additional meeting of the council for a public hearing can be valuable in providing the public an opportunity to learn the current status of a project and give the council, as the public policymakers, clear indications of public sentiment before making a decision. Additional work sessions at a subsequent meeting generally follow the public hearing before final council action on the matter at a regular hearing.

  • Public Relations Meetings

  • Quick Business Meetings:

To check in, coordinate, share info, prepare for next steps, anticipate customer or employee needs, answer questions for each other, etc. Therefore, and to be ‘quick,’ meetings like these provide a narrow focus.

  • Regular Meetings:

This is the official, final public action meeting. It is the only meeting where the council may adopt ordinances or regulations. One very important feature of the regular meeting is the public forum aspect. The regular meeting generally includes at least a citizen comment period and often incorporates a formal public hearing on one or more subjects. While allowing public comment to some degree, the regular meeting always allows the public an opportunity to hear the council’s discussion on each subject.

  • Religious Meetings

  • Report Meetings

  • Research Review Meetings

  • Sales Conference:

A sales conference is an important communication and motivational tool. Sales representatives spend the majority of their time away from the office, often working alone. Holding a sales conference brings your sales team together with other members of the company who affect their success, such as marketing staff, product specialists, and senior managers. You can use the conference to launch important initiatives such as a new product announcement or a major advertising campaign, as well as communicate your company’s plans for the next quarter or the next financial year.

  • Sales Meetings

  • School Meetings

  • Seminar:

A structured meeting with an educational purpose. Therefore, seminars are usually led by people with expertise in the subject matter.

  • Shareholder Meetings

  • Skills Building Meetings

  • Small Conference Meetings

  • Special Meetings:

Regular meetings are scheduled in advance (usually one or two per month) to allow the public, press, and persons having business for the council to attend the meetings. However, special situations may require convening a special meeting often with little, if any, advance notice. Examples of special meeting items include emergency ordinances, unexpected matters requiring official action before the next regularly scheduled meeting, emergency equipment replacement, financial problems, and health and safety emergencies. While the occasional need for such meetings cannot be denied, use the term “emergency” very carefully to avoid abuse of the special meeting.

  • Sports Meetings (and Events)

  • Staff Meetings:

Typically a meeting between a manager and those that report to the manager. Therefore with clear intention, staff meetings enable managers to keep employees informed on issues that affect their work. If there is a major policy change or other issue that affects the whole company, you may prefer to hold a meeting of all employees to explain the change.

  • Stakeholder Meetings

  • Stand-up Meetings:

A meeting with attendees physically standing. Therefore, the discomfort of standing for long periods helps to keep the meetings short, (no more than 10 minutes to plan the day, make announcements, set expectations, assure understanding and alignment, identify upcoming difficulties, etc.).

  • Standing Meetings:

A regularly scheduled appointment, such as a weekly one-on-one with a boss or a department; or a project meeting taking place at intervals until the project is over. Since these meetings recur, their format and agenda become relatively well established. Although it’s important to hold these meetings at routine intervals for convenience and consistency, at times they can be rescheduled.

A meeting that is leader-led and is done through one-way communication reporting is called a status meeting.

  • Strategy Building Meetings:

Strategy or planning meetings are called to determine the future direction of the organization or unit. Consequently, they discuss the issues of the mission and current strategies for achieving it.

Using tools like the TO-WS (Threats, Opportunities, Weaknesses, Strengths) model; assess the current direction of the organization. Consequently, when it is discovered that changes in the environment render the current mission and/or strategy inappropriate, a new strategic plan is developed.

  • Strategy Testing and Adapting Meetings

  • Task-Related Meetings:

Task-related meetings use the knowledge and experience of group members to accomplish a work task, such as problem-solving, decision-making, fact-finding, planning, etc. Therefore, these meetings are highly interactive and involve two-way communication between all participants. Task-related meetings also tend to fall apart more quickly with poor meeting management. Consequently, the two variations include:

      • Directed—the leader runs the meeting and controls the agenda.
      • Facilitated—An impartial facilitator runs the meeting and controls the agenda and technique. Least common, but growing in use due to effectiveness for decision-making and building.

  • Team Meetings:

A meeting among colleagues working on various aspects of a team project. Hence, meeting scope creep becomes a huge concern.

  • Termination Meetings

  • Topical Meetings:

A gathering called to discuss one subject, such as a work issue or a task related to a project.

  • Training Session Meetings

  • Trip Planning Meetings

  • Twelve Step Meetings

  • Update Meetings

  • Webinar Meetings:

For presentations, training, and town hall meetings. Therefore, the meeting starts when the host opens the meeting and upon entry, they mute other participants. Consequently, the host controls the delegation.

  • Work Meetings:

To produce a product or intangible result such as a decision.

  • Work Sessions (workshops):

These are the most common meetings in most municipalities. Work sessions are essentially “shirt-sleeves” meetings where the council discusses issues informally to achieve a more complete understanding of one or more subjects. Perhaps held in another room away from the formal council chamber with a “round-table” type seating arrangement to promote informal discussion. Therefore, these sessions take many forms and cover virtually any subject matter. Typical work sessions will include a variety of items and will generally serve as a background discussion about items scheduled for official action at the next regular meeting.

  • Year Beginning Meetings

  • Year End Meetings

Leaving much to wonder . . . but after this exhausting effort, we would prefer a holiday, party, or sports meeting. However, why do you conduct and attend meetings (please check any that apply)?

[polldaddy poll=8670797]

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In a world where everyone can engage in decisions that affect them

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Lead the Change—One Meeting at a Time

Are you ready to transform how decisions are made, problems are solved, and alignment is built in your organization?

True meeting leadership goes beyond setting an agenda. It requires a facilitator who can navigate complexity, balance voices, and drive toward outcomes with clarity and consensus. Our Professional Meeting Leadership Workshop and facilitation training equips you to do just that—blending human-centric methods with structured analytical tools to foster rigor, inclusivity, and results that stick.

  • Practice live.
  • Get expert feedback.
  • Build confidence that lasts.

Whether your meetings suffer from unclear objectives, disengaged participants, or decision fatigue, this workshop will help you identify the root causes, apply proven facilitation techniques, and emerge as the leader every team needs.

Take the first step today—transform your meetings and magnify your impact.

👉 Click here to reserve your seat now.

#facilitationtraining #meetingdesign

Because every meeting should be a catalyst for change—not just another calendar event.

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Related articles

Core Competency: Planning Changes Minds, Not Simply Make Plans

Core Competency: Planning Changes Minds, Not Simply Make Plans

by | May 7, 2015 | Meeting Support, Planning Approach

Facilitating a planning session makes you a change agent.

Because even President Eisenhower (then General) was known to say,

“In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.”

While an effective facilitator keeps their group focused on the meeting output (i.e., deliverable), the real work begins when the meeting is over, because what we really plan for are new outcomes. Consequently, planning intends to change minds, not merely make plans.

Therefore, when President Eisenhower was suggesting that three-ring binders may sit on a shelf and gather dust, he implied that key deliverables from planning sessions occur in the fifteen cm (six inches) between our ears.

To change (as a verb) can mean a lot of things including, among others, to:

Core Competency: Planning Changes Minds, Not Simply Make Plans

From Planning to Rewards

  • Adapt
  • Adjust
  • Alter
  • Amend
  • Differentiate
  • Doctor
  • Evolve
  • Innovate
  • Modify
  • Productize
  • Redesign
  • Refine
  • Remodel
  • Reorder
  • Reorganize
  • Reshape
  • Restyle
  • Revamp
  • Revise
  • Transfigure
  • Transform
  • Tweak
  • Vary

Change or Be Changed

Every one of us has been involved in change, and if you are reading this, you are probably involved in a change effort right now. Congratulations, the ability to lead a group of people to change, agree, and take ownership and maintenance of the future state represents tremendous success for the session leader who got them there.

Consequently, groups that are proactive in their approach to change make more money than those who simply react. Many studies point to innovation as the modern driver of profitability. As a core competency, groups who become adept at change, which can convert their creativity into profit (innovation defined), learn the value of effective facilitation. The facilitator, remaining unbiased and neutral about HOW TO change, serves as the primary catalyst and accelerator of change, corporate learning, and financial growth.

The more we mature in the role, the more we understand that corporate reality is subjective and decisions are driven by the perception of reality, from each person. Therefore, we embrace learning to ‘homogenize’ our separate realities into our common, objective reality—that is unfortunately accepted by everyone but owned by no one. As context experts, our role during meetings get people closer to shared understanding, to acceptance of what is truly objective, and to own their commitments and consequences when our meetings conclude. When performed seamlessly, our role helps individuals who help groups that help organizations exceed their goals and maximize their financial rewards. And to think, it all started with a planning meeting.

In the words of Giuseppe di Lampedusa in The Leopard, even:

“If we want things to stay as they are, things will have to change.”

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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.

Decision Types: Understanding the Time and Place for Individual or Group Decisions

Decision Types: Understanding the Time and Place for Individual or Group Decisions

by | Apr 30, 2015 | Decision Making, Planning Approach

The continuum of leadership behavior provides one context for understanding the best time and place for individual decisions versus group decisions. That continuum, as illustrated below, ranges from the completely subordinate-centered approach to the completely leader-centered approach. In between these extremes are another four types that blend or offset the “center” perspective.

Understanding the Time and Place for Individual Versus Group Decisions

Range of Meeting Leadership Styles

 

Both approaches can provide value, while specific advantages depend on some of the factors discussed below. Frequently, the advantages of group decision-making include:

  1. Improved quality of decisions, proven over and over because of contributing factors such as . . .
    • Ability to generate more ideas and options
    • Self-monitoring that forces participants to keep each other honest
    • Fewer errors in using information that is available
    • Availability of more information
    • Reduction of potential individual bias
    • Willingness to manage higher levels of risk
  2. Increases ownership through higher levels of understanding, acceptance, and likelihood to make necessary adaptations during implementation.
  3. Participating individuals are strengthened, learn more, and can more readily re-apply the same rationale when they are making subsequent individual decisions.

Downside of Group Decision-making

There are some downside considerations as well including:

  1. Potential to take more time
  2. May create or heighten expectations, perhaps making them unobtainable
  3. Could be at variance with management or senior staff
  4. Quality of the output or decision might be hampered if the group is dominated by an individual(s), submits to forced selection or voting (leading to “losers” and consequent abandonment of ownership), or congeals into what Janis (1972) describes as “Groupthink.”

Groupthink describes a state or condition when the group regresses into poor thinking and social pressures. Janis claims that three factors increase the likelihood of groupthink, namely: insulation from qualified outsiders, leaders who promote their favorite position, and strong cohesion. You may be witnessing groupthink if you observe some of the following symptoms:

  • Excessive optimism and illusion of invulnerability
  • Tendency to dismiss contrary points of view accompanied by collective efforts to rationalize their own position or discount the positions of others
  • Unquestioned beliefs in the group’s supposed moral superiority and ignoring the consequences of their decision(s)
  • Prejudicial comments and stereotyping outsiders not in the meeting
  • Audible and non-verbal pressure on participants to conform
  • Censorship of deviations from what has congealed to be ‘consensus’

Research shows, however, that decision-making by consensus tends to result in higher quality decisions than command control, manipulation, persuasion, voting, and other means of compromise.

What is Consensus?

Consensus must be carefully defined. A robust method will make full use of all the resources in the group, can be relied on for acceptable ways to reconcile conflict, and will generate the ownership a group needs to ensure that what goes on in the meeting is carried out after the meeting has concluded. We highly recommend that ‘consensus’ DOES NOT mean we are making everyone happy. Rather, we are striving for a common acceptance and level of understanding that would include ‘yes’ answers by all participants to the following questions:

  1. Can you live with this (decision/ plan/ output/ outcome, etc.)?
  2. Will you support it professionally and not subvert it when the meeting concludes?
  3. Will you personally lose any sleep over it?

Resulting in Synergy

We could define synergy as the increased effectiveness of working together where the outcome becomes greater than the sum of the parts. We are seeking an answer that did not walk into the meeting, rather it can be created during the meeting. For a meeting with nine people, for example, we are looking for the tenth answer. Synergy frequently results among groups that are seeking consensus, built around a common goal. When supported by strong facilitation, participants agree on a clear and common goal (typically the meeting deliverable), share openly, listen carefully, and think clearly, and they are likely to achieve synergy.

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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.