Meetings Archives - BOLLYWOOD SURKHIYAN

Studies show there is no best time to hold a business meeting. However, acceptable times for having meetings can depend on the culture of a corporation, career type, work group, or country. The key to finding the best time is what will work for the group who is meeting and for the type of activities that are expected to be carried out in the meetings. If the meeting activity requires information sharing, then this can be done at a leisurely pace if desired or accomplished at a quicker pace to prevent too much irrelevant discussion. If the meeting requires a significant amount of participation, such as problem solving or idea generation, then a time when people tend to be most active and ready to work creatively would be preferred.

Early morning is often considered good for high participation meetings as people are much fresher and more ready to discuss ideas. Also participants have not yet encountered any problems with their regular work day that may distract their concentration. In contrast to early morning, if the desire is to keep meetings short, scheduling time later in the morning or just before lunch break will often keep people from going off-track as they do not wish to miss their lunch break. A pre-lunch meeting should be no longer than one hour.

Lunch meetings can be beneficial as they often save people some time by combining eating with getting work done or information shared in a group setting. Lunch meetings should include light, low-fat, and low-sugar foods containing both carbohydrates and proteins to boost alertness during meeting and decrease the sleepiness factor for the afternoon. Consider small sandwiches or salads containing chicken or turkey. No alcohol should be allowed in the meeting. Instead serve water or tea which is better for participants than sugary soft drinks.

Meetings held too early in the afternoon may conflict with people’s lunch schedule which could mean no shows or late comers. This time can definitely relate to their inner clocks, according to some studies many humans are wired for more restful functions from 2:00-4:00 PM. Some countries even encourage restful activities sometime after lunch. Since this could mean nap time to some, if a meeting is planned for mid-afternoon, it should be on a highly participative topic to keep people interested and not a meeting requiring lights-out such as presentations or viewing videos. Whereas, late afternoon meetings may be a more relaxed time as many will have much of their daily work already done and off their minds. However, if the meeting is too close to quitting time people may be thinking about what they need to do after work rather than concentrating on the meeting topic. Participants may get irritated if the meeting goes past the designated stop time as this may make them late for personal plans. If a hurried meeting where little time is wasted is desirable, then late afternoon might be a good time to plan the meeting as long as the agenda is adhered to and the meeting ends on time.

Other things to consider when holding a meeting is how long the meeting will be. Most informational business meetings can be covered in 30 to 90 minutes depending on the number of people sharing data and whether a question and answer period is allowed. Participative meetings may be one to two hours typically. However some meetings may require more time due to complexity of the issue to be discussed, urgency of the problem to solve, or needed training or change management to present to group. If a meeting is longer than an hour, a short break during the meeting should be planned. For meetings where participation is low, a break should be every 45 or 60 minutes to allow group to leave room for 15 minutes or stretch for 5-10 minutes. For high participation meetings like problem solving or idea generation, the breaks can be a little further apart and should be planned at logical changes in meeting activity or topic.

Since there is no best time to hold a business meeting, always plan a culturally acceptable time when people are most ready to work together. The key to finding the best time is what will work for the group who is meeting and for the type of activities that are expected to be carried out in each meeting, such as information sharing or a more participative process.

There are many types of meetings. Most meetings fall into the non-participatory category, where attendees are briefed on new information rather than asked to participate in the meeting process. The best meetings are highly participative, where everyone in the meeting contributes to the purpose of having the meeting. When scheduling a meeting, ask “What type of meeting or approach best fits the purpose and meeting attendees?” This will help in determining if more than one type of meeting needs to be held or if a combination of meeting types is possible. Consider the definition and common uses for the different types of participative meetings; such as decision-making, list generation, problem solving, project planning, or strategic planning. Then determine which best fits the purpose and participative needs of upcoming meetings during the planning stage.

Decision-making meetings review different alternatives and decide on best alternatives to select for implementation by a specified deadline. This type of meeting requires that key decision makers attend and should be held if the group is required to make and then support or carry out the decision. The tool used most often in decision making is a Pro/Con list. However for a highly complicated or technical decision a criteria grid may yield a better result.

List Generation meetings will create a list of ideas, alternatives, solutions, issues, etc. for discussion. After creating the list, a discussion to narrow the list may follow in the same meeting, prioritizing or voting on the list of items may occur, the list may go to someone else to work with, or planning of another type of meeting may follow for utilizing the list. Brainstorming is the easiest and more popular tool used for list generation. Diagramming tools such as mind mapping or fishbone may also be used as they use specific categories to focus the list generation.

Problem Solving meetings are used to resolve business and process problems or to determine potential issues and how to handle them. These problems could reference production, quality, services, or other things. In order for problem solving to work, those closest to the problem must participate, in other words representatives of each area affected by the problem should agree that a problem exists and be involved in finding the solution. This is seldom a single meeting as it typically takes a series of meetings to move through the process that includes problem definition, research, analysis, solution selection, testing, and implementation. Problem solving requires a defined process and method to root out the true problem and then find the best solution. Many great tools exist for this purpose under the topic of quality improvement.

Project Planning meetings are specialized to a certain task, job, or project and extend through planning and implementing the project from opening until end of project. These meetings work best when they consist of project team members, leaders, and sponsors or customers. Additional project related meetings may be for project plan updates, solving problems, reviewing budget, celebrating accomplished milestones, and evaluating risks. The tools used in project meetings will include the project schedule listing phases and milestones, as well as many of the same tools typically used in list generation, problem solving, and decision making.

Strategic Planning meetings are typically held annually to determine the strategy of a group or organization. The results of such meetings are usually vision, mission, goals, business ventures, and future direction. The strategic planning meeting may be one long meeting or several meetings spread out over a specified period. After defining the strategy, then a communication plan or deployment plan is developed. Future meetings are typically status of plan accomplishment, problem solving, or other needed revisions to the strategy and therefore no longer called strategic planning but instead change management. A tool often found useful in this type of meeting is a SWOT Analysis regarding the business efforts, products, or services of the group or organization. SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.

With an understanding of the definition and common uses for different types of participative meetings, it should be easier to determine which best fits the purpose and participative needs of upcoming meetings. It is important to remember that the best meetings are highly participative, where everyone in the meeting contributes to the purpose of holding the meeting. Therefore, always before scheduling a meeting, ask “What type of meeting or approach best fits the purpose and meeting attendees?” Determine if the meeting purpose is decision-making, list generation, problem solving, project planning, or strategic planning and then select the meeting type and the best tool to use to accomplish the meeting purpose.

NOTE: The types of meeting listed in this article and their definition are adapted from the book “R.A!R.A! A Meeting Wizard’s Approach.”

Tag: Meetings

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