Home Page Sounding Board Books "The Facilitator Toolbox"

Chapter Six: HOW TO DEAL WITH PITFALLS:
The Nuts and Bolts of Running Meetings

from
How to Grow Effective Teams
And Run Meetings That Aren't a Waste of Time
© by Ends of the Earth Learning Group 1998

by
Linda Turner and Turner


TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six References and Copying Rights

Summary of Chapter Six



DO THE UP-FRONT WORK





EVERY MEETING SPEND SOME TIME LOOKING AT THE PAST IN ORDER TO MOVE FORWARD.





TEAMS CAN GET STUCK FOR LOTS OF REASONS

Before the meeting,do the up-front work.

Agenda Format

  • Look Backward: minutes and warm-ups
  • Work: announcements, operations issues, projects
  • Look Forwards: check priorities, create next agenda, feedback

Common Pitfalls

"Growing" is not the same thing as "building"

  • Even though you do everything "right," sometimes teams don't grow.
  • Growth takes time
  • The "growth environment" is not limited to the organization.
  • Growth is stressful.
  • Human beings are inherently forgiving.

Chapters Five and Six Review

QUICK READ





WHY ARE YOU MEETING?
















MEETINGS BEGIN BY REVIEWING THE PAST.

DETAILS

Start the meeting before the meeting. In other words, plan out the meeting ahead of time.

Planning means more than simply saying, "Let's meet next week." Planning means that agendas are determined, issues are reviewed prior to meetings, appropriate data is made available, and appropriate guests are invited.

A key rule about meetings should be, "Don't waste people's time." That means that those things that can be done outside the meeting should be completed ahead of time. If necessary homework has not been completed, then reschedule the meeting.

Planning can do more than this. If a proposed topic is going to create conflict between two or three people, but not the whole team, then attempt to resolve differences before the team as a whole meets. This will save embarrassment and time for everyone else.

The team leader is responsible for this up-front planning with assistance from the facilitator as needed.

The agenda for the meeting ideally should have times allocated. When time limits are reached, the facilitator should check with the group to see if it wants to continue talking, or to move on.

Agendas are the outlines for meetings. In general, there are three parts to an agenda: (1) looking backward, (2) work, and (3) looking forward.

Looking backward reviews the minutes of the previous meeting and puts the current meeting into context. For instance, the team might be following a four step process for dealing with an issue such as

  1. Define the problem,
  2. Gather necessary information,
  3. Brainstorm ideas, and
  4. Choose the best idea.

Before getting started, the team should agree where they are at in terms of that process.

The working portion of the meeting is for discussions and decision making. This might include getting input from experts, brainstorming, sharing information, or whatever.

The looking forward part of the meeting is for reprioritizing, assigning homework, setting the agenda for the next meeting, and continuous improvement.










ALL TEAM MEMBERS HAVE THE POWER TO VETO AGENDAS.











VERBALLY SUMMARIZING WHERE THE TEAM LEFT OFF AT THE LAST MEETING HELPS.

SAMPLE AGENDA

LOOKING BACKWARD

1. Group revises/approves agenda by consensus. This in effect makes it so that anyone on the team could veto the agenda. It will be common for team members to want to change an agenda at the last minute either because new issues have arisen or because the team leader forgot to include something on the proposed agenda. The team should discuss the merits of adding to the agenda versus delaying the item.

2. Warm-up. (Optional) Each person states in a sentence or two their overall emotional state. For instance: "I'm distracted because of my work backlog," "I'm enthusiastic and ready to go," or "I'm fighting off the flu."

3. Revise/approve minutes from last meeting. Some teams will have someone summarize verbally the minutes in order to remind everyone about the discussions that were ended in the last meeting. These summaries are especially useful when they describe the process the team is following and the team's progress in that process. (For example: last meeting we brainstormed ideas. Today we will pick the best of those ideas.)

WORK

4. Announcements and Operations issues.Announcements can be by supervisors, team members, or by members of other teams. It is best that these be in writing. The facilitator would then give team members a chance to read the announcements and then ask if anyone has any questions.

In general, reading announcements out loud is a waste of time. People don't remember them well and are better off having something in writing to take back to their work sites.

Unless the person making an announcement has requested input or reaction, the facilitator should limit discussion to understanding the announcement and not debate over its merits.

Operations issues include vacation and meeting schedules and other ongoing operating problems for the team. For quality circles and self-managed teams, operations issues might be the most important part of the meeting. For cross-functional project teams, operations issues will typically be minor.










ANNOUNCEMENTS SHOULD BE IN WRITING








THE AGENDA SHOULD BE SPECIFIC ABOUT TOOLS AND ACTIVITIES














DID WE WASTE OUR TIME?

5. Projects (new and continuing.)

When writing the agenda, be specific about which projects are being discussed, and what kinds of work will be taken at this meeting.

For instance, someone may be reporting back the results of research. Or someone else might be bringing a flow chart of how a process works which the team will then revise.

If the team is at the stage of brainstorming, picking from a set of ideas, or using other tools such as affinity charts or interrelational digraphs, then those tools should be specifically mentioned in the agenda.

LOOKING FORWARD

6. Check prioritiesand assign homework.

Every meeting, teams should reassess their priorities in order to assure they using their time most effectively. It is very easy to fall into the trap of working on the most urgent issues even when some of those urgent issues may not be very significant.

Quality circles in particular can tend towards working on what happened last even though that last thing might have been a fluke that occurs only rarely. Keep the focus on what Stephen Covey refers to as Quadrant Two, "Not urgent but very important." This would include training, defining processes, and working on improving processes that are not in a crisis state.

7. Set agenda for next meeting. This will help the Team Leader when it comes time to send out the proposed agenda.

8. Feedback/ continuous improvement (allocate five minutes out of every hour of meeting time).

We recommend that all meetings end with a question such as, "Was this meeting worth our time and trouble?" or "Did we waste our time?" If the meetings are not worth the investment of time and energy, then something is very wrong.

Other typical questions include:

  1. Did anyone feel squelched?
  2. Did all viewpoints get aired?
  3. How could we speed things up?
  4. Did the facilitator remain neutral?
  5. Did people repeat themselves too much?
  6. Did we do enough reflection?
  7. Do we need more training?
  8. Were the right people at the meeting?
  9. Do we need to change our ground rules?
















IF YOU DON'T SET PRIORITIES, THEN YOU WILL ALWAYS BE WORKING ON THE LATEST CRISIS.














ASK AT THE END OF EVERY MEETING, "HOW CAN WE DO BETTER?"

COMMON PITFALLS: "What happens when things don't work they way they are supposed to?"

Meetings and teams break down usually for one of the following reasons.

  1. There is disagreement about the purpose of the team and how success is supposed to be measured. When there is lack of agreement, then some team members may appear to have hidden agendas. Facilitators should review Team Charters in such cases in order to clarify purposes. Questions number two and three are particularly helpful, "What is the final product of this team?" and "How will the team concretely measure its success?" [See Chapter Two for discussion of Team Charters.]

  2. People miss meetings because of conflicts with other duties. This commonly occurs because, when the team was formed, it was not determined how the team members will perform their duties on top of all the other things they are doing. Explicitly find out if team members will be working overtime, delaying other projects, giving projects to others, or are expected not to get some assignments completed at all. [See Chapter Two for a discussion of Question #8 of the Team Charter.]

  3. There is disagreement about who has the authority to make particular decisions. In such cases, the team needs to approach the next highest authority and ask, "Whose decision is this?" [See Chapter Three for discussion of decision modes. Be especially clear about which decisions are recommendations and which are final.]

  4. There is role confusion. Role is a sociology term which means "expected behavior." Role confusion is common for beginner teams which are not yet "fluent" in their new roles.

    Team leaders and facilitators should recurrently remind people as to the meaning of consensus, the need for everyone to be a co-facilitator, etc. As people learn their roles, there should be less after-the-fact complaining such as, "That meeting was a waste of time." [See Chapter Four for discussion of roles.]

  5. The ground rules are unclear and/or aren't being followed. These rules are the constitution of the team. It helps to print them out and hang them on the wall. That way the facilitator (or any other team member) can object as soon as a ground rule is broken. [See Chapter Five for discussion of ground rules.]

  6. Team members are closed-minded and unwilling to use facts and data. This happens because in traditional argue-and-defend systems, people are not accustomed to listening to one another with openness. Instead issues are viewed as being win/lose. It helps in such cases to ask both sides of an issue, "What data would convince you that you are wrong?" Then research the data in order to resolve the issue.













ASK TEAM MEMBERS, "WHERE WILL YOU GET THE TIME TO MEET?"










YOU CAN'T ORDER PEOPLE TO GROW UP.






GROWTH TAKES TIME




IT'S OKAY TO NOT BE PERFECT.

  • [See Chapter Five for discussion of Dialoguing Values. Teams sometimes have to go back and talk about the need for being open and able to discuss "the truth." Having team members "reflect" before responding will also help. Reflection is discussed in Chapter Four.]

  1. There is disagreement about agendas and time limits on discussions. This sometimes happens when people fail to recognize that they can veto the agenda if they disagree with what is on it, what has been left off, or the time guidelines attached to it. [This may be in part to confusion about the roles of team members, discussed in Chapter Four.]

  2. Team members exhibit self-defeating attitudes such as refusing to take initiative and refusing to be open and honest about their feelings. People can't be ordered to start exhibiting a "leader" attitude. They have to grow into it. [See Chapter One for a discussion about Learning Environments that foster growth from being "followers" to being "leaders." Also See Chapter Five about Dialoguing Values.]

"GROWING" IS NOT THE SAME THING AS "BUILDING."

Back in Chapter One, we asserted that "growing teams" is fundamentally different than "building" them.

Remember the following about "growing teams."

  1. Even though you do everything "right," sometimes teams don't grow. This is in part because people have the power of free will which means they can choose not to grow if they want.

  2. Growth takes time. Some people grow faster than others. Some people start at a more advanced state of development. Don't expect to see identical growth rates from different but similar teams.

  3. The growth environment is not limited to the organization. People have lives away from work that can influence their behavior at work as much as a team leader or facilitator can. People having health crises or family problems may not be in a position to grow at work even though last year they were or next year they might be.

  4. Growth is stressful. People feel anxious when they are attempting to change (either for the better or the worst.) This means that periodically people will need a break from the growth process. In essence their growth will occur in spurts with an occasional backwards step thrown in.

  5. Human beings are inherently forgiving. Try to be perfect, but don't expect it, and don't kick yourself for goofing. Others will forgive you. You should forgive others as well.

NEWBORN'S LESSONS IN HOW TO KILL TEAMS:

"What happens when team members choose to resist change?"

CHAPTER FIVE REVIEW

1. A key consequence of a team having argue-and-defend values is. . . ./font>

A. that the "truth" will get out because teams will divide into "us" versus "them" opposing sides.

B. that no topic will be undiscussable since opposing sides will make sure every weakness of the other side is exposed.

C. that the team will find it easy to talk about trivial issues, but afraid to talk about controversial issues.

2. Ground rules should be developed by. . . .

A. whoever creates a team in the first place.

B. the team itself. All rules should be selected by consensus.

C. the Steering Committee for the organization. Ground rules should be the same for every team operating in the organization.

3. A quorum of 2/3 would mean. . . .

A. that a super-majority of 2/3 is needed in order to win a vote.

B. that 2/3 of the team members must be present in order to hold a meeting.

C. that 2/3 of the team members can call a meeting even if the team leader and facilitator refuse to hold the meeting.

ANSWERS

1. "C" is correct. Because of the arguing, people will attempt to avoid discussing openly any topic that is controversial. Instead, they will talk behind one another's backs, and say things about other people that they won't say directly to the person.

2. "B" is correct. Some organizations attempt "C" in the name of standardization. This is a mistake. Teams must live with their own rules. Standardization will gradually come about as teams share ideas with another that seem to work.

3. "C" is the correct answer. Quorum's range from 100% to 50% and include special requirements like "At least one union steward must be present."

CHAPTER SIX REVIEW

1. How often should a team have continuous improvement and feedback?

A. Roughly five minutes for every hour of meeting time. For a two hour meeting, that means the last ten minutes is reserved for improvement.

B. Roughly five minutes per meeting regardless of length of meeting.

C. Only when the team feels the need for it. It is a waste of time to get feedback from every meeting.

2. When some team members seem to have hidden agendas, the facilitator should. . . .

A. ignore the issue and hope it goes away.

B. Confront the individuals and ask, "What's your hidden agenda? What are you attempting to get here?"

C. Return to the Team Charter and review the purpose of the team and how it is supposed to measure success.

3. When a team member notices that the team is not following its agenda, the team member should. . . .

A. wait until the end of the meeting and bring it up during feedback. This is because it is the facilitator's job to watch the agenda.

B. immediately raise his or her hand and point out to the facilitator that the agenda is not being followed.

C. not do anything. This is the job of the facilitator and team leader. Team members can complain that agendas were not followed, but have no responsibility to see to it that the agendas are followed.

ANSWERS

1. "A" is the answer. When meeting for eight hours, then every two hours, there should be discussion about how to improve the meetings.

2. "C" is correct. The facilitator should bring up the charter by saying something like, "I sense that we are not all going in the same direction. I want to review the Charter just to make sure we are all on the same wave length." There is no reason to be confrontive over this.

3. "B" is correct. All team members are co-facilitators. That means when ground rules are broken or agendas are not followed, they have a responsibility to immediately speak up. This includes bringing up conflict that the team may not be openly addressing.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six References and Copying Rights

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