Transcript Leadership Communication, 4th edition by Deborah J. Barrett

Leadership Communication, 4th edition by Deborah J. Barrett
Meetings: Leadership
and Productivity
Lectures Based on
Leadership Communication, 4th edition
By Deborah J. Barrett, Ph.D.
Copyright © 2014 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education.
Leadership Communication, 4th edition by Deborah J. Barrett
Discussion Topics
 Deciding when a meeting is the best forum
 Planning a meeting
 Conducting a productive meeting
 Reviewing purpose, end products, and agenda
 Establishing roles and ground rules
 Using common problem-solving methods
 Managing meeting problems and conflict
 Ensuring meetings lead to action
11-2
Leadership Communication, 4th edition by Deborah J. Barrett
Deciding When a Meeting is
the Best Forum
To determine if a meeting is the best forum, ask
yourself the following questions:
 What is the purpose? What do I hope to
accomplish?
 Will a meeting accomplish that purpose most
efficiently? Most effectively?
 Can I describe exactly the outcome I am
seeking from the meeting?
 Is our group more productive when we meet?
11-3
Leadership Communication, 4th edition by Deborah J. Barrett
Planning a Meeting
 Clarify purpose, objectives, and end products
 Decide on the following:
 Attendees
 Location, equipment, and room layout
 Materials needed before and during
 Meeting timing
 Decision-making approach
 Create the agenda
11-4
Leadership Communication, 4th edition by Deborah J. Barrett
Clarifying the Purpose and End Products
 Before the meeting or at the beginning, write
out and agree on your purpose and objectives.
 Align those objectives with the expected endproducts.
 For example Objective
End products
 Identify major issues in
the case
 Determine possible
approaches to issues
 Assign tasks
 List of five issues
 Written approaches or
actions to find approaches
 Action items with
responsibility assigned
11-5
Leadership Communication, 4th edition by Deborah J. Barrett
Conducting a Productive Meeting
To conduct a productive meeting, you will need to
do the following:
 Review your purpose, end products, and agenda
 Establish roles and ground rules
 Use common problem-solving methods
 Manage meeting problems and conflict
11-6
Leadership Communication, 4th edition by Deborah J. Barrett
Establishing Roles and Ground Rules
Roles
 Leader
 Facilitator
 Note taker
 Timekeeper
11-7
Leadership Communication, 4th edition by Deborah J. Barrett
Using Common ProblemSolving Methods*
1. Brainstorming
2. Ranking or rating
3. Sorting by category (logical grouping)
4. Edward DeBono’s Six Thinking Hats
5. Opposition analysis (is/is not, pro/con)
6. Decision trees
7. From/to
8. Force field analysis
9. The matrix
10. Frameworks
*See appendix for discussions of some of the methods.
11-8
Leadership Communication, 4th edition by Deborah J. Barrett
Managing Meeting Problems
Problem
1. Confused
objectives and
expectations
Approach
 Create agenda that includes
objectives and end products
 Send agenda out ahead of time
 Review agenda at the
beginning of meeting
2. Unclear roles/
 Communicate roles and
responsibilities
responsibilities before or at the
beginning of the meeting
11-9
Leadership Communication, 4th edition by Deborah J. Barrett
Managing Meeting Problems (continued)
Problem
Approach
3. Confusion
 Separate leader and facilitator
between
process
and
content
 Call time outs for process checks
4. Drifting off
 Stop and review objectives
 If digression continues, suggest
 Continuing after meeting
 Placing topic on agenda for
next meeting or in “parking lot”
topic
11-10
Leadership Communication, 4th edition by Deborah J. Barrett
Managing Meeting Problems (continued)
Problem
Approach
5. Data confusion
or overload
Control versions of handouts
Create simplified data packs
Exclude data not relevant to
objectives
6. Repetition/
wheel spinning
Control the discussion by
reminding attendees of objectives
7. Time violations
Always start on time
Have a time keeper
Re-evaluate agenda topics/time
limits and build in cushion time
11-11
Leadership Communication, 4th edition by Deborah J. Barrett
Managing Conflict
High
Level of
assertiveness
Competing
Collaborating
Compromising
Low Avoiding
Low
Accommodating
High
Level of cooperation
Source: Adapted from Blake and Mouton, in Deborah Borisoff and David Victor,
11-12
Conflict Management: A Communication Skills Approach, p. 6.
Leadership Communication, 4th edition by Deborah J. Barrett
Ensuring Meeting Follow-up Occurs
 Assign specific tasks to specific people
 Review all actions and responsibilities at the
end of the meeting
 Provide a meeting summary with assigned
deliverables included
 Follow-up on action items in a reasonable time
11-13
Leadership Communication, 4th edition by Deborah J. Barrett
Discussion Summary
 Unproductive meetings may occur if a meeting
is not the best forum to accomplish the tasks
 Ensuring productive meetings means you need
to plan the meeting carefully and conduct it with
skilled facilitation
 Meeting problems and conflict need to be
managed immediately and not allowed to linger
 To ensure needed actions occur following the
meeting may require some micro-managing
11-14
Leadership Communication, 4th edition by Deborah J. Barrett
Appendix:
Some Problem-Solving Methods
11-15
Leadership Communication, 4th edition by Deborah J. Barrett
Traditional Brainstorming
 Purpose: To generate a lot of ideas
 Characteristics:
 Each person is expected to contribute an idea
 Ideas are not to be evaluated or judged
 Ideas must be captured just as they are
 Quantity is what is important, not quality
 A facilitator’s role is to keep things moving
and make sure the scribe captures all ideas
 Brainstorming ends when the ideas stop
coming or when time runs out
11-16
Leadership Communication, 4th edition by Deborah J. Barrett
DeBono’s Six Thinking Hats
 Purpose: To encourage open and complete thinking about
a problem (parallel thinking)
 Characteristics:
 Each person figuratively wears a hat of the same color
and assumes the characteristics assigned to the color
 The colors are as follows:
 Red = Emotions
 White = Facts
 Yellow = Possibilities
 Black = Devil’s advocate
 Green = Creative solutions
 Blue = Evaluation of ideas
11-17
Leadership Communication, 4th edition by Deborah J. Barrett
The Matrix
 Purpose: To evaluate or diagnose problems, establish
positioning or approach, or determine level of difficulty
in making changes
 Characteristics:
 The matrix is usually a four box configuration with
each axis assigned an evaluative label
 An example would
be the skill/will matrix:
High will
Low will
Low skill
High skill
11-18
Leadership Communication, 4th edition by Deborah J. Barrett
Force-Field Analysis
 Purpose: To explore problems and develop
strategies for change
 Characteristics:
 First, the problem is described, and then
the situation as you would want it to be
is described.
 What emerges are two sets of forces, one
driving towards the desired goal and the
other pushing in the opposite direction.
 When the forces are found to be in
equilibrium, no change can occur.
11-19
Leadership Communication, 4th edition by Deborah J. Barrett
From/To
 Purpose: To establish accurate description
of a current situation with a matching list of
desired changes
 Characteristics:
 Particularly useful in a change situation
 Helps uncover problems and improvements
 Very useful in a team situation or idea
generating workshop
From
To
11-20
Leadership Communication, 4th edition by Deborah J. Barrett
Frameworks
 Purpose: To simplify or make a complex idea
more manageable, to capture visually the
elements of a complex problem, or to force
greater analysis
 Characteristics:
 Can be original (the best usually are since
then they are tailored to the problem)
 However, numerous frameworks exist,
which can save valuable time and ensure
comprehensiveness; thus, they should be
part of every facilitator’s tool kit.
11-21