Leading a Meeting

     Last Wednesday in class we talked about meetings. The class focused primarily on how to properly and efficiently lead a meeting. First, we talked about why to have a meeting in the first place. Often times it seems like meetings are useless and that the information could have been sent out in an email. However, there is something to be said about face to face interaction. While emails can be beneficial, they also can be easily ignored and/or forgotten. I personally enjoy meetings, and feel that they are not only beneficial but also are a good way to break up the work day. As an intern this past winter, I really looked forward to meetings, because that was often where I learned the most and it was a way to break up the time I spent sitting at my desk.
     In class we discussed the types of meetings as well as the common participant roles within meetings. Meeting types include problem-solving, decision-making, planning, etc. Participant roles include facilitator, recorder, time-keeper, and basic participant. What we learned later though is that there are also some known, unassigned personalities within meetings including the latecomer, the early leaver, the repeater, and the doubter. Below I have listed some of the highlights I took away for how to lead better meetings:

• Establish meeting ground rules
• Create an agenda
• Start and end on time
• Prep for the meeting
• Have smaller meetings before the meeting
• Evaluate and follow up on the meeting

     Each of the above bullets are methods we discussed in leading better meetings. I find creating an agenda to be particularly important. In my experience, meetings where there is a specific agenda about what needs to be done and what needs to be gone over are the most efficient and productive. Each of our SOHL meetings always have agendas and I plan to continuing providing agendas next year. One statistic that really stood out to me in the presentation was about retention of information. Strictly oral presentations of information result in 10% retention, strictly visual presentations of information result in 35% retention, and a combination of both results in 65% retention. It is important to recognize this in delivering information in meetings. I really enjoyed this class topic and felt that is was very relative to the workplace.