Many of you are probably familiar with this phrase. For some of you, maybe too familiar. One of the services I provide companies with is meeting facilitation. When people need to set goals or stay on track for brainstorming, I help make sure the planned destination is achieved. I had the opportunity to help my local chamber of commerce out recently with just such a meeting. Each year the mostly volunteer organization gets together to set the agenda and goals for the coming year. If any of you have ever felt my pain on herding cats, try it with a bunch of people who are giving their time to be there… What was asked of me normally takes several days, I was given 4 hours… Anyone ready to come help yet? Oh and by the way, I was doing it as a volunteer to help my local community.
The chamber, like most organizations I work with, was trying to figure out how to increase revenue without increasing expenses. The difference is that as a non-profit, you only have so many ways to do that and a razor thin amount of money to accomplish your goals.
Here are a few tips to facilitating a great meeting:
- First, establish the ground rules. Where are the bathrooms, do you allow breaks, can people take calls, what are the expectations of the audience and facilitator? If you don’t set the rules, everyone will set their own.
- Second, assure everyone is in agreement on what the goal for the meeting is. Where are we headed? What will a successful end look like?
- Third, set up a ‘parking lot’ for items that are off topic for the moment. Maybe something to get to later or maybe a subject of an entirely different meeting.
- Fourth, be sure everyone gets to participate. This one is the hardest part. Typically a few will dominate the rest and effectiveness is lost. Why not have the meeting with only a few? Many times you will have to literally force people in the group to participate (and others to allow them to). Look for opportunities when you see their eyes light up like they have something to say but are cut off or decide not to. Give them ample opportunities.
The collaboration found in effective meetings is one of the most powerful tools an organization has. Getting together as a group to say you had a ‘meeting’ is one of the largest wasters of time and money an organization has. Next time you are in a ‘meeting’ with your team, look around the room and do a quick count. How much money per minute is this meeting costing if you add up everyone in the room’s income. Trust me, if you are the person writing that check, you will figure out how to make your meetings more effective very quickly once you add it up.
The meeting with the chamber ended with everyone saying how effective they felt the time was and how much they appreciated everyone participating. Goals were produced that are now aligned with the singular focus of ‘Improving the
Membership Experience’. It is a work in progress, but it is definitely moving the right direction. Nothing makes me love what I do more than the statement that I helped an organization get past a plateau or beyond a limit they didn’t think possible. Many of you know one of my favorite Henry Ford quotes that I use often: If you think you can or you can’t, you’re right… If you don’t have the awareness of what the possibilities are, you will most likely never see them.
Oh, and of course the best way to have an effective meeting like the chamber did is to bring in an expert… You will be surprised at what you observe and what is accomplished when someone else helps get all those cats going in one direction. The results you want are out there, let me help you find them…
