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

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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?

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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

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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 end-
products.
 For example -

Objective End products

 Identify major issues in  List of five issues
the case
 Determine possible  Written approaches or
approaches to issues actions to find approaches
 Assign tasks  Action items with
responsibility assigned
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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

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Leadership Communication, 4th edition by Deborah J. Barrett

Establishing Roles and Ground Rules

Roles Sample Ground Rules

 Discussions are to be
 Leader informal and interactive

 Facilitator  Our goal is to have open,

nonjudgmental exchange

 Note taker of ideas

 No idea is a bad idea
 Timekeeper  All participants are equal
 No sidebars are allowed

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 Leadership Communication, 4th edition by Deborah J. Barrett

Using Common Problem-

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

Managing Meeting Problems

Problem Approach
1. Confused  Create agenda that includes
objectives and objectives and end products
expectations  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

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Leadership Communication, 4th edition by Deborah J. Barrett

Managing Meeting Problems (continued)

Problem Approach
3. Confusion  Separate leader and facilitator
between  Call time outs for process checks
process
and
content

4. Drifting off  Stop and review objectives

topic  If digression continues, suggest
 Continuing after meeting
 Placing topic on agenda for
next meeting or in “parking lot”
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Leadership Communication, 4th edition by Deborah J. Barrett

Managing Meeting Problems (continued)

Problem Approach
5. Data confusion Control versions of handouts
or overload Create simplified data packs
Exclude data not relevant to
objectives
6. Repetition/ Control the discussion by
wheel spinning 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

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Leadership Communication, 4th edition by Deborah J. Barrett

Managing Conflict
High
Competing Collaborating

Level of
assertiveness Compromising

Low Avoiding Accommodating

Low High
Level of cooperation
Source: Adapted from Blake and Mouton, in Deborah Borisoff and David Victor,
Conflict Management: A Communication Skills Approach, p. 6. 11-12
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

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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

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Appendix:
Some Problem-Solving Methods

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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

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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

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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
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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.

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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

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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.

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