Help me be a good meeting chair!

October 24, 2008 5:08 AM

Please give me tips on being a good team meeting chair. We have a rotating chair and it's my turn for the next 10 weeks in a team of 6 ICT business strategy staff. Meetings are usually around an hour and cover actions from last meeting, matters arising from meetings, several agenda items and any other business. Also looking for some ideas which have the capacity to really engage minds in these meetings which we all usually find quite dull.
posted by razzman to Work & Money (10 answers total)

I go to meetings of all sorts on a regular basis, and by far the most important thing the chair can do is stay in charge of the group and keep them focused on the agenda. In many groups it is all to easy to go off on a tangent and end up spending half the meeting discussing whether to get bagels or doughnuts for the next meeting. If you keep meetings short and to the point you will get a lot more done and have happier team members.
posted by TedW at 5:16 AM on October 24, 2008

Best answer: - Keep it short.
- Ask for opinions from people who arent speaking, encourage constructive disagreement
- Assign action items throughout, send out followup recap with action items.
- Maybe have each person pick a topic for a little freeform brainstorming at the end?
posted by softlord at 5:16 AM on October 24, 2008

second softlord on Keep It Short. And TedW Keep It Focused on the agenda. I always found stand up meetings to be the best when what was being covered was routine. For brain sessions the agenda is an absolute requirement. Make sure your agenda is clearly delineated. You don't want a chat session.
posted by ptm at 5:26 AM on October 24, 2008

The role of the chair can be summarized like this:
-Give everyone a chance to speak
-Don't let anyone repeat themselves or get off topic.

Getting those things done well will get you to your goal. There's other stuff you can do too, but you have to get those two points dealt with before any of the other stuff will help.
posted by winston at 5:49 AM on October 24, 2008

It might sound silly, but I always find the beginning to be the most important, since that's when people decide how important this meeting really is. You need to be strong, firm, and get ON TOPIC FAST. Too much chitchat before you begin can make it all feel like a bit of a bore, if not a joke, to those attending.

So the moment you're all there, you need to start with "OKAY, last meeting we discussed THIS, THIS and THIS... now today..."

And that'll snap everyone to attention and get their brains into meeting-gear quickly.
posted by rokusan at 6:04 AM on October 24, 2008

Also make sure the topics covered are relevant to the majority of attendees. If not they are perhaps better discussed in a different forum.
posted by mmascolino at 7:25 AM on October 24, 2008

I find that if you list specific goals to be reached by the end of the meeting, rather than topics to cover, you'll get a lot more out of it. Have them up on the wall or printed out so everyone can see them. Rather than "discuss XYZ project," use "brainstorm 10 solutions and narrow to 3 solid candidates for XYZ project". Don't jump between items on your list, stick with each one until you finish it. Ask people to write down a note to bring up later, if they suddenly have a brilliant idea for a later topic. At the end of the meeting, quickly sum up the results of all your meeting goals so people can object in case there's a misunderstanding, and go over who's in charge of doing what by when.
posted by vytae at 7:44 AM on October 24, 2008

Seconding having an agenda. Also, send an email out afterward with a summary of the meeting along with any associated deliverables with their task owner, similar to what vytae mentions.

Really though, an hour for seven people (six + you)? Weekly? If you can think of ways to shorten it up and cut out some deadwood, the six will thank you. Nothing in business strategy changes (or should change) much in a week, so it's not like you need to start over and account for all of history at every meeting..
posted by rhizome at 8:37 AM on October 24, 2008

Use the agenda to establish checklists and confirm assignments/expectations.
Allocate time for each item using hours:minutes, e.g., 10:10-10:30, not "20 minutes."
Start on time, even if some participants are missing, so they show up on time in the future.
End each topic with a concluding statement, e.g., "So we've agreed that x will do y by z." and the send a follow-up detailing decisions, assignments and expected completion dates.
posted by carmicha at 8:44 AM on October 24, 2008

I brought up Chet Holmes in another thread and here I go again. Ultimate Sales Machine has a very good chapter on meetings, how to hold them and how to actually get something out of 'em. (I have no stake in the book, although I wish I did).

His view is that meetings are for making the company/department better. Thumb through the chapter at the bookstore or library and you might find that your turn in the chair actually makes a difference.
posted by trinity8-director at 1:59 PM on October 24, 2008