Meeting Management – Unprepared

If participants regularly come unprepared this is a sign and symptom that the meetings are not taken seriously, not effective or both.

What can you do?

If you are the facilitator of the meeting, privately ask individuals what’s getting in the way of them coming to the meeting prepared.*  Find out what’s taking priority over this and what would work better or that this is critical for their performance.*  The best leader seeks to understand first and not just to his/her own assumption and looking at as fact.

There are a number of barriers you may hear from the individual.*  Be prepared to hear some words e.g.

-* * * * * * * * *  I can’t get the answer from xxx.*  (Meaning I need help getting information from another person or group)

-* * * * * * * * *  I don’t know how to do this.*  (Meaning I need someone else to help me get started.)

-* * * * * * * * *  I don’t have time (Meaning priorities are conflicting and I need assistance in defining the order.)

-* * * * * * * * *  I don’t know.*  (This has a number of meanings.*  The bottom line is they are not coming prepared.)

In any of these examples, first you hear their answers.*  Then, together you determine what’s needed to assure the assignments are effectively and accurately completed for meetings.*  Your job is to motivate them to get the job done.*  They may need some of your assistance.*  They may need to understand that this is an expectation of the meeting participants and considered a performance concern.

You may also decide to ask for additional input from those attending the meetings.*  What would make the meeting more effective?*  Too long?*  Too short?*  Purpose?*  Topics?*  Methods?*  Also, you could assign a different participants as facilitator of a meeting so they can experience being the facilitator and having that responsibility.*  * Participants experience what is it like to lead a meeting and is a great professional development avenue.*  Secondly, when each participant is expected to be a facilitator of a meeting, they are more sensitive to their criticisms of the meeting and of facilitators because they will be those shoes too.*  Many times we don’t appreciate the responsibility until we do it ourselves.

We hope that this meeting management has been interesting and beneficial to your professional development.*  Please contact us at LAC for further and more in-depth assistance.