Effective Meetings
Among all the meetings that are held, most of them fail to be effective because they are held at too frequent intervals and most often lack a purpose. Several times, there are too many people present at the meeting which makes it difficult to arrive at an effective decision. Careful planning is required for a meeting to be effective.
The Planning Process
There are five important questions that need to be addressed while planning a meeting. These are:
· Why have a meeting at all?
· What type of meeting should be held?
· Who should participate?
· Where should the meeting be held?
· When should the meeting be held?
Why have a meeting at all?
Before calling for a meeting, the purpose of holding the meeting should be clearly known. Routine meetings are called to update employees on a daily, weekly or monthly basis about recent developments pertaining to the ongoing purpose of the organization. Meetings may also be called for specific purposes such as to inform, consult or persuade the members
What type of meeting should be called?
Meetings fall under three categories:
· Informational meetings,
· Problem-solving meetings, and
· Change facilitating meetings.
· Informational meetings: These meetings are organized to inform the members of the group about recent developments. Usually the communication flow in these meetings is one-way communication but sometimes, it may be two-way, during which the members may ask the convener to clarify certain points.
Example: A meeting is called to inform all the employees about changes in the leave policy of the company.
· Problem-solving meetings: The purpose of holding these meetings is to generate ideas and later arrive at a decision. The decisions that result from such meetings may include decisions regarding changes in company policy, adopting a new technology and so on.
Example: A meeting is called to decide on new markets into which the company can venture on the strength of its current products.
· Change-facilitating meetings: These meetings require a lot of planning. The main purpose of these meetings is to convince the participants on a particular issue.
Example: A meeting is called to convince the employees to adopt a new application software for carrying out their daily operations.
Wwho should participate?
The purpose of holding the meeting decides who should participate in the meeting.
In case of an informational meeting, a large number of people are required to attend the meeting but if the purpose of having the meeting is problem-solving, then only those who can contribute to the discussion and who are directly involved in the decision need to be invited.
Where should the meeting be held?
The place of meeting and the seating arrangement at the meeting plays a role in making it effective or otherwise. It also reflects the extent to which the meeting is formal and whether the meeting is dominated by the convener or is participatory. The seating arrangements differ for different types of meetings.
When should the meeting be held?
Meetings that are held on Monday mornings, and in the afternoon on the last day of the week are usually ineffective. This is because the people who participate in meetings held at these times are generally pre-occupied with other thoughts and plans. The timing of a meeting should be such that the participants remain attentive besides making meaningful contributions to the discussions.
Notice
After the questions to be discussed in the meeting are finalized, the convener issues a notice calling for a meeting. While issuing the notice, certain aspects should be taken into consideration:
· The notice must be issued by the proper authority
· It must be issued sufficiently in advance
· The notice should clearly specify the time, date and venue of the meeting
· An agenda should accompany the notice
· The notice should be sent to all persons who are entitled to receive it.
Agenda
The agenda of a meeting comprises the list of topics that are to be discussed in the meeting. The agenda should clearly state the issues to be discussed, the time, date, place and the name of the meeting. The supporting background materials should also be sent along with the agenda to the participants. The participants should come well-prepared for the meeting.
Minutes
Minutes consist of written records of the proceedings of the previous meeting. Minutes are sent along with the agenda or read out by the company secretary before the commencement of the meeting. The purpose is to brief the members about the previous meeting.
Opening the meeting
The meeting usually commences with the chairman or the leader conveying thanks to the participants for attending the meeting. He then follows this with a brief speech about the purpose of the meeting. The agenda papers are circulated to those who don't possess them. The chairman also gives a briefing on the specific contributions to be made by members, setting the time-frame for the same.
Conducting the business
The main role of the chairman or the leader of the meeting is to ensure that the various issues listed in the agenda are discussed. In case of any deviations, he should immediately redirect the focus on to the main agenda. He should also ensure that all members participate. When tactics such as personal power play, attention-seeking and blocking are resorted to, he should handle them deftly. Personal opinions should be kept at bay and he should consider the practicality and acceptability of the contributions made by members. At the end of the meeting, he should thank all members for their contributions, irrespective of his personal opinion on the different views expressed in the meeting.
Concluding the meeting
When there are few minutes left for the meeting to end, the leader brings it to the notice of the members. This enables the members to be able to wrap up their discussions within the time. After that, the leader should summarize the proceedings stating what has been achieved and what hasn't been achieved in the meeting and inform the members about the future course of action. He should also inform them as to when the minutes will be circulated.
Following up the meeting
After the meeting is over, the leader should review the proceedings and find an answer to the following queries:
· Did the meeting achieve its specified purpose?
· What are the issues that require further discussion?
· Was there adequate participation by the members?
· How can the next meeting be conducted better?
When to use Visual aids
Before trying to know when to use visual aids, it is important to first understand the role played by visual aids in enhancing the process of communication. Therefore, it is necessary to first know why business professionals use visual aids in their reports and presentations.
Why are visual aids used in presentations and reports?
Visual aids help in communicating information more clearly than what is possible using only textual matter. They help to clarify and simplify data. The ability of visual aids to attract the attention of the reader helps them serve as attention-getters. Thus, visual aids can be used to emphasize important material and to persuade the reader to understand or agree with the writer's point of view.
Example: A quarterly sales report submitted by a sales executive will be clear and easy to understand if it is presented in a tabulated manner showing the targeted, actual and difference in sales. If, however, the sales report were to be presented in the form of textual matter, not only would this be complicated and difficult to understand but will also make comparison difficult.
When to use visual aids?
Visual aids are used to make reports and presentations more effective. They are used to support and clarify textual descriptions through graphics, diagrams etc. They simplify complicated descriptions by breaking them into various components and depicting them together using flow charts, diagrams etc. Visual aids are used to emphasize important parts of presentations or reports by means of pie charts, line charts etc. They are used to summarize the major points in a report or narrative by summing them up in the form of a table or chart.
Selective usage of visual aids
Selective usage of visual aids is necessary since use of too many graphics and other such visual aids may result in distracting the attention of the readers from the central idea of the presentation or report. Also, visual aids should complement the textual matter. They should not be used in place of textual matter.
The following questions require to be answered to know whether a visual presentation is effective or not?
· Does the visual presentation help enhance the readers' overall understanding of the subject?
· Can the information be conveyed in words rather than by visual means?
· Will the textual information add meaning to the visual display?
· Is the visual presentation easy to understand or does it confuse the readers?
Selecting a suitable visual aid
Selecting the right visual aid could be the most vital decision in making a report effective. The visual aid selected should be the one that best conveys the message to the readers.
Various visual aids available are discussed below:
Tables
A table is a systematic presentation of data in columns and rows. A table is the most suitable visual aid when detailed, numerical information has to be presented in a clear and simple manner. A table consists of horizontal rows and vertical columns with headings to indicate what they represent.
Bar charts
The bar chart, also known as simple bar chart or single-range bar chart, is a graphic aid used to depict quantities. The bars may be presented either horizontally or vertically and the length of the bars indicates the quantity of the variable.
There are two types of bar charts:
Multi-range bar chart: Multi-range bar charts are also known as comparative or cluster bar chart. A multi-range bar chart is used to express data that change over time. A multiple-range bar chart can effectively compare more than one set of data at each point on the X-axis or the Y-axis.
Stacked bar chart: The stacked bar chart is also called as the component, 100 percent or segmented bar chart. This type of bar chart is used when it is necessary to show how the various components contribute to the total figure. A stacked bar chart allows comparisons of components for more than one time period.
Gantt chart: Gantt charts are horizontal bar charts that represent time relationship graphically. Time is represented on the horizontal axis while tasks are represented on the vertical axis in a Gantt chart. The length of the bars indicate the amount of time taken to accomplish each task. Gantt charts are a useful tool for managers and help them in planning, allocating and scheduling resources.
Line charts
Line charts are used to indicate the changes that take place over a period of time. These can successfully indicate trends and display variations within each time period. Time is depicted on the horizontal axis, and the amount is depicted on the vertical axis. In a line chart, more than one line may be plotted on a single graph. This facilitates comparisons.
For example: Sale
Cumulative line charts, also known as surface charts or area charts, are used to depict cumulative effect or how various components contribute to the total.
Pie charts: Pie charts are similar to the stacked bar charts and represent how the parts of a whole are distributed. These are useful in depicting percentages but ineffective in showing quantitative totals or in making comparisons. Each slice should be labeled and colored, or shaded, so that each portion of the pie can be differentiated from the other. The slices of the pie should be arranged in such a manner that the slice depicting the largest portion of the pie should begin at the 12 o'clock position.
Pictograms: Pictograms are visual aids which use pictures to depict numerical relationships. While using pictograms, care should be taken that all the pictures in a particular pictogram are of the same size.
Maps: Maps are useful in illustrating geographic relationships. Apart from being less confusing than a verbal explanation, maps are a more interesting and concise way of presenting geographical data. For example, when a tourist guide provides you with a map; it is easier for you to understand about the location of various places that you will be touring, as against the guide's verbal explanation about each location.
Flowcharts and Organization charts: These are used to express the physical or conceptual relationships between various components of a process or departments of an organization, etc. Flowcharts are an indispensable visual aid to illustrate processes, procedures and relationships between components.
Organization charts depict the location, functions and interrelationships between various units of an organization.
Other visual aids
Apart from the visual aids that have been discussed above, floor plans, photographs, diagrams, cartoons and blueprints may also be used in reports. The easy availability of these sophisticated graphics and drawing software has led to increasing use in many reports and presentations. These software, being easy to use, are being increasingly used by managers to develop creative visuals for inclusion in internal reports.
Introducing visual aids in the text
Text and visual aids should serve as partners in the communication process. The visual should supplement the text and the text should add meaning to the visual.
Reference to the visual should be given before the reader comes across it in the text. This helps to draw the attention of the reader to that aspect of the visual that the writer wishes to emphasize and to supplement what has already been said in the text. However, if reference to the visual is not given in the text, the readers may draw their own inferences from the visual rather than what the writer wants them to infer. Thus the visual needs to be integrated with the text.
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