by J. Henry Stewart

Created on: December 05, 2008   Last Updated: September 15, 2009

"Just one second, guys", said Jason to the group as he stood up to walk towards the door. He immediately started talking loudly into his blackberry. Jason left the meeting room and he passed Stacy who was waltzing into the meeting room at her normal time - ten minutes late.

Mary rubbed her forehead slowly with her fingers as she noticed Tim and Janet talking to each other about another project. This meeting was for Mary's project, and she had the responsibility to make sure it was a success but nothing ever seemed to be accomplished at her meetings.

Establish Respect

Ultimately, showing respect is about listening to each other. Jason appeared to show little respect by taking a phone call when the meeting was to be in progress, but he felt that his time was constantly being wasted by the other members of the group. The meetings lasted forever, people constantly came and went, and various members of the group would go into long-winded soliloquies of questionable value.

It is important to receive constant feedback from all the attendees of meetings - even from those whom the facilitator may not think are particularly important people. This feedback, whether oral or through anonymous surveys and responses, can help the team leader to see the flaws in the meetings. Furthermore, the team leader can coach members who speak too much, off topic, or too little when she knows what the problems are.

Punish the Guilty

Tardiness is like a fast growing weed in a garden. Other problems quickly sprout up if the team members do not show up on time and prepared.

Mary learned that one effective method to make sure people were on time was to make the last person to show up for the meeting tell a joke, if that person was also late according to the meeting room clock.

This mild chastisement quickly worked, as Stacy was embarrassed the first time she had to think up a joke to tell in front of her colleagues. Mary was firm however, and made Stacy suffer through the proper telling of said joke. Stacy was not late again.

Keep Meetings Short and Focused

After taking an anonymous survey - and Mary did not try to decipher the handwriting on the papers - she realized that several team members thought that the meetings were often too long and had a lack of focus.

Mary then went around to each team member and encouraged them to be prepared for the upcoming meetings, and helped them to know what to expect by preparing a detailed agenda that she had her secretary email to each member before the meetings.

A week later Mary's crew had another meeting, and it went much smoother. Everyone arrived promptly and no one had to tell a joke. Mary had extra copies of the agenda printed, but not one was needed as everyone came with a copy of the emailed agenda and their own ideas. Janet, who had previously been very quiet, started the meeting with a short presentation she had made concerning one aspect of the project that she thought might need work.

Mary smiled to herself as she realized that her disorganized group had started to become a team.

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