No, really… you can have a useful staff meeting

By Jeffrey A. Govendo

     Are your company's annual conferences and other large meetings extraordinary? They should be.

     Surely they cost enough, with travel, hotels, speaker fees and other major expenses - not to mention employees' time away from the job. Any meeting in which attendees do not participate fully is a waste of money, and lots of it. More importantly, it's a lost opportunity to get the best each of your employees has to offer.

     That opportunity is a valuable one because those employees can think about the problems your organization faces and come up with ideas to solve them. Think of the aggregate brainpower at these meetings - yet typically, these "geniuses" are plunked into chairs for hours on end, listening to speakers impart their wisdom, while hardly any attempt is made to tap into this huge reservoir of talent assembled in one place.

     Among the chief complaints people voice about company meetings is the passivity forced upon them by the way the meetings are designed. That shouldn't be taken to dismiss the importance of a good speaker addressing a topic of interest to the audience. Certainly the value of new information, delivered in a lively, engaging manner, cannot be overstated. But the full value of a presentation may not be realized unless audience members are allowed to process it, debriefing for possible insights and implications for their own work.

     The real value of a large meeting, and what feels truly satisfying to those participating, is gauged by the results of employees thinking and acting together to fulfill an overall purpose.

     Over the past 15 years or so, a number of effective large-meeting models have been developed and researched by social psychologists. While these models differ in their methodologies, degree of structure imposed, recommended physical milieu, and so forth, what they have in common is active participation by all in attendance.

     With this in mind, there are a few basic principles that can be immensely helpful for conducting a successful company-wide meeting.

• Start with a clearly-stated vision or purpose, along with objectives to be achieved. Unlike smaller, more narrowly focused meetings, you don't want these to be overly specific; this leaves too little room for expansive, creative thinking that can lead to exciting new ideas. But you do want people to know why they're meeting, and what the general expectations are for their time together. A well-worded vision, along with several objectives, will serve as a touchstone against which all efforts and activities in the conference will be measured.
  
  
• Alternate between large- and small-group activities. Each has its inherent strengths and weaknesses. Nothing is more effective, for example, than a small team of problem-solvers in a breakout room, focusing in a concentrated manner on a specific task. On the other hand, it is a mistake to assume that large assemblies are conducive only to listening to speeches. A well-facilitated meeting of 100, 200, or even 300 or more people can be highly interactive, provided there is adequate sound equipment for each person to be heard. A good mix of large- and small-group activities will result in a far more interesting conference for attendees.
  
  
• Go beyond question-and-answer sessions after a speaker has presented. Sometimes, questions are asked simply for further information or clarification. More often, however, they are really ideas in disguise, or points of view an audience member wishes to get across. A good speaker will stir up many of these, but they're likely to be lost once the "question" is answered. How much more productive it would be to capture these as ideas to build upon and to stimulate further discussion or idea generation.
  
  
• Encourage groups to play with new ideas, to "invent" new solutions to your company's most vexing problems. The conditions are right for this in a company-wide meeting: on hand is your most diverse set of thinkers, they're away from the everyday routines of the office or lab, and most want to make something happen. Here's your chance to marshal their various talents, let them flex their creative muscles, and encourage them to share ideas that wouldn't ordinarily come up in the crush of daily work demands. Here also is the opportunity to put new combinations of people together, creating new "chemistries," each of which having the potential to generate innovative approaches to your company's problems.
  
  
• Have each task group, large or small, produce a set of deliverables, with recommended courses of action. The more tangible the output, the better. Report-outs to the larger audience, which often come across as dull and repetitive, should be kept at a quick pace, and if possible done in an entertaining manner: news reports, storytelling, a "trade show" of ideas, even skits to dramatize the group's findings. Most importantly, task groups want something to show for their efforts, and to know that there will be follow-up on their recommendations.
  
  
• Make the meeting notes available to those who attended, along with updates on the progress of all initiatives. In this way, their participation continues even after the meeting is over. In addition, the meeting itself assumes greater strategic importance in the minds of attendees, rather than having been a "one-shot" event with no real connection to the business at large.

     While dynamic, well-informed speakers and pleasant surroundings can certainly contribute to the success of your meeting, it is the active involvement of your employees that will make it truly memorable. Keep this in mind during each stage of planning and design, and your company-wide meeting will be company-wise in your return on investment.

Copyright © 2000 The Innovative Edge™ Inc.

The Innovative Edge, Inc.
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