Preparation – a checklist
Successful meetings require good planning. The following is a checklist of entail planning items to consider:
Time and place
| When and where is the meeting?
Timing – how long will it last?
| People
| Who will attend?
Who sill chair?
| Roles
| Do participants have special responsibilities?
Will people have time to prepare input?
| Purpose
| What is the objective of the meeting?
What is the agenda?
| Type of meeting
| Purpose of meeting: briefing? brainstorming?
| Facilities
| Do we have a room with equipment?
What about refreshments, car parking, etc?
| Communication
| What documentation is required?
Who will prepare and circulate it?
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Execution – a checklist
Meetings consist of a chairperson and participants. Both have specific responsibilities to guarantee that a meeting is effective. A combination of language and general communication skills is essential.
Effective chairing
… → Welcomes → Outlines agenda and objectives, states procedure and roles → Agrees timing →Invites opinions → Checks and clarifies → Creates positive atmosphere → Limits digression → Keeps on track → Encourages people to speak →Builds to decision → Watches time → Reaches objectives → Summarizes → Closes and thanks
Effective participating
..resents opinions → Listens to others → Proposes ideas, asks questions → Works efficiently → Takes turns → Respects other views → Concentrates → Agrees → Disagrees politely →Builds to decisions → Understands the result
Meetings: key terms
The process
Before the meeting takes place, it is important to invite participants to propose items or points for the agenda. Drawing up the agenda is usually the responsibility of the secretary or the chair. When the chair opens the meeting, it is usual to run through the agenda quickly. The first item is usually Matters Arising, to allow participants to go through the minutes of the previous meeting. After this, the discussion of the other points can begin. During the discussion, participants make recommendations and proposals in order to solve problems. If the meeting is scheduledfor a whole day, it is typical to take breaks and to adjourn for lunch. Of course, it is necessary to resume [start again] after lunch. In the middle of the afternoon, participants often ask for a time out if they are feeling tired. At the end of the meeting, the last or next-to-last point is often AOB (Any Other Business) which gives participants the opportunity to raise other issues not included in the main agenda. During the meeting someone is nominated to take the minutes and after the meeting this person will write up the minutes for circulation to the other participants before the next meeting. Finally, the chair will close the meeting.
Note:
A chair = chairperson – chairman – charwoman
To chair a meeting
Meeting:
· Brainstorming
· Formal
· Board
· Informal
· Project
· Briefing
· Troubleshooting
· Team
Agenda:
· Topics
· Items
· Subjects
· Matters
· Points
Communication: verbs and nouns
To discuss A discussion
To propose A proposal
To decide A decision
To brainstorm A brainstorming
To recommend A recommendation
To summarize A summary
Arrangements: verbs + ‘a meeting’
To organise
To fix
To rearrange
To reschedule
To cancel
Arranging a meeting
A: Can we fix a meeting to discuss the budget?
B: Of course.
A: Can you manage Tuesday next week?
B: Yes, I can make Tuesday.
A: Shall we say 2 o’clock?
B: That would be fine.
A: We can hold the meeting in Room 26.
B: OK. Great.
A: I’ll confirm this by e-mail.
B: OK, see you on Tuesday at 2.
A: I look forward to seeing you.
Opening a meeting
Starting
Let’s get down to business.
OK, shall we make a start?
Right, let’s begin.
Welcoming and introducing
Welcome, everybody.
I’d like to start by welcoming everybody.
Firstly, I’d like to introduce …
I don’t think everyone knows …
Apologies for absence
I’m afraid that … cannot be with us today because …
I have received apologies for absence from …
Defining the objective
Our objective today is to …
I’ve called this meeting to look at the question of …
By the end of this meeting we should have …
Introducing the agenda
Have you all seen a copy of the agenda? Can we take it as read?
OK. As you can see from the agenda, there are … items.
Firstly …, secondly …, thirdly …, finally …
I suggest we follow the agenda.
Can we start with …, then come on to … and finish with …?
Is there any other business?
The minutes
John will be taking the minutes.
Tim, could you take the minutes?
Process and roles
I suggest we go round the table first.
I’d like to hear what everyone thinks before we make a decision.
Firstly, I would like to give you a little more background.
Perhaps I should start by outlining my view of this.
Mr. Gonzales is going to take us through point one.
Timing
I would like to finish by three o’clock.
The meeting is due to finish at …
We’re short of time, so can I ask you to be brief?
Can we keep each item to fifteen minutes?
Let’s begin
So, the first item on the agenda is …
Right, let’s start with …
Mr. Chin, could you introduce this item?
Abu Bakar, would you like to start with the first point?
Giving and responding to opinions
Asking for opinions
What do you think?
What are your thoughts about this?
What is your opinion about this?
Involving people
We haven’t heard from you yet, Bob.
Can we hear what Jeremy has to say?
Susan, you’re very quiet. Would you like to comment?
Recommending
I think we should …
Why don’t we …?
Maybe we could …
How about …?
Comments to support and focus
That’s a great idea! (responding positively)
Yes, that might work. (supporting)
Possibly yes, but … (supporting and focusing)
I’m not so sure about that. (responding negatively)
Expressing opinion – a scale
Strong expression:
I’m convinced that …
I do think that …
Neutral expression:
I feel that …
On my opinion …
My view is that …
As I see it …
It seems to me …
Weak expression:
I tend to think that …
I would suggest that …
It might be the case that …
In my opinion
It would …
· save money.
· improve efficiency.
· reduce costs.
It wouldn’t …
· work.
· be easy.
· cost a lot of money.
Do you agree?
| Agreeing with someone
| Agreeing to something
| Agreement
| I totally agree with you.
I completely agree.
Absolutely.
| I can agree to that..
I support that.
I’m in favour of that.
| Part agreement
| I see what you’re saying but …
To a certain extent I agree but …
This may be right but …
| I can partly agree to that but …
You may be right but …
I’m not totally convinced because …
| Disagreement
| I totally disagree with you.
I don’t agree.
I’m not sure.
| I’m afraid I can’t agree to that.
I can’t support that.
I’m against that because …
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Disagreement – diplomatic language
1. would, could and may are
less direct:
| →
| This is a problem.
This could / would / may be a problem.
| 2. understate by adding: a little,
a bit
| →
| You are behind schedule.
You are a little / a bit behind schedule.
| 3. avoid negative words: awful, terrible
Use not very + positive word
| →
| It was awful / terrible.
This is not very good.
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Controlling
Active listening: responding to motivate
Right.
OK. Yes, I see.
Thank you.
Active listening: reformulating to clarify
In other words, …
You think that …
You mean that …
Moving off the point
Could I digress for a minute?
It’s not on the agenda but …
Keeping to the agenda
I think we are digressing. Can we come back to the main question?
I think we’re getting side-tracked. The main question is …
I’m not sure that is strictly relevant. Can we return to …
That is outside the scope of this meeting. Can we stick to the agenda, please?
Referring forward
We’ll come to that later.
We’ll be dealing with that in a moment.
Can we come to that later?
Referring back
As we said earlier, …
We have already discussed this. Can we move on?
Postponing
Shall we skip this item?
I think we can forget point four. We’ve already discussed it.
I suggest that we deal with this at another meeting.
We’re rather short of time.
Timing
Can we move on?
That’s fifteen minutes on this. We agreed ten minutes per item. Can we …
Confirming a decision
OK. So we have decided to …
Does everyone agree with that?
Is that clear?
Closing and moving on
I think that’s everything on that.
Can we leave this point now and move on to the next item?
The next item on the agenda is …
Now we come to the question of …
Interruptions
Chair – interrupting
OK. John, if I could just interrupt you there …
Mary, sorry but I’d like to hear some other views on this.
OK. Thank you, Bob. You’ve made your point.
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