Leadership Strategies - The Facilitation Company

Facilitation, Training and Leadership Resources

Secrets of Facilitation reveals the principles and techniques effective facilitators use to produce amazing results through groups. The author identifies 60 secrets that separate great facilitators from good ones. He then puts you right in the room through his case studies and numerous sample dialogues, so you can see and experience the techniques in action!

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Let's NOT Meet: Strategies for Eliminating Unnecessary Meetings

By Michael Wilkinson, CMF/CEO Leadership Strategies

Meetings take time and tie up resources. Therefore, if a quality result can be achieved without holding a meeting, this is often preferred. It is important to recognize, however, two basic meeting types: status meetings and working meetings. The meeting type is determined by whether the primary focus of the participants will be reviewing or creating.

	“Status” Meeting	“Working” Meeting
Meeting Focus	Review	Creation
Meeting Flow	Primarily one-way	Primarily two-way
Typical Products	Information update, idea generation, feedback	Decision, issue resolution, action plan
Group Size	Unlimited	3–16
Typical Length	30–90 minutes	1–3 hours
Typical Frequency	Weekly, monthly	As needed

Questions to Ask Before Calling a Meeting

What is my purpose in calling the meeting? What is the product to be created?
If you can’t determine the purpose or a clear product, DON’T MEET!
Is it possible to achieve the purpose and create the product without a meeting?
If your answer is yes, DON’T MEET!
Is the purpose worth the time and resources that the meeting will consume?
If your answer is no, DON’T MEET!

How to Eliminate Status Meetings

If the meeting is truly "information only," consider distributing a memo instead or using voice mail. DON’T MEET!
If little action has taken place between status meetings, consider making meetings less frequent. DON’T MEET AS OFTEN!

How to Eliminate Working Meetings

Make analysis assignments and perform the analysis outside of a meeting. DON’T MEET TO DO THE ANALYSIS!
Document a preliminary decision in written form and circulate it for comment. DON’T MEET IF YOU HAVE AGREEMENT!

Interested in learning more facilitation techniques? Check out our course, The Effective Facilitator.

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"I'm sure that over the next 2 to 3 years there will be many hurdles in working toward an organization whoe behaviors are aligned with its values, but I don't believe we could have had a better base from which to build than that which you helped create."

Chris Warrell, Global HR, Bovis Lend Lease