Managing Meetings and Teams

Functions of meetings
-Share information
-Find facts
-Solve problems
-Make decisions
-Coordinate tasks

Informational
Explain important new decisions or company activities to employees, answer questions, or help them understand tasks

Fact finding
Tap the expertise of several employees and at the same time obtain facts for planning and decision making

Problem solving
Team members pool their specialized experts with the objective of developing a solution

Decision making
Team members pool their specialized experts with the objective of developing a solution

Coordinating
Project teams keep each other informed of their progress and plan each stage of their joint efforts

Advantages of teams
-Higher-quality decisions
-Increased Productivity
-Increased commitment, loyalty, retention
-Fewer communication breakdowns
-Increased motivation

Disadvantages of teams
-Low-quality of premature decisions
-Wasted time
-Costly
-Overused
-Risk of groupthink

Groupthink
Tendency of a group to conform to ideas simply because the general sense of the group has moved in a particular direction and the members of the group feel committed to continue in the same line of thought

Symptoms of groupthink
1. The illusion that everyone in the group holds the same viewpoint with an emphasis on team play

2. The belief that the group can make no mistakes

3. The belief that disagreements are to be avoided, faulty assumptions are not questioned, and personal doubts must be suppressed in favor of group harmony

4. The tendency to comfort one another and to ignore or at least discount warnings that an agreed-on plan is either unworkable or highly unlikely to succeed

5. The tendency to direct pressure on any dissenting group member who expresses strong challenges to the consensus opinion of the group

6. The presence of inordinate optimism that predisposes members to take excessive risks

Actions to avoid groupthink
1. Do not make an early decision
2. Be open to criticism
3. Use a 'devil's advocate'

Strategic considerations for meetings
1. Whether to meet
2. Attendees
3. Agenda and materials
4. Leadership style
5. Management of disruptions
6. Follow-up
7. Physical facilities
8. Technology support
9. Team relationships
10. Cultural differences

Who Should Attend?
1. How many people to invite
2. Who the members will represent
3. Member's function in the meeting
4. Team ability

Strategic Consideration 3: Agenda and Materials
- What
- Why
- When
- Who

Strategic Consideration 4: Leadership Style
- Group
- Objective of the meeting
- Type of leadership behavior with which the manager personally feels most comfortable

Social network analysis
Tool for objectively evaluating project team members

Sociograms
Designed that reveal employees' social network and connections

Centrality
Measure of a person's relative importance based on their location in the social network

Leading project teams
- Be a facilitator
- Support the team
- Delegate
- Seek diversity

Strategic Consideration 5: Managing Disruptions (before meeting)
1. Ask for the disrupters cooperation
2. Give the person a special task or role
3. Work out differences before meeting
4. Structure meeting to include frequent discussion
5. Take all dominator's item off the agenda
6. Alert the person to the consequences of disruption
7. Arrange for allies to support you in dealing with the disruptive behavior

Strategic Consideration 5: Managing Disruptions (during meeting)
1. Make sure only one person speaks at a time, paraphrase each statement, and be sure that everyone takes turns
2. Use the Delphi technique
3. Ask participants to jt down answers on a notepad when sensitive issues are discussed
4. Ask questions throughout the meeting to help keep the participants involved

Four possible alternatives when asking a question
- Overhead question
- Direct question
- Reverse question
- Relay question

Overhead question
Anyone in the group may answer

Direct question
Directed to an individual

Reverse question
Asked by a group member

Relay question
Asked by a group member and is relayed by the leader to the group

Strategic Consideration 6: Follow-up
- Action items
- Decisions
-Open issues

Action items
To-dos assigned to meeting participants

Decisions
All decisions that may affect future choices of the group should be recorded

Open issues
New issues raised but not resolved should be recorded so they can be carried over to future meetings

Strategic Consideration for Face-To-Face Meetings
- Physical facilities

Strategic Consideration 7: Physical Facilities
- Use a room where chairs and tables can be arranged
- Match the size of the room with the size of the group
- Check for comfortable chairs, ventilation, and lighting
- Make sure safe exists for visual aids
- Arrange to have the meeting in a meeting room rather than the leader's office
- Seating arrangements

Seating arrangements
- Table with leader at one end
- Round table
- U shape

Three major types of permeating arrangements that require analysis
- What materials to prepare
- Physical setting to use
- How to arrange seating

Strategic consideration for virtual meetings
- Technology adequacy
- Team relationships
- Cultural differences

Strategic Consideration 8: Technological Adequacy
Ensure that technological channels connecting virtual team members are stable and strong

Strategic Consideration 9: Team Relationships
Similar values and goals

Effects of interpersonal communication
Interpersonal communication -> interpersonal relationships -> trust, loyalty, commitment -> productivity

Strategic Consideration 10: Cultural Differences
Diversity fosters increased creativity, innovation, and flexibility but may cause communication difficulties, misunderstandings, decreased cohesion, and increased conflict

Group decision-making formats
- Rational problem-solving
- Nominal group technique
- Delphi technique

Rational problem-solving process
1. Defining the problem
2. Analyzing the problem
3. Brainstorming the possible solutions
4. Determining the criteria that must be met to eliminate the problem
5. Selecting the best solution
6. Implementing the solution

Three rules to maximizing brainstorming
1. Ideas are expressed freely with regard to quality
2. Criticism of the ideas produced is not allowed until all ideas have been expressed
3. Elaborations and combinations of previously expressed ideas are encouraged

Nominal group technique
1. Meeting leader directs each participant to create separate lists of the advantages and disadvantages associated with the problem and solutions under discussion
2. After a predetermined time, the participants present their advantages and disadvantages, which are posted so everyone can see them
3. Then, members are directed to work alone again to rank all advantages and disadvantages from highest to lowest
4. After this, a master list is compiled

Nominal group technique advantages
- All participants can express their views without intimidation from more powerful or vocal members
- Ensures that each step in the rational problem solving process is followed
- It can save time because the meeting participants can generate their initial costs before the meeting
- Integrates the advantages of both group and individual creativity

Delphi technique
- Unique group problem-solving process that does not require physical proximity of group members
1. Uses an initial questionnaire that elicits the participants' expert opinions on a topic
- Once these opinions have been collected, all group members receive a second questionnaire listing others' contributions, and all are asked t evaluate each idea using several specified criteria
- This step is then followed by a third questionnaire that reports the second-round ratings, a mean rating, and any consensus
- A final questionnaire includes all ratings, the consensus, and remains problems

To make effective use of meetings
- Stated objective
- Consider who should attend
- Make permeating arrangements
- Select appropriate leadership style for the situation, group, and objective
- Selection of appropriate leadership style will assist in the format choice