Examples of Meeting Management
03/25/08 3:05 PM

What is "Meeting Management"? Do you have any examples of it? How would I explain this to my boss.

RE: Examples of Meeting Management
03/25/08 4:30 PM

Excellent question. Meeting management is often interpreted in many organizations as your classic operational review. And for those organizations with strategic plans, it will sometimes entail strategic dialogue.

Organizations with an actionable strategic framework, like a Balanced Scorecard or strategy map, meeting management takes on a whole new meaning. Meeting management begins long before the actual strategy review meeting. Individuals need to reflect on the strategy several days (possibly a week plus depending on complexity of reporting environment) before a meeting, consolidate strategic data, comment on performance, and provide suggested next steps or recommendations. The point I’m driving at here is that the “leg work” or “heavy lifting” needs to occur prior to the actual meeting, NOT in the meeting.

Healthy meeting management within a strategy review meeting means that the data has been digested, and the agenda of the meeting is focused around off-target performance areas, reviewing the recommendations and deciding as a leadership team how to advance the strategy. The team will make decisions, capture those action items and then move on to the next strategic element that requires attention. Effective meeting management, as described here, is challenging to implement because most organizations are not used to this meeting style. I encourage organizations to look at their all star employees and select from that bunch who is the most effective facilitator. A good facilitator will understand the nuances of the business, the strategy in detail, and will garner the respect of leadership.

Finally, effective meeting management extends beyond the meeting to where action items and decisions made in the meeting are followed up on and closed out. There should be clear accountability around the activities and who is overseeing the process. I’d suggest to the community to explore the following three You Tube links for examples on effective meeting management.

The first link is an example of what most organizations look like when transitioning into effective meeting management around a strategy management framework.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJAXQIAz9bk

The second link is an example of what should occur between the meetings.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4N5XW3usxEU

The third link is an example of what organizations look like once they transition into this way of meeting.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIZziZfxfDI

RE: Examples of Meeting Management
04/04/08 10:31 AM

Meeting management is a new (in my mind, at least) skill that organizations need to learn. I think it should be taught in business school. There are just too many meetings without a proper agenda and purpose -- like the one in the first video Kent showed above. Using the BSC as our agenda, and rotating between themes each month has served us well. -- Tina

RE: Examples of Meeting Management
05/29/08 9:54 AM

Thanks, the videos are great. Our team seems disfunctional compared to the third video, we struggle because we do talk about things that are strategic all the time...we just never make decisions about it.

RE: Examples of Meeting Management
06/19/08 9:17 AM

Good discussion. This topic is critical. Reporting meetings are far less valuable then real discussions on strategy. If your meetings can focus less on the origin of the numbers and more on the actions, the better off you will be.

RE: Examples of Meeting Management
08/25/08 10:01 AM

I've seen a lot of different examples of meetings that work. Some focus on the entire strategy map and some just segments of the strategy map, but I would have to agree with the above comments...the extent to which you can rise above questioning the numbers and focus more on the impact you are making on the strategy, the better off you will be.

RE: Examples of Meeting Management
10/16/10 9:40 AM

Stop hack the program!!!

RE: Examples of Meeting Management
10/17/10 10:19 AM

Stop hack the program!!!