Having Effective Meetings

On Wednesday, my class got a presentation on how to have an effective meeting and what types of people are the best fit for these groups. The two people presenting were business majors in this topic directly related to what they do in the Paul School of Business. This topic was especially important to me because down the road I will have to be doing the same exact thing at my future place of employment.

In the beginning of the presentation, they talked about some "bad" people that can sometimes negatively affect the team with their actions and personalities. Some of the examples of bad individuals are the ones that are always late, leave early, on their technology all the time, the interrupter, and the one that drags every idea out. These types of individuals can really impact the team whether its due to being late or not prepared to discuss the topic at hand. To combat this, there has to be a good enforcer/leader. This individual has to always stay on topic and make sure the other teammates are sticking to the agenda. Also there has to be an individual that makes sure the team is on track and have the skills to bring them back onto the topic being discussed.

After we discussed all the negative types of people that could impact a team, we did an in class activity where we had a short amount of time to fill out an agenda that would typically be used during meetings. Some of the categories on the sheet were objective, start and end time, duration, and individuals attending the meeting. Whoever could fill out the greatest amount of the sheet accurately one a little prize. I really thought this was an interesting way to demonstrate how tough and stressful meetings can be, especially when everyone isn't on the same page.

Lastly we watched a video that showed how some of the personalities discussed above can affect the team. While it may have been over exaggerated, the video really depicted some of the issues that managers face today. During the clip, people were late, on their phone, discussing ideas that were off topic, and the leader didn't listen to anyone's ideas besides his own. This video summed up why a team that works together makes an organization run smoothly. A successful manager will be able to sort through individuals in order to find the ones that fit the team the best.