Chapter 10 Leadership and Decision Making in Groups 291By revisiting these criteria, the group is able to tweak its plan for the following
month’s cleanup event. Larissa suggests that the members pitch in a few dol-
lars to place an ad in the local paper thanking the volunteers and donors and
announcing the date of the next cleanup. Wade follows up by suggesting that
the group make a pitch at the nearby schools to get more local families involved.
Kathryn volunteers to submit a brief story about the cleanup, along with
photos of the event and the results, to the campus newspaper. And Susan sug-
gests holding a raffle at the next event, with half the proceeds paid out in prizes
and half retained by the group, to get a small budget started to cover future ads
and expenses.
Leadership in Meetings
EcoCrew was able to identify a problem, create a solution, and implement it very
successfully. Much of the planning and implementation took place in meetings.
Group leader Susan was able to direct the discussion and manage the delibera-
tions in ways that kept the group focused and invited input from all participants.
Indeed, meetings—be they face to face, over the phone, online, or through a
combination of media—are an integral part of many group activities. But they
are not always successful, and the failure of a meeting often rests on the shoulders
of the group leader.
Consider Julia, a freelance Web designer who works from a home office.
On Friday, Julia received an e-mail from her biggest client, Jacob, asking her to
phone in to a meeting with the sales team to discuss marketing materials related
to the launch of the new Web site she’s designing for his skateboard manufactur-
ing company. Struggling with several competing deadlines, Julia dreaded spend-
ing an hour or two listening to a group of people she’d never met discuss parts
of the project with which she had little to do. But she reluctantly confirmed that
she could take part in the meeting the following Monday.
After spending the better part of Monday morning reviewing her design for
the project and outlining a few ideas for ways it could be teased into the marketing
campaign, Julia dutifully dialed in to the conference room at the designated
time, only to find herself placed on hold for twenty minutes before the meet-
ing began. What followed was equally frustrating: Jacob spent the better part
of an hour describing all aspects of the site to the team of salespeople, who were
entirely unfamiliar with the project. Julia—who was responsible only for creating
the look and functionality of the Web site and had nothing to do with content
or sales—sat miserably watching the clock, grateful that at least the team couldn’t
see her as she scribbled angry doodles and notes to herself.
Meetings can be integral to group decision making, but they can often
be unproductive and frustrating. Ineffective meetings are one of the top time
wasters cited by workers: one survey of more than thirty-eight thousand work-
ers worldwide found that people spend more than five working hours per week
in meetings, and about 70 percent of the respondents felt that most meetings
weren’t productive (Microsoft, 2005). In this section, we’ll analyze meetings
from a communication perspective and consider how they can be best used
to arrive at better decisions and solutions. We’ll discuss how technology has
CONNECT
Planning a meeting can be
similar to planning a speech,
particularly regarding audi-
ence analysis (Chapter 12).
In both contexts, you must
be aware of the expecta-
tions and goals of others
involved (your audience or
attendees): Why are they
present? Why should they
listen to you? How is the
meeting or speech relevant
to them? In addition, you
need to consider the situ-
ational context for the event
(location, room setup, and
so on) in both contexts to
ensure that it won’t inhibit
communication.Consider the six steps to
problem solving we’ve just
discussed. If Susan, the
leader of EcoCrew, had
chosen a different leadership
style, would this have affected
how the problem-solving
steps were carried out? If so,
how? What has your experi-
ence been in solving prob-
lems in groups with different
types of leaders?AND YOU?