Encyclopedia of Leadership

11.2

MEETINGS: PURPOSE AND FUNCTION

IN WORKGROUPS AND TEAMS

Inspired by Antony Jay, M.M. Milstein, and Owen Edwards.

“Meetings fulfill a deep human need. Man is a social species. In every organization and every human culture of

which we have record, people come together in small groups at regular and frequent intervals, and in larger trib-

al gatherings from time to time. If there were no meetings in places where people work, their attachment to their

work would be less, and people would meet in societies, clubs, or pubs when work was over.”

—Antony Jay, “HOW TO RUN A MEETING”

Attending meetings is a fundamental and essential process for workgroups and teams. No mat-

ter how well electronic and other communication methods are used, people are social beings

and need face-to-face contact. Meetings can be effective or they can be a waste of time; they

can be the best or the worst experience in a workgroup or a team. In addition, meetings are

costly: A meeting of a few people can easily cost from $600 to $1,200 per hour in salaries alone.

For the benefits of a meeting to outweigh the costs, the meeting must be guided by basic

rules of planning, leading, and follow-up.

This tool will help you lead results-oriented meetings while also connecting with human

needs for interacting and communicating. This table describes the range of purposes and func-

tions that workgroup or team meetings serve when they are managed and led well.

SECTION 11 TOOLS FORLEADINGMEETINGS 339

➢Come prepared. ➢Too long

➢Work hard. ➢Called too often or not often enough

➢Make important decisions. ➢Poorly organized and poorly led

➢Leave with a sense of accomplishment. ➢Unfocused, or not focused on the most important

issues

➢Produce results. ➢Easily diverted by members with other agendas

When meetings are When meetings are not well-managed,

well-managed, people: people complain that meetings are:

✔ sharing information and issues

✔ defining priorities and direction

✔ generating new options and making decisions

✔ generating and gathering data, and sorting out complex situations

✔ developing understanding and commitment to plans and action

✔ reminding participants that they share a common purpose despite their individual jobs and roles

✔ identifying participants to be accountable for and to perform certain tasks

Typical purposes of workgroup and team meetings