Can you chair a meeting well?

Would you like to travel in a car being driven by someone who hadn’t passed a test and clearly did not know how to drive well? Yet how often have you found yourself in a meeting where the chair appeared to be similarly lacking in the ability to lead it safely to its desired destination: someone who seemed to have no clear idea of what its aim was, how it was going to get there or how to steer, brake or accelerate its progress to keep it moving on that path? Can you chair a meeting well?, asks Professor Simon Bridge

Most people accept that it is a good idea to learn how to drive a car and to pass a test before being allowed take the controls of one on the public road where it could be a danger to others. Therefore they wouldn’t want to be driven by someone who had never had any driving lessons. However, when it comes to meetings, how many people have learnt how to dive them successfully or, instead, how often are others subjected to the annoyance and inconvenience of a meeting which is not being properly conducted.

Like a car, a meeting needs to be driven well if it is to reach its destination safely, in good time and without discomforting its participants en route. – and that requires agreement on what the destination is and the route to be taken to get there, as well as appropriate use of the steering wheel, the accelerator and the brake to keep the vehicle moving in the agreed direction and at an appropriate speed. Actually, rather than a car, a meeting is more like a rowing boat in which the participants are not inert passengers but have to put in the effort needed to get the vessel to its destination and don’t want their contributions to be wasted by poor steering and control.

I am sure that, if you think about it, you could recall examples of badly run meetings, such as these from my own experience:

• A series of meetings which never started on time because many people turned up late. But many of those people who turned up late did so because they had learnt from experience that the meetings didn’t start on time. So what was cause and what effect?
• A meeting which didn’t get past the first item on the agenda. After letting the first item on the agenda overrun its allotted time, the chair did announce that the meeting needed to move on – but then insisted on adding another thought about the first item which prompted significant responses from others. Consequently, the meeting ran out of time before it had achieved its purpose.
• A chair who agreed that meetings should be short but pandered to anyone who turned up late by welcoming them, seating them and getting them a coffee before resuming the meeting with a summary of progress so far – thus, by extending the meeting in that way, penalising those who had bothered to turn up promptly.

Meetings may seem like an unfortunate but unavoidable necessity but, if they are worth doing, surely they are worth doing well? Very few people attend meetings just for fun but instead because they are expected to make a contribution which they do not want to be wasted. So how do you learn how to get a group of people to advance a discussion towards the agreed aim better than they would otherwise have done? So how should the chair operate to deliver the result the other participants want – and deserve? As usual a Google search will offer advice but, as an initial offering, these are my suggestions for things that might be worth considering. However do please see where you could improve them:

Before the meeting

Identify the desired outcome. What is the purpose of the meeting – for instance is it to inform, to consult, to discuss or to decide something? And are there any restrictions on it, such as a time limit?

Think about the route. What needs to be done and so what should be on the agenda. (If you start by getting the participants’ agreement to the aim and agenda it is them much easier to enforce control.) Also does anyone need to be primed to contribute?

Consider the administration. Is the room appropriate (and is there a clock in easy view of the chair to aid timekeeping)? Have the right people been invited? And will appropriate refreshments be provided?

During the meeting

Start promptly, especially if time is short, monitor progress and steer, brake and or accelerate the meeting where necessary to keep it on track and on time. Do you know how to do that?

After the meeting

What follow-up is needed? For instance ensure that appropriate minutes are issued quickly to record and remind participants about it, to let those who couldn’t attend know what was said and to prompt agreed actions.