4. Roles in a meeting Leader: Initiates, contributes Facilitator: Conducts Notetaker: Minutes Contributor: Participates in discussion and offers ideas One person, multiple roles possible Call out role changes
5. Meetings at Google One-one-ones Project Meetings Team Meetings Quarterly Reviews
First, discuss the definitions quickly. Then, hit on the three points as the essence of a meeting.
Get participants think about meetings and what roles people play in meetings, give an overview of these roles. This is a quick overview of the roles. Deep-dive is on slides to come.
Discuss types of meetings at Google. The ones on slide are by no means comprehensive; these are just a few examples. Just that they are high-frequency and high-impact. We want participants to understand this. Talk about roles in these meetings: who is a leader, participant, facilitator, etc., and what impact this has.
Before rolling out the slide, discuss what participants do when they have a meeting? One that they are participating in or have calendared. Then discuss points on the slide. In “Do I need a meeting,” talk about unscheduled meetings: that they focus on a single issue, avoid overhead of a scheduled meeting, are short and focused, however follow up is not formal and strong as it lacks group pressure. Unscheduled meetings work well only for a small group. In agenda items, talk about limited items, better success rate. Objectives should be mesaurable. Agenda serves as the reference, control, and standard for the meeting. How long? Attention span 45 mins. Important agenda items early on. In “Which mode of meeting to choose,” talk about technology. Emphasize the need to choose the right mode—phone-in, VC, etc; ensuring the set up is tested and the leader/facilitator is comfortable using the tools. Phone-in requires dealing with technical problems like range and using alternate numbers, taking turns, volume, managing noise, not misinterpreting voice and tone, sharing data/preso before the call, so everybody is looking at the same thing, etc. VC requires preso/data, allowing for relay delays, using remote control features intelligently, etc.
One of the objectives is to emphasize the contributor role. It’s important to make participants understand that when they are invited to a meeting, it’s because their contribution is valued, and they should take meetings seriously.
Emphasize the need for agenda. It brings better-informed participants to the meeting, helps drive decisions, and saves time. Maybe, an agenda item needs some homework and sending the agenda out earlier gives people time to do their homework, etc.
Emphasize on participation of everybody. The leader should understand personality types and should get passive participants involved, etc. In “voice and body language,” talk about volume levels, managing facial expressions, stance, gait, etc.
In “Commit to contributing,” talk about effective ways of debating: assess value of an argument in consideration, don’t try to win an argument, while making an argument—present supporting evidence or own the responsibility to present evidence in the future, don’t get emotionally involved, allow established principles to be challenged, etc. In “voice and body language,” talk about volume, posture, using hands, nods, etc.
Also, make people think of way to better track AIs when there are several. For example, creating a trix and multiple owners updating statuses real time, etc.