Strong Meeting Management Means Strong Leadership

As we search for ways to more efficiently do what we do, we need to take a long hard look at meetings.  How much time is wasted sitting around a room, drinking coffee, hashing and re-hashing old topics, complaining about things that don’t really matter, and wishing for an escape?  Few companies run meetings efficiently. 

Coming together as a group makes a lot of sense in our world of team management.  Groups decide courses of action and strategic plans for most organizations.  When groups operate efficiently, we walk out of those meetings with a quickened step, energy to proceed, and a desire to move forward.  When groups operate inefficiently, we leave hunched over as if someone drained us of our life-blood.  Tired and with little energy to do more than hide in your cubicle, we dread the next meeting.

How can we change the face of meetings? 

One of the first things we must do is decide the purpose of the meeting and then determine if we really need a meeting to communicate what we are trying to communicate.   Meetings are all about communication.

Tannenbaum and Schmidt (T&S) created a leadership decision-making
model that helps us organize our meeting agenda.  Published in 1973 in the Harvard Business Review, the authors identified 7 methods of leadership.  I’ve reduced the number to five for simplicity.

T&S told us that all meetings involve two components:  participation by the members and authority of the leaders.  Before each meeting the leader must decide how much participation and authority he or she desires.  In other words, the leader decides what to communicate and how to best communicate in a meeting environment. 

1.  The Tell Mode:  Let’s say you have a new policy to communicate, and no one can change the policy.  You simply want all members to hear about the policy at once in order to create the most understanding.  In this instance, according to the T&S Model, you would desire the most authority and no participation from the group.  In some cases when the Tell Mode is in play, you might opt to send an email or other written communication in lieu of a meeting.

2.  The Sell Mode.  Let’s continue the example above with the same policy you wish to communicate.  This time, however, you want the group members to buy into the new policy.  Even though they cannot change the policy, you want to ”sell” the members on aspects of the policy.  Instead of just telling them, as in the Tell Mode, you are selling them.

3.  The Test Mode.  In this case, unlike the previous two examples, there is an ever so slight chance the policy may change.  You toss the policy out for input as a test.  If the group totally rebels, you can change it.  This is the first instance along the continuum where there exists a possibility for a change in the decision.  As a meeting manager you must ask ahead of time, can this decision be changed?  If the answer is maybe, you are at least in the Test Mode.  If the answer is no, you must either be in the Tell or Sell mode.

4.  The Consult Mode.  We have now moved down the continuum of participation in which there exists more participation from the members than authority from the leaders.  In other words in the Consult Mode, the leader gives up a lot of authority to encourage group participation.  Why?  This time the leader desires to hear from the group members as consultants to the decision.  This is the first instance in the model where the leader has not yet made a decision.  The members share ideas and suggestions, but the end decision lies with the leader.  The leader keeps the final authority and the group knows that.  If you, as the leader, go into the meeting with a decision firmly made, you are not in the Consult Mode.  You must either be in the Tell, Sell or Test Mode.  A Consult Mode leader spends a lot of time in the meeting listening.

5.  The Join Mode.  The final stage along the continuum is the polar opposite of the Tell Mode.  In the Tell Mode we saw participation at zero and authority highest.  In the Join Mode participation is highest and authority is zero.  The leader gives up all authority and joins the group to make the decision together.   Although Join Mode meetings are the most unruly, when members know they are in the Join Mode, these meetings can also turn into rewarding experiences.
For meetings to operate effectively, leaders must decide before the meeting begins which mode suits their communication needs.  Tell, Sell and Test Mode meetings take less time than Consult and Join meetings.  Some leaders make the mistake of entering a meeting in the Tell or Sell Mode but pretending they are in the Consult or Join Mode. The group, thereby, wastes a lot of time talking about things that go nowhere.

Take a look at your next meeting.  Determine ahead of time what you want to communicate and which level of participation and authority would make that happen.

Meeting efficiency takes forethought and strong leadership regardless of the mode selected.  You can become a strong meeting manager and change the face of your meetings.  Why not start today?