[Solution] Making the Most of Face-to-Face and Virtual Meetings
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Author: Emily Carter
As businesses become more team oriented and management becomes more participatory, meetings are becoming an important tool for solving problems, sharing information, and seeking consensus.
Read the following scenario, and answer the questions that follow.
In early November, department stores like Robinsons-May begin to prepare for upcoming holiday sales. Retail stores often make 25% or more of their yearly revenue during November and December. Sales associates at Robinsons-May are hired for their energy and enthusiasm, but after the long summer months, many are unprepared for the intense workload of the holiday sales season. Nancy Cardigan, general manager of store #415, knows she needs to get her staff excited about their jobs, their stock, and their customers before the doors open on their first sales event in late November.
What purpose will this meeting serve?
- Information review and presentation
- Problem identification
- Intensive problem solving
- Motivation
View Explanation
Nancy will need to motivate employees to guarantee their best performance during this crucial period of retail sales. If her salespeople don't move stock quickly, Robinsons-May could earn disappointing returns.
Three employees are late, including a department manager. What should Nancy do?
- Start the meeting on time and address their questions when the meeting is over
- Provide a quick recap of what was already discussed when they arrive
- Avoid starting the meeting until they arrive
View Explanation
Even if some participants are missing, start meetings promptly to avoid wasting time and irritating attendees. For the same reasons, don't give quick recaps to late comers. Open the meeting with a three-to five-minute introduction that includes the background of topics or problems, possible solutions and constraints, tentative agenda, and round rules to be followed.
Who should be invited to attend this meeting?
- The CIO, CFO, and CEO
- Upper and lower management
- All employees
View Explanation
Everyone should be invited to this motivational meeting, including department managers, sales associates, stockers, and shipping clerks. Motivating all of these employees to perform their best will result in a successful sales season.
Active participation in meetings helps you showcase your talents and advance your career. In the following situation, consider how Ginny appears to her colleagues.
The new intern was clearly nervous while delivering the sales figures at the quarterly sales meeting. Ginny interrupted the intern several times, asking loudly, "Who was in charge of that project? What about the new product line?" By the end of the meeting, everyone was confused, including the intern.
What could Ginny do to make the next meeting more effective and productive?
- Wait for others to finish
- State concerns clearly
- Offer new agenda items during the meeting
View Explanation
Ginny would have had a better understanding of the intern's message had she waited for the end before asking her questions.
What techniques would be effective in getting meetings started and keeping them focused? Check all that apply.
- Discuss divergent issues and explore digressions
- Introduce a tentative agenda
- Wait for everyone to arrive
- Start meetings promptly
View Explanation
To effectively manage meetings, make sure you start promptly, state the goals and length, introduce a tentative agenda, set ground rules, and assign a minute taker and recorder.
Well-run virtual teams can be highly productive and even outperform co-located teams.
Which of the following will help ensure that interaction with remote members will have the best results during virtual meetings? Check all that apply.
- Don't multitask.
- Rotate meeting times to be fair to all group members.
- Conduct all meeting in English.
- Keep questions vague.
- Leave time for small talk.
View Explanation
The best practices recommended by experienced meeting facilitators will help you address premeeting issues such as technology glitches, scheduling across time zones, and language challenges. Creating ground rules, anticipating limited media richness, managing turn-taking, and humanizing the interaction with remote members all achieve the best results during virtual meetings. Meeting should be conducted in the native language of team members, but when there are multiple native languages, accommodation must be made. Questions should be specific and to the point to help ensure understanding.
