Leadership for Intelligence Professionals   

Some Advice for Leading Meetings

To Lead a successful, effective and productive meeting, a Leader must:

-Establish the purpose and goal(s) of meeting.

-- Is it to be an information briefing to the team by outside experts, a brainstorming session to come up with ideas, a session to develop a range of options, a session to develop a specific option in more detail, a prioritizing meeting, a decisionmaking meeting?

--The purpose and goals of the meeting will determine who should be there, talking about what, etc.

-Publish a realistic agenda.

--Along with the agenda, provide all relevant information required to facilitate picking up in this meeting were previous meetings on the same topic left off such as minutes of previous meetings, summaries of earlier decisions on the same topic, required background data, etc.

--When forwarding the agenda, do so as far in advance as possible and ask all participants to prepare their thoughts on the agenda in writing or outline form prior to the meeting ad rate their interest in the various items in order of priority.  Make it clear that top priority topics and members with prepared statements will be heard first.

-- Estimate how much time each issue or topic will take, allowing generous time for discussion, breaks, etc. Don’t try to cram too much in. Short meetings are better than long.

--Plan for expected conflict points and prepare ways of handling them. Know who the key participants will be, who will contribute, who will obstruct and prepare ways to deal with them.

-Plan the structure or style.

--Use appropriate meeting techniques to support the purpose and goals of the various types of meetings that must be held to further the work of the team.

--For meetings in which the purpose is gathering information, structure a dialogue among the members to produce orderly brainstorming.

---Lead the discussion by going once around the table and getting each member to briefly state assumptions, views, information, etc. This breaks down defensive routines, gets all information on the table without interruption. Then go around the table again in which each member gets to ask one or more of the others a question. This provides members the opportunity to augment or clarify their earlier remarks.

--For meetings in which the purpose is to develop ideas permit a more open discussion.

---In addition to a recorder, the Chair or someone should record all ideas in shorthand on a board. This avoids “plops”, an idea that someone throws out and everyone ignores. It also helps to “park” other ideas that are worthless without insulting the provider. Then, using the ideas on the board, combine, group, modify them into alternatives. Do not discard any ideas at this point and only permit remarks which assist in combining, grouping or modifying them into alternatives. This is where the less useful and unsupportable ideas are sorted from other better ideas.  But, the Chair, by imaginatively combining them into alternative groups with the others can discard or bury them, yet do so in a way that all members of the team understand that their idea was, at least, considered. This is not the time to discuss the validity or utility of the various individual ideas or alternative groupings. That should be saved for another meeting. Members should be encouraged to make a list or be given a list of the alternatives and be asked to think about them.

--For a meeting to seek the pros and cons of the alternatives developed at the previous meeting, return to a more structured discussion.

---For each alternative and go around the table and solicit pros and cons, without debate until all ideas have been considered.

--For a meeting at which the team should now be ready to discuss, debate and argue the merits of the various alternatives return to open discussion, within appropriate ground rules.

---It may be useful, at the end of the previous meeting, to have designated or solicited a member to be the advocate for each alternative and another to be the “devil’s advocate” for each. At this point conflict of ideas is good, conflict of people is bad. The purpose of this meeting is not to decide, just to debate so that all members can form a fully informed opinion.

--For a meeting which involves decisionmaking the goal is consensus. There are several techniques frequently recommended to help decide if a consensus exists.

---A “comfort level” vote is a means of uncovering and hearing reservations about the alternatives. Usually, each alternative is considered in turn and members are asked to mark their comfort level with that alternative, given the pros/cons, from 1 very comfortable to 5 very uncomfortable. After tallying the scores from the first vote for each, the members voting 4 or 5 should be given an opportunity to state their views and another vote taken. That becomes the final vote. In this way, the alternatives around which a consensus can be formed become more apparent. A secret ballot can help avoid “group think”.
---A “pair-wise ranking” can then be done to select an agreed alternative. This process involves the members voting for which of the first or second alternatives on the list they prefer. Then voting on which between the winner of that vote and the third alternative they prefer. This continues until a clear consensus develops.

--- Of course, it is these techniques which are the culprits that cause the “voting paradox” in which a majority can exist for each option and also a majority against any option.  Since the Leader cannot make a top down decision, the team must continue working until a genuine consensus which all members will support is reached.  

--- Thus, final review, consideration and agreement should then be put off until the next meeting so that members can consult with their seniors in their home agency and the Leader can consult with the convening authority to insure that an apparent consensus will stand.

-Establish ownership of any meeting and authority as the Chair.

--Arrive first in order to notice where people sit, who they sit with, their body language, how they interact with others before the meeting. All that will indicate cliques forming, how actively various members will participate and whether they will be pro or con to the issue of the day, who will be those in conflict, etc. It will also provide time to talk to people who appear willing to help Lead and encourage them to set the pace.
--Make introductory remarks which remind everyone of the overall purpose, goals and ground rules and state the specific ones for the day’s meeting and how the day’s effort fits the overall process.
--Speak while standing and remain standing until the meeting is flowing. Don’t interfere unless it is necessary, but doing so from standing position reinforces the authority of the Chair.
--Have someone designated as a recorder to keep a detailed record of the proceedings. This can be a rotational position among the members or can be the job of someone providing administrative support. The record of the proceedings will be valuable as a basis for further planning.