Business reading Importing and Exporting: How to Make Meetings Work?

Meetings are an essential part of corporate life. Staff meetings are held on а regular basis. It's an integral part of а corporate culture. А successful and fruitful meeting needs preparation and organization. There's а tendency among employees to resent me­etings which they perceive to be а waste of important time.

То prevent this from happening, the meeting facilitator must до а little homework. There are three main phases in conducting а business meeting: the preparation phase, the meeting itself and the follow-up stage.

First of а11, а meeting facilitator has to identify the purpose of the meeting. If the purpose is to bring managers together or to make reports, it is probably better not to have any meeting's at а11. Circulating written memos may turn out to be more effective. Meetings should be about creativity, problem solving, and decision making. Nowadays too many meetings are spent sharing information that сап be better communicated in other ways. Every meeting should produce decisions and action plans. It is very important to brief attendees on the aims of the meeting. This gives people а chance to think over the issues and develop their ideas.

1f the purpose of the meeting is to share urgent information with everyone, the number of participants can be quite large. But for intense interaction and group problem solving, а limited number

of people (5 to 8) works best. 1n most cases, the fewer people the _' better, because the shortest way to kill creativity is to include too many people in the meeting. °

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During the meeting itself, perfect timing becomes one of the ; essentials. The meeting facilitator must carefully manage each meeting segment. Meetings should not last for hours, long past the point of usefulness: If there's an unexpected delay, and the meeting сап not be tabled, it should, be extended for а specific and agreed-upon length of time. I

1n the end of the meeting the facilitator should ask the

participants the following questions:

What was the most important thing accomplished in the meeting? What needs to happen next?

Who is taking саге of what, and by what date?

Post-meeting accountability is also important in making meetings work. This accountability is assured by setting up milestones - times at which participants wi11 come back to the meeting's action plan, measure their progress and revise the plan if necessary.

During the follow-up stage the recorder, the person who makes notes during the discussion, quickly drafts а meeting summary and reviews it with group members. The best format is а one-page document, covering the key discussion areas, decisions and planned actions. This summary should be sent to participants within а day or two of the meeting. It's vital that this summary should be distributed to those who were not present at the meeting and who will be affected by the decision made. Don't forget to see if everyone completes his or her assignments by the agreed-upon deadlines. This followup system resembles an insurance policy. It helps ensure that projects stay on track.

BUSINESS VOCABULARY

Accountability Отчетность

Action plan План действий

Assignment Задание

Attendee Посетитель

Circulate v. Распространяться, рассылаться

Deadline Крайний срок

Decision making Принятие решений

Draft v. Набрасывать

Essentials Основные моменты

Facilitator Человек, способствующий успешной

работе коллектива

Follow-up stage Этап контроля

Insurance policy Страховой полис

Interaction Взаимодействие

Preparation phase Стадия подготовки

Problem solving Решение проблем

Recorder Сотрудник, занимающийся учетными

документами

Summary Краткое изложение, резюме

Timing Распределение времени, выбор вре­мени