Ten Steps to Meeting Success

I should know, when I worked in the University of Ulster I once spent over forty hours in  a single month in meetings. In some organisations, this is what passes for productivity. If you have to attend meetings, then you need to make them productive.

Golden Rule 1 – if it doesn’t need a meeting then why have a meeting?

Staff can spend hours in meetings. This is often unproductive time especially if the meeting is not well chaired. Here are ten steps to meeting success.

Before the Meeting

• Identify the overall objective of the meeting.

• Determine the most appropriate attendees. Make sure there are enough people to meet the meeting’s objectives. Also, make sure you have the right people in the room – no point realising you should have asked someone half ways through the meeting.

• Sound out critical attendees in advance to get their buy-in. Ono-to-one discussions before a meeting may help you rethink your position or help build understanding and support for your ideas.

• Produce and distribute a written agenda in advance. Limit the agenda to issues affecting the group. Include meeting logistics – time, venue, attendees, call-in or video conf information, discussion topics and discussion leader if possible.

During the Meeting

• Start on time and review agenda. Outline how long you think meeting will last and plan accordingly. Try to stick to your time estimate.

• Proceed to discuss each issue. Retain focus and progress logically:
• Stating the issue
• Discussing the data/information – getting opinions round the table
• Reaching a conclusion
• Planning a course of action with nominated responsibilities

7         Avoid the following non-productive behaviours:

• Letting one or two monopolize discussion
• Rehashing old ground after you reach agreement
• Jumping from topic to topic without agreeing anything
• Leaving the next steps unclear

8         Conclude by briefly restating what has been agreed, outline next steps and accountabilities.

After the Meeting

 9         Finalize and distribute the notes/minutes to all attendees and copy any interested parties. List key actions and who is responsible and by when.

10         Follow up on action items from the meeting.

Then….

Go and sit in a darkened room.

Spokesperson Guidelines for Communicating with the Media during a Crisis

• Be aware of the constant movement of news via social media. Twitter can fill the timelines with inaccurate information quickly.
• Have your social media team briefed on the situation, on hand and able to monitor and respond.
• Fill the void yourself. If there is a likely gap between communicating the actual situation and the first enquiries – give the media some background on your organisation. Are you aware of the us and what we do and can we give you some background. Etc etc
• Demonstrate organizational concern about people. “Our primary concern at present is the health of our students…”
• Explain what is being done to remedy the situation.
• Keep the message consistent with all constituencies. Never tell one constituency anything that is not being told to the media.
• Be open, honest, and tell the full story. If you do not, someone else will, thus increasing the possibility that the crisis team loses control of the situation.
• Never respond with “no comment,” instead explain why you cannot answer the question. (i.e., we do not have those details confirmed at this time, we will provide you with an update when we do have an answer to that question.)
• Do not guess or speculate. If you do not know the answer, say so and offer to track down the answer.
• Respect reporter deadlines. If you promise to get information, do so promptly.
• Don’t get drawn into blaming other organizations or being seen to shift the responsibility.
• Never speak off the record. The media can use any information released.
• Never give exclusive interviews during a crisis. All members of the media should have the chance for gathering information.
• If an injury or death has occurred, do not release the name(s) of the injured/deceased until all next of kin (immediate family) have been notified.
• Do not provide damage estimate, discuss responsibility for the incident, or discuss legal liability in any way.
• Be available 24 hours a day.
• Do not discuss illegal activity at any time. If it is assumed, say “Police are investigating. We are cooperating.” Refer all questions to the appropriate law enforcement agency.
• In cases when media request interviews with family members, provide a liaison to family members for the media so that the family can protect their privacy if they choose.
• Avoid “side comments” meant to be humorous. Do NOT accept hypothetical questions. Do NOT repeat negatives in a question. Taken out of context, these remarks can be very damaging.
• Use everyday language, not jargon, when talking to reporters.
• Provide written materials that give reporters background information.

The sun shone having no alternative on the nothing new said Sam. A great start. New Year & same old same old. Or is it? Opportunities to renew, rethink, reject & restart.

Observe the things I hoped to do this time last year. Some achieved, some started. Some not started, some strangled at birth; many failed & a few notable successes. Likewise for 2016 there are things I will do, things I won’t, things I’d like to do but won’t follow through. Successes. Failures. Always failures. Learn the most from those nut crushers.

I’m certainly not making any grandiose claims here. Hoist with your own petard is a very public humiliation. No, any resolutions will be made in the privacy of my own home, my own diary pages, my own mind.

The brilliant Nobel Prize winning mathematician John Nash said in an interview: “I began to tire of certain types of irrational thinking.” It’s an interesting concept, especially in the case of Nash. His struggle with schizophrenia almost certainly contributed to his brilliance as a mathematician.

He acknowledged the potential link between an unconventional mind & creative thought. Proving the age-old adage that madness & genius are closely related.

“Times I didn’t follow the norm, thought differently. But I can see there’s a connection between not following normal thinking & doing creative thinking. I wouldn’t have had good scientific ideas if I had thought more normally. One could be very successful in life & be very normal…”

In his autobiography Nash claimed he was able to ‘will’ himself out of his disorder. Is this possible? Is it possible to harness the power of our own mind to eliminate all sorts of negative thoughts, self doubt, irritations etc? If so, how can you train your dragon?

Nash said:

“I began to intellectually reject some of the delusionally influenced lines of thinking which had been characteristic of my orientation. This began, most recognizably, with the rejection of politically-oriented thinking as essentially a hopeless waste of intellectual effort. So at the present time I seem to be thinking rationally again in the style that is characteristic of scientists.”

Looking at all aspects of what we do, coaching, teaching, watching our children learn, it is the conventional that is the norm & the unconventional is increasingly frowned upon. That stifles creativity & non conformity.

Let 2016 embrace more non comformity & see where that takes us.

As 2015 fades into 2016 with all that a new year brings, the embers of the last 12 months sizzle a glow a last few times.

2015 was a year in which the plan was to do less. The catalayst was our planned family expedition to Peru which fell fair and square in the middle of the season and I initially thought accommodating the holiday and coaching commitments would be impossible.

Thankfully that proved not to be the case. It meant I missed some milestones but it was not something I would have missed.I was sorry to be absent for the Ulster final with the Antrim Minors – a group to which we devoted good time. It was a learning experience being there for the All Ireland quarter final though, and there are lessons on all these big days if you are open to them.

One of the imperatives of coaching is that you have to reinvent yourself if not the wheel every year, particularly if returning to the same group. I have had to be chameleon, chrysalis as well as coach in working with the main project in the Eoghan Rua Camogie team.

Facing into the pre season last winter the legacy of Gráinne McGoldrick’s injury hung over plans like a dark cloud. To see our taliswoman injured and facing an uncertain future struck to the core of the group. How the players would respond individually and collectively was the cornerstone of our plans. The longer term outcome was in much greater doubt and all year I was asked questions about it.

Over Christmas I had obtained a copy of Raymond Verheijen’s book on periodisation which shaped the way in which I approached the season and indeed in many ways it changed the way in which I approached all the teams I was involved with subsequently. If you put the player at the centre of what you are doing, you are forced to adopt a different approach and see a different way. That became apparent.

To sketch out what I was at, I was working with our u14 club hurlers, coaching them every Friday on the 3G with Jonny and Costas, two good men who contributed immensely to the whole set up and I felt were better communicating with the young lads than myself. Especially come Féile we were collectively buzzing and on Finals day Johnny took a lead which was fantastic.

I also agreed to help prepare the University hurlers for their championship. Having been one point short of an All Ireland a couple of years earlier albeit with a superior team and super bunch of lads the Holy Grail is still there to be sought. The campaign was short but interesting.

A derby match against Magee was unnecessarily sulphurous. Having won that the lads fell short against IT Blanchardstown their nemesis a couple of years earlier in the final. The irony of all of this is that had Coleraine and Magee stuck together they could possibly have won a couple of titles, but with the backing of Croke Park the division of the original team has helped neither campus develop their hurling capacity. In my experience hurling in Ulster needs to grab itself by the balls and develop itself. The University journey is a means to keep the coaching eye and arm in and look at small margins of development.

Also over the winter I had completed my Level 2 classroom based study and during the course of the season I had the Logbook and practicals to get sorted. As the song goes, it straightened out my thinking. It also introduced me to a number of other hurling coaches with whom I was able to share sporadic contact over the rest of the year. Indeed it was a devastating to hear of the death later in the season of Shane Mulholland, one of the guys with whom we share the course. Shane was a hurler with Fermanagh, I knew him only briefly on the Level 2 but what a sound lad he was. Hurling mad, good craic and a decent fella. He’ll be missed.

As winter moves towards Spring it is time for the Camogie player to emerge from their cocoon and start thinking about training. Armed with my new approach, I devised an entirely new pre season programme which I applied to the letter. The sessions incorporated the ball into everything from day one. We also had the task of integrating a number of younger players into an established panel.

It was a promising start, I had high hopes as to where it might end but little did I realise I would get there, albeit with an entirely different group. That is a tale for another day for sure.