Judd N. Adams
Management Training, Consulting & Project Facilitation
Ideas -- Insight -- Transformation

QUALITY MEETINGS: 
CORNERSTONE TO A QUALITY IMPROVEMENT EFFORT

Note: This article was written in the late 1980's as part of my materials for TQM training.  The principles of quality meetings can be applied to other types of meetings.

Why should a TQM team focus on meeting quality, and how can the TQM process and tools actually work to double meeting productivity?

From my experience, the benefits of focusing on meeting quality are:

• The training becomes more real, and can be put to work immediately;
• Increased project success and efficiency; and
• The benefits extend to improved productivity with other meetings.

Making the Training Real & Putting It to Work Immediately

For some the TQM principles and tools are intuitive or common sense, but for most they are unfamiliar and abstract. Showing how the principles and tools apply to improving the quality of meetings develops familiarity and makes them concrete. The demonstration process involves two steps:

• Teamwork
• Customer focus
• Work Systems/Process Improvement
• Data-based decision-making
• Continuous improvement, long-range thinking, small steps (Kaizen)

Improving TQM Project Success & Efficiency

To quote from The Team Handbook, by Peter Scholtes et al. (an excellent resource):

“Many people dislike meetings, but meetings don't have to be disliked. Like other processes, they can be studied and constantly improved. Productive meetings enhance the chance of having a successful project. It is difficult to have productive meetings because few people know the rules and skills needed. In fact the goal of having constantly improved meetings may be as hard for the team to reach as the improvement goals set for the project.”

Briefly, the rationale for expending energy on the meeting process:

• Without conscious attention and effort, meetings are not likely to be very productive.
• With conscious attention they can be very productive.
• The more important the project, the more important to focus on the meeting process.
• Agreeing on a meeting process makes it easier to agree on the substantive project issues (Getting Together presents a thorough explanation of this rationale).

Improving Productivity of Other Meetings

The skills and techniques developed in TQM team meetings are applicable to many other types of meetings. Team members report that they find the skills and procedures helpful in staff meetings, task force meetings, and other work situations. Some members have even reported success applying them to other non-work situations, such as church meetings and youth sports. If a team consciously uses the principles and tools in regular staff meetings, as did Uranium and Special Projects, meeting productivity can be doubled.

Elements of a Quality Meeting Improvement Process

A quality-improvement process focusing on meetings involves five major components:

1. Clarifying the purposes (outputs) of meetings.
2. Defining the rules (processes) for conducting meetings.
3. Developing procedures for keeping minutes and homework - the inputs for the next meeting.
4. Developing measurements and a methodology for continuous improvement.
5. Education, training, and facilitation/coaching in the roles and functions.

Clarifying the Purposes (Outputs) of Meetings

The basic outputs of meetings are decisions. There are many types of decisions, such as:

• definition of a problem to be solved,
• identification of potential causes of the problem
• development of alternative solutions, and
• information to be obtained by the next meeting.

Viewing meetings as a decision-making work system may be obvious (to a few) or seem strange (for most). My experience is that talking about meetings this way is very awkward, initially, for most people because they have never given it much thought. The common orientation is that a meeting is what ever the boss or chairman wants it to be. While people will agree that decision-making is one reason to have a meeting, they don t see it as the essential reason and, as a result, it doesn't structure their discussion time very much. Creating this change in orientation is an important part of increasing meeting productivity.

The second aspect to clarifying the purpose of TQM meetings is having a clear definition of the project mission. Typically, it takes several sessions to create a clear definition of mission, and sometimes the project will involve a major change of direction along the way.

Defining the Rules for Conducting Meetings

This step is essentially one of developing a TQM version of Roberts Rules of Order (one of several codified set of procedures that many organizations use to create discipline for the decision-making process). That there should be rules for meetings often meets with initial resistance by some, but eventually is welcomed by all, when it is demonstrated that these "rules" make for productive meetings.

There are several dimensions to this rule-making process:

• Developing a Meeting Process Outline;
• Defining formal Roles: e.g. Moderator, Recorder, Process Observer; and Secretary;
• Understanding informal task & process roles; and
• Agreeing on interpersonal norms which define quality of interpersonal relationships.

As Schultes observes, most meetings do not have clear guidelines or rules of conduct. There is a great deal of variability depending on who is the chair, with a frequent consequence that much energy is spent trying to determine the rules, or there are arguments (overt or disguised) about how to deal with such items as:

• whether and how to add or delete items from the agenda;
• whether and how to set time limits on items, and whether or not they can be modified during the meeting;
• how much agreement is needed to arrive at a decision;
• how to deal with people who talk too much, or those who don t participate, or with heated emotions.

Meeting Process Outline

The first step to resolving these problems is to establish an explicit and agreed-upon framework for conducting meetings -- The Meeting Process Outline -- which defines the structure, or sequence of activities and methodology for conducting the meetings.

Formal Roles

The second step is to develop definitions for the formal roles of Moderator, Recorder, Process Observer/Time Keeper, and Secretary.. An aspect of defining these roles involves decisions of how the roles are assigned:

• people volunteer (perform the role when you are ready);
• a rotation is established where the roles are systematically assigned to each team member in turn (ensuring that everyone contributes equally);
• roles are rotated during the meeting, for example every 15 minutes (prevents burnout, spreads the workload, allows more equal participation in each meeting.

Typically teams choose to rotate these assignments from one meeting to the next, although some teams will rotate assignment such as the recorder during a meeting, because the job is difficult and tends to take the person out of the discussion. One team choose for people to keep their assignment for several meetings in a row because they believe that would be the best way to develop the skills. Another strategy used by a team was to establish a rotation where the Process Observer becomes Moderator at the next meeting -- the rationale being that the Process Observer's insights from one meeting could be well applied as the Moderator at the next meeting. There are many good strategies, and the particular one selected must fit the circumstances, of team chemistry, commitment, and existing skill level.

It is important to note that the Moderator role is significantly different from that of chairman and more equivalent to the role of a presiding officer such as the Speaker of the House or President of the Senate. The Moderator's function is to manage the meeting in a way that ensures that the decisions are owned by the team. Unlike a chairman, the Moderator has no more influence over the decision-making process than any other member. When the Moderator wants to engage in the discussion, the role is transferred to another member for the period of time the Moderator wants to be an advocate, to prevent the Moderator from dominating the meeting.

The Recorder creates on a marker board and/or flip chart a visual record of the discussion as it occurs, which helps keep the discussion focused, and helps the secretary keep track of decisions, homework, future agenda items, etc. The Recorder and Moderator must work together as a team in a number of ways:

• The Moderator and Recorder arrive early to the meeting to put the draft agenda on the board/flipchart.
• The Moderator must pay attention to whether the Recorder is getting the essence of the discussion on the board, and, if not, to ask speakers to slow down. Alternatively, the Recorder may ask the speaker, to slow down.
• The Recorder may help the Moderator by periodically summarizing the discussion, or testing for readiness to make a decision.
• The Recorder and Moderator check with one another to confirm when decisions have been made.

The Cotter Corporation-State of Colorado TQM Team opted for two recorders because of the complexity of the job. The first recorder focused on keeping track of ideas during the brainstorming phase and recording the various options developed during the discussion and decision-making phases. The second recorder documented the decisions, homework assignments, and future agenda items (a separate page for each category). The sheets were saved and transferred to the secretary at the end of the meeting.

The Process Observer/Time Keeper role is analogous to the parliamentarian, the keeper of the rules. The first function of the Process Observer (PO) is to inform the team, if there is a "violation of the norms, such as someone speaking without first being recognized by the Moderator. The PO signals time-out (a T sign with the hands) to the Moderator who immediately calls on the PO to speak. The second function of the PO is to keep track of time and inform the Moderator in advance before time has expired for the agenda item under discussion. There are two types of time allocations: hard and soft. Hard time allocations cannot be exceeded whereas soft allocations can be extended with unanimous agreement (or what ever standards a team agrees upon). The third function is to provide feedback during the process debriefing period about meeting strengths, weaknesses and process improvement priorities for the next meeting (see Process Observer Form).

Informal Task & Process Roles

Research on the factors which distinguish effective from ineffective teams has identified a number of roles, in addition to the formal ones, which are factors. They are labeled informal because they are not specifically assigned to anyone, but are the collective responsibility of all team members.

Interpersonal Norms

Norms are the unwritten rules which define acceptable and unacceptable behavior, for example:

• Is it OK to interrupt?
• Is it permissible/proper to disagree with high status individuals?
• If you disagree, how honestly and vigorously may you dissent?
• Is it OK to filibuster- to keep talking even if your arguments are not persuasive to anyone?
• Do meetings start and end on time?
• How are personality conflicts handled?
• Does silence mean agreement?
• How do you deal with people who don't keep commitments?

The primary focus on writing norms should be on what is required to produce a good people chemistry. The usual process is to develop these norms at the conclusion of the team building retreat, since it is at this point that the team has particularly good insight into their dynamics, their hurdles (challenges) and are usually highly motivated to make affirmative commitments. The norms may also include meeting mechanics such as beginning on time, rotating the roles (or establishing a fixed rotation), etc.

These norms vary from one team to another, depending upon the chemistry of the team, (that is on what types of tensions exist). For example, teams do not create a written norm about being polite, if politeness is already a reality.

Procedures for Keeping Minutes & Doing Homework

Keeping accurate minutes is very important because they document the results of the meeting -- the decisions made, and homework assignments to prepare for the next meeting. Documenting the meeting and distributing the minutes in a timely manner is an important sub-work system and deserves special attention. From my experience, the amount and quality of homework a team accomplishes between meetings is a good indicator of the overall success of a team. Teams will begin to give themselves more homework assignments as they begin seeing the meeting as a decision-making process.

Developing Measurements & Continuous Process Improvement Methodology

There are several ways in which teams can employ the TQM process to improve meeting productivity:

• conducing post-meeting debriefings,
• using a Process Observer Form ,
• using Personal Quality Meeting Form,
• Administering a Norms Evaluation questionnaire, and
• Facilitator Coaching.

Post-meeting Debriefing

The first step of a process improvement methodology is to allocate 5-10 minutes at the conclusion of each meeting to identify strengths, weakness and set improvement priorities for the next meeting. The Process Observer begins the debriefing process, then observations from all team members, concluding with a wrap-up by the facilitator. The debriefing process is an evolutionary process, progressing from an a relatively unstructured to a structured process. Initially, the debriefing process is very informal, with the PO and others making whatever observations they wish. In the early phases teams are typically very (overly) forgiving of their performance, and not very critical. As the team matures, the process becomes more structured, and more critical or insightful.  As meeting productivity improves, less time is needed for debriefing.  

Some examples of process observations:

• We got started a little late.
• We had trouble getting started, energy level seemed low.
• Moderator had his eyes down looking at the documents, and didn't see people with their hands up.
• There were tensions between a few people, but no one was bringing it up - we didn't follow our norm of consciously dealing with process problems.
• We were having trouble making clear transitions from brainstorming to discussion to decision-making.
• We should read our minutes before coming to the meeting so we all know what we are trying to accomplish in the meeting, and then we could get started faster.

Process Observation Form

At a point when the team develops a level of comfort with the post-meeting debriefing process, you can introduce the Process Observation Form . The structure of the form makes for more systematic and detailed observations, which invariably leads to a more "critical assessment of performance. Therefore, it is important to not introduce the PO Form too early as it might lead to discouragement. When the form is introduced, it should not be as a requirement but as a suggestion to make the PO job easier. At first some will use it, while others won't. Gradually the value of systematic feedback becomes apparent, and the form gets used by all POs. The forms can become attachments to the minutes.

Personal Quality Meeting Form

The Personal Quality Meeting Form is used by individuals to assesses their own performance. As the team becomes comfortable with this process, the data can be entered into a spreadsheet and graphically displayed.

Norms Evaluation Questionnaire: At periodic intervals teams complete a Norms Evaluation Questionnaire to produce a snapshot of how far the team has progressed, and to set priorities for continued improvement.

Facilitator Coaching coaching can occur in several ways:

• during the initial training,
• during the meeting, and
• before/after the meeting.

During meetings coaching can involve any or all of the following:

• calling time-outs to make an observation: a suggestion for improvement or stroke when someone does something well,
• a demonstration, such as performing as recorder to show how to record ideas without translating into your own idea,
• giving advice during breaks.

As members develop a strong interest in perfecting the formal (or informal roles) they may request the facilitator to provide specific feedback and guidance outside the meeting. Typically this begins with one of the formal roles, such as the moderator.

Education, Training, & Project Facilitation.

TQM meetings are very different from regular meetings and as a result it is critical that there be a distinct process of education, training, and very desirably the use of a project facilitator. The books Getting to Yes and Getting Together can help meet the education objective.

In summary, with conscious attention to the meeting process, teams can experience immediate application of the TQM principles, can double their productivity, and see carry over to meetings other than TQM meetings. Also, with this conscious attention, team members will raise the expectations and standards for what constitutes an effective meeting!

September 16, 2002