The meeting process
The meeting process
State and display the problem statement
In general you can’t hold a meeting without a problem to solve.
Hence, the first thing you should make sure of is agreeing the problem statement and keeping it visible throughout the meeting.
Generate ideas
Then you will need some mechanism for generating ideas for solving the problem.
These ideas will need to be brought together, discussed, clarified and listed.
Finally, the group should prioritise (for example by voting) a few of the ideas for more detailed investigation in the next meeting.
The major technique for generating ideas is to use the familiar brainstorm.
This has a couple of flaws if used unwisely.
For example, if you carry this out using large groups it is possible that narrow ideas will be generated.
This is because once someone puts forward an idea and it is written down it can tend to influence the following ideas.
The other key issue is that not everyone is particularly comfortable when working in groups.
In this case, more reserved and less confident individuals may feel unable to raise and progress their ideas.
To get around this the brainstorm technique can be split into a few separate action steps.
Initially ask everyone to consider ideas individually for a period of time.
These are then collated and written down.
This gives people a little more confidence for the next stage.
Then everyone can consider ideas either as one big group or smaller groups (say 3 to 5) depending on the numbers involved.
This first individual brainstorm may prove fruitful in generating further ideas.
Once this has been completed you can rerun the individual brainstorm which can galvanise additional ideas and develop existing ones.
There are some well know rules for running a brainstorm, some of which have been mentioned already see The Brainstorm Process.
Record
Make sure that all ideas are written down in such a way that all involved can see the list grow.
Even record different viewpoints of what appears to be a similar idea.
A flip chart is very useful as the pages can be torn off and displayed around the room for all to see.
Do not criticise
The aim of the exercise is to encourage the free expression of ideas no matter how they might appear to any individuals involved.
To create an atmosphere where this is possible no one should criticise any of the ideas put forward or discuss them in any way.
Ideas
Initially go for a lot of ideas.
Some ideas will trigger others, but still do not discuss them.
If the environment is good a lot of creative ideas will be produced.
All ideas, at this stage should be encouraged no matter how impractical they seem.
A relaxed group is more likely to come up with creative ideas.
The key factor here is to produce a lot of ideas in a creative manner.
Consider
Some time should be taken to consider the ideas, taking a break if necessary or even getting outside comment on the ideas to date.
This may produce additional ideas.
The meeting can be directed in the following stepwise manner.
This can be adapted depending on what techniques you wish to use.
Stepwise procedure
Step 1
Make sure everyone is aware of the rules.
You may wish to write these out and display them where all can see.
In particular ‘no discussion’.
Step 2
Write down what issue or problem the group is trying to solve.
Again display visibly.
Step 3
Everyone begins to contribute ideas at a speed that the scribe can write down.
The scribe should not try to interpret the idea but write them down as given by the speaker.
The scribe should also contribute.
Methods for producing ideas could be:
- If you wish, firstly generate ideas as individuals, then group wise and back to individuals.
- Each group should have its own scribe.
- You could have a free-for-all in proposing ideas (may be difficult to control).
- Each member of the group could provide an idea in rotation, saying pass if none presents itself. The exercise could stop when everyone passes in a round.
- A predetermined number of ideas could be generated, for example, 20 or 100.
Step 4
Make sure that all of the ideas are recorded accurately and they are all visible.
The scribe should ask for verification of the idea from the person who generated it.
If using a flip chart then full sheets can be posted up on walls.
Step 5
The group (or third parties) should then give some time to think about the ideas so far.
This could be a short time or over a week for example.
Ideally, this would be completed before the end of the meeting so that some form of prioritisation can be given to them.
If the latter, there may be an opportunity to display the ideas to a wider audience.
Step 6
The ideas can then be evaluated in a structured manner using some or all of these techniques.
- Group the ideas under headings or themes.
- Then begin to examine each idea in turn.
- Constructively criticise the idea but not the person who proposed it.
- Highlight the best ideas in some fashion, for example, circle, use of highlighter, underline etc.
- Try to rank the ideas by some arbitrary measure, for example, a mark out of ten. Clearly, this is not an absolute science at this stage but it does show up those largely preferred over others. For example, 2 may have a lot more merit than 9. When this is done, review the prioritised list and eliminate any considered of low ranking at the first assessment. At this stage you may wish to identify the major solutions using a Pareto technique, that is, a few of the options will solve most of the problem, for example, implementing 3 out of 10 options may be expected to solve a large part of the problem.
Step 7
Having identified the ‘best’ solutions consider:
- Were there any weaknesses in the methods employed to reach these solutions?
- Are there any faults with the proposed solutions?
- Could the solution itself go wrong or add to problems in an other area?
Additional consideration of ideas:
Simple voting procedure
This is just what it sounds like.
Having grouped and reduced the ideas in brainstorming the group then vote for the ones they prefer.
This can take the form of each person voting as many times as they wish or one vote.
After the first round the ideas are reviewed and a further round of voting is used if necessary.
Ranking technique
Each person ranks each idea on the basis of 1 to 5.
When each person has finished ranking the ideas the scores for each idea are totalled.
The ideas can then be given a priority according to their scores.