COMMUNITY HEALTH CENTERS – Taking Action - The Fourth Practice – d. Making Meetings Productive

COMMUNITY HEALTH CENTERS – Taking Action - The Fourth Practice – d. Making Meetings Productive

Yesterday we reviewed the practice of an effective community health center Executive Director in Focusing on Opportunities. Today, we’ll review the practice of Making Meetings Productive:

Every Community Health Center executive, senior manager, and most junior managers spend more than half of each day in meetings. Even a conversation with one other person is a meeting. If Community Health Centers are to be effective, they must make their meetings consistently productive.

What Kind Of Meeting Is It?

The key to running an effective meeting is to decide in advance what kind of meeting it will be. Different meetings require different forms of preparation and different results:

1. A Meeting to Prepare a Statement.
One member has to prepare a draft in advance. At meeting’s end, a pre-appointed member has to take responsibility for disseminating the final text.

2. A Meeting to Make an Announcement.
This meeting is confined to the announcement and a discussion about it.

3. A Meeting in Which One Member Reports.
Nothing but the report needs to be discussed.

4. A Meeting in Which Several or All Members Report.
Either no discussion at all, or limited to questions for clarification. The reports should be distributed before the meeting. Each report is limited to 10 minutes.

5. A Meeting to Inform the Convening Executive.
That executive should listen, ask questions, then sum up; but not make a presentation.

6. A Meeting Whose Function Is to Allow the Participants to be in the Executive Director’s Presence.
There is no way to make these meetings productive. You must sit still, make the appropriate noises, and hope you don’t fall asleep.

Productive Meetings

Productive meetings require self-discipline. They require thinking through the purpose of the meeting, and sticking to the format. It is mandatory to terminate the meeting as soon as its purpose is accomplished. Effective Executive Directors do not raise another matter for discussion. They make sure that the meetings are work sessions, and not gossip sessions. They sum up and adjourn. They also practice good follow-up.

Effective Community Health Center Executive Directors know that any given meeting is either productive or a total waste of time.

Next post: COMMUNITY HEALTH CENTERS – The Final Practice: Think and Say “We”.