How to Chair Effective Meetings: A Guide to Group Problem Solving,

Meetings are a necessary part of any organization. Whether they are effective or ineffective depends largely on how meeting chairperson plan and conduct them. The content of this Guide focuses on the development and improvement of management behaviors associated with chairing meetings. Although meetings take a variety of forms e.g., exchange of information, problem-solving, decision-making, negotiation, etc., the emphasis throughout this Guide will be on a basic set of behavioral skills associated with facilitating problem-solving meetings. It will be demonstrated that the skills and techniques of facilitating group problem-solving meetings can be used to improve the chairing of any type of meeting. The basic assumption underlying a participative approach to group problem-solving is that it provides a winwin resolution to conflict or disagreement rather than the too common winlose resolution i.e., where the manager wins and subordinates lose or vice-versa. Improved quality of decisions and staff motivation are among the benefits to be achieved through this approach. Author