Running an effective meeting requires identifying participants, assigning clear roles and responsibilities for each, establishing trust and openness, and outlining a clear understanding of who has authority to make decisions. The main thrust of determining the participants:

Who can contribute to the objective of the meeting

As you draft the list of participants, ask yourself these two questions:

1. What will this individual contribute to this meeting and
2. What will the impact be if this individual is not present?

Selecting the appropriate participants involves addressing issues of inclusion, exclusion, influence, attitude, trust and control. Here are some factors for you to consider:

• Identifying participants sounds obvious, but the wrong choices can derail a meeting. Some advance thinking can help you steer clear of the potential problems. Do you need a full committee for a particular meeting or are certain members key? Do you have the right expertise in the room for the situation at hand? Are the stakeholders affected by the actions to be taken in this meeting represented? Are there valid reasons to exclude a person or group from this meeting?
• Identifying clear roles and responsibilities for each person should be easy if you’ve chosen the participants well. Make sure roles and responsibilities are clearly understood before the meeting begins.
• Trust and openness are necessary for any productive exchange to take place in a meeting. Your track record as a facilitator - or your lace of a negative track record if this is your first meeting - is an important factor in establishing trust and openness in a meeting.
• A clear understanding of who has authority in the meeting is required for any action, resolution, or decision to occur. Getting to the right decision is useless if those who make it do not have the authority to execute it. This is information that should be clearly communicated to all participants.

A note on trust

Without trust and openness, the attendees may feel the meeting has a foregone conclusion, and nothing they say will be heard. Attendees will not feel free to introduce new ideas, participate in discussion, nor will they bother to listen to what is being presented. A lack of trust and openness will sabotage a meeting.

Where to hold the meeting

The physical - or virtual- environment of a meeting is a critical and often under-appreciated component in the success of a meeting. Whether formal or informal, in the usual workplace or off-site, environment helps to set the scene for successful interaction, focus, and pacing.

• Location sets the scene for a meeting and communicates to the participants how formal ( or casual) and how important a meeting will be. An impromptu meeting in the office is less elaborate than one off-site yet is usually more formal. A meeting in a conference center is more formal than one at a resort. You must choose a location based upon the tone and function of a meeting:
  • Idea generation may occur more readily in a relaxed, low-key setting.
  • A crisis management meeting may need to be in an organization’s headquarters in order to put decisions into effect instantly.
• Seating arrangement impact how people interact and where the energy in a meeting is concentrated. Options include circular, oval, rectangular, semicircular, and small groups around tables.
• Audio-visual and electronic aids often add clarity, break up lecture formats, or introduce material best presented visually. They are used more and more frequently as awareness about different learning styles has migrated from the schoolroom to the meeting room.
• Details as small as break arrangements can affect the productivity of a meeting. Establish protocols by announcing break arrangements. In a two-hour meeting, for example, no formal break may be scheduled, but participants may excuse themselves for restroom breaks or to refill coffee cups at any time. For all-day meetings, a morning and afternoon break are the minimum. For meetings at resort locations, working all mornings and reconvening each evening allows participants to enjoy their surroundings and take a real break in the afternoon.
• The provision of refreshments will also affect productivity and the perceptions of participants. Caffeine, water, and alcohol will produce different levels of attention in the participants. Healthy snacks and menu options for special diets (vegetarian, diabetic, low-fat, salt-free, Kosher) show consideration for the “human capital” in the meeting.
• An absence of interruptions and distractions goes a long way toward keeping the meeting on track and focused. Halfway through an afternoon meeting in a hotel is not the time to discover a disc jockey is setting up in the room one folding door panel away from your meeting. Interruptions can be minimized by having a message board outside a meeting room to prevent intrusions except in emergencies.

As you can see, there is much more involved in holding a successful meeting than just getting a bunch of people together in a room. You can read all of the posts in this series:

Part 1: Holding an Effective Meeting - the Basics
Part 2: Holding an Effective Meeting - the Content
Part 3: Holding an Effective Meeting - the Process

Welcome to the latest installment of the series on how to implement the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People in a Getting Things Done-style system. This series of posts will guide you through the stages of personal implementation over several weeks. This will give you a chance to focus on each new habit in your life for one full week before beginning the next one. For those of you that have not read Stephen Covey’s landmark book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, here is a brief synopsis of the sixth habit:

Synergize describes a way of working in teams. Apply effective problem solving. Apply collaborative decision making. Value differences. Build on divergent strengths. Leverage creative collaboration. Embrace and leverage innovation. It is put forth that when synergy is pursued as a habit, the result of the teamwork will exceed the sum of what each of the members could have achieved on their own. “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts”.

Habit VI - Synergize

This is the penultimate step in creating a pattern of effectiveness in your life. As the third pillar of the Public Victory, Synergy is the structure that makes interdependence such a powerful lever for increasing your personal productivity and success. Stephen Covey compares the Sixth Habit of Highly Effective People to a math equation where 1 + 1 = 3, or more!

Creative Cooperation in Context

The goal of Synergy is to maximize the value of the varied contributions that parts of a system make to the whole. There are two ways that each part leverages maximum value:

1. Building on the strengths of each team member.
2. Shoring up, or compensating for, their weaknesses.

Synergy is the cooperative relationship between the individual units, team members, or ingredients that becomes an integral part of the grouping, thus making the whole greater that the sum of its parts. By working together creatively, the group is able to accomplish more or become more effective than any of the individual components could working on their own.

Participation and Engagement

In Habit 4 we discussed the principles of Win/Win and in Habit 5 we discussed the importance of creating Understanding in Communication. The habit of Synergy takes these two concepts and increases their power by creating an environment of participation. The Win/Win concept becomes a motive for working together toward a common goal, or finding value in different goals and working to reconcile them.

Interacting with understanding becomes the method for this increased level of participation. Creating this synergy can be a difficult process as it requires a new mind-set from all of the participants; it requires a new level of engagement and an atmosphere of safety in which to operate. Seeing this in action becomes its own reward, as the participants become engaged in the process of creation.

Creativity, innovation, and true teamwork can soar to previously unknown levels of effectiveness when the participants are willing and empowered to capture the power of Synergy. Some factors that influence this process positively are:

• Trust
• Openness
• Transparency
• Mutual respect
• Recognition of contributions
• Camaraderie
• Authenticity

On the other hand, a highly competitive environment will have a stifling effect on the growth of Synergy. This competition between team members can actually work in the opposite direction - reducing the effectiveness of those participants that are not motivated by the competition or the reward. Other factors that can have a negative effect on the Synergy of engagement are:

• Poor communication
• Lack of understanding
• Undefined roles
• Not having clear goals
• Inexperienced leadership
• “Political” maneuvering
• Perfectionism
• Personal value conflicts

“Vision begins with one person, but it is only accomplished by many people.” ~John C. Maxwell

Creating this atmosphere of trust and engagement is likely to be one of the most challenging tasks that you can undertake. It can also be the most rewarding. Most of the people that we work with every day are starving for a chance to make a larger contribution, achieve greater goals, be a part of something bigger than themselves. Living and teaching the habit of Synergy is your contribution to being part of something bigger than yourself.

Practical Applications

In order to develop the habit of Synergy, the most important step is to get beyond the “Us vs. Them” state of mind. You, and the people that you work with, must begin to think in terms of “We”. Once again the emotional bank account becomes a measure of your progress, and your personal sincerity is the currency that you will be depositing.

Without sincerity, the other parts of your system and members of your team may not trust you enough to participate and engage. It will look cynical and manipulative!

There is an old expression, “A rising tide lifts all boats“. Think about this analogy:

How much more can be accomplished if you could focus your efforts on applying your strengths to preparing all of the boats for the rising tide? If everyone on your team worked on the tasks that they are best at, and everyone helped each other at those tasks where they do not excel?

How often do you find yourself struggling to channel all of the water into your own little portion of the harbor? What kind of victory is it if it comes at the expense of the others on your team or in your organization?

Life is not a zero-sum game. Apply these exercises the next time you are in a meeting, a planning session, or encounter a situation that is stuck on competition. In the sincere expression of trust, these tools can be used to generate a spirit of cooperation and participation:

• Identify the common traits of the competing forces, ideas, problems/solutions.
• Open a Brainstorming discussion on the differences, search for an alternative resolution.
• Be careful not to take over but to facilitate.
• Solicit Win/Win scenarios and solutions from all of the participants.

Valuing the Differences

People see the world through their own eyes. The differences between people - mental, social, spiritual, economic, and so on - color this perception of the world. The hardest part to understand for many of us is that these perceptions are not wrong. Though different, everyone is right about how they see the world, their problems, and their opportunities. Capturing the value of these differences is the essence of Synergy.

Building the Habit

Here is a short list of activities that will help you administer and adjust to your new habit. These activities are:

• Think about a person close to you (at work or personally) who sees things differently than you do. Write down some ways that these differences could be used as starting points for finding alternative solutions.
• Identify a situation which could benefit from increased engagement and Synergy. What factors need to change in order to promote this cooperation? What can you do to change these factors? Who can you enlist to assist you in making changes?
• Pick a small project (at home or at work) that you can start from scratch in an atmosphere that promotes Synergy. Keep the number of team members small and use all of the skills that you have learned so far:
  1. Be Proactive: Create a new environment of trust
  2. Begin with the end in mind: The Synergy of the group will produce an amazing result that everyone can learn from
  3. Put first things first: Value the differences
  4. Think Win/Win: Creating the new atmosphere of cooperation and participation is a win for all
  5. Seek first to understand, then be understood: Accepting differences in points of view is the key to successful understanding

Running an effective meeting requires creating an effective process. There are several components of the meeting process: that will determine how the meeting is run.

1. Agenda,
2. Facilitation,
3. Presentations,
4. Approaches to decision-making,
5. Pacing and
6. Follow up

These are all components of how the work of the meeting gets done, which is, in turn, important to reaching the objective, determining the quality of the outcome, and satisfying the participants in the meeting itself. Let’s take a little more detailed look:

• The agenda sets the stage for the meeting: It lists the items the meeting will address and often the time frame for each agenda item. It also lists the participants and the leaders - with their responsibilities.
• Facilitation often involves taking on the role of facilitator yourself ( if you are the meeting planner) or delegating it to a colleague, subordinate, or resident expert in the topic being addressed. A facilitator is not a leader imposing a solution or pre-determined decision on a group.
• Presentations, if there are any, are a way to provide information, impart institutional knowledge, or alternatives to be considered. They can be one person talking, a team lecture, a set of PowerPoint slides, or a audio/ video or Internet production.
• Methods used for solving problems and making decisions (for meetings other than straight presentations of information) will determine both the quality of the solution or decision and the participants’ satisfaction with the process.
  • For example, approaches to decision-making will affect whether or not a meeting in which decisions have to be made has win-win outcomes.
  • Some decision-making methods, such as voting, have win-lose outcomes;
  • others, such as the well-known “free-for-all”, have lose-lose outcomes.
  • Consensus, achieved through collaboration and problem solving, is the win-win approach. Consensus is the judgment arrived at by most of those concerned, which requires group critical reasoning and may involve negotiation.
• Pacing, or keeping a meeting on track, demonstrates respect for the participants and maintains the energy in a meeting. One component of trust is ending the meeting at the announced time.
• A meeting without follow up is a meeting wasted. Identifying and assigning action steps is only as good as the follow up to ensure the action steps taken.

A Note on Institutional Knowledge

Institutional knowledge is the cumulative, retrievable, and collective knowledge and experience possessed by the members of an organization. This knowledge has to do with the history of a business or organization, it’s processes, products/services, business practices, markets, and competitors. Organizations run the risk of losing their institutional knowledge when that information resides in the brain of only one employee. All of that knowledge and experience will be lost when that individual leaves the organization.

One final tip: To make your presentation most effective, remember to tailor it to your audience’s needs. For example, a presentation for the marketing team for a new prescription drug need a different presentation than do the pharmaceutical chemists that developed it.

Welcome to part six of the series on how to implement the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People in a Getting Things Done-style system. This series of posts will guide you through the stages of personal implementation over several weeks. This will give you a chance to focus on each new habit in your life for one full week before beginning the next one.

Some of you may not have read Stephen Covey’s landmark book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, therefore here is a brief synopsis of the fifth habit:

Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood Covey warns that giving out advice before having empathetically understood a person and their situation will likely result in rejection of that advice. In order to participate in communication fully, one should be sure to understand the speaker by asking questions and then replying in a way that lets the listener know that you understand the situation.

Habit V - Seek First to Understand, then to Be Understood

Stephen Covey’s description of the Fifth Habit of Highly Effective People is based on two important concepts:

1. The first three Habits are “Private Victories”, the building blocks of personal growth and development. Being proactive in your environment, practicing the skill of visualizing results, and focusing on the things that are truly important are the core goals of self-mastery. The fifth Habit is second in the list of “Public Victories”, a set of interpersonal skills that enhance communication and interdependence. It is absolutely imperative that you have established your own personal principles before you begin to listen with empathy and take on the deep understanding of those that you communicate with.
2. Seeking understanding is a two-way street that relies on the ability of each listener to ‘actively listen’ and get into the need behind the need in the conversation.

Generally speaking, our first impulse in communicationis to make sure that we have been understood. Especially as managers and leaders and parents, we often give instruction to others. While this sort of directed communication is important, it is not the only way that we communicate. There are many times that others will come to us with problems, with needs, or with conversation.

It is in those times that we practice listening with empathy. This means turning our communication practice around and seeking first to understand, rather than first to be understood. This puts the power in the hands of the other person, the power to communicate their feelings. The responsibility then lies with us to accept, and understand the source of, these feelings.

Feelings (and perceptions) are interesting things - they are never “wrong”. Even though you may not agree with someone’s feelings or perceptions of an issue, their feelings are correct for them. As an empathic listener you must create for yourself the ability to understand the position that this person holds, in order to effectively communicate your own position.

The Negative Power of the Autobiographical Response

Empathic listening is powerful because it gives you a look at the autobiography of the person speaking. Unfortunately, our own first response is often to project our own feelings, motivations, and interpretations of the situation onto the other person. News flash: Other people do not think like you do! In fact, many of the people that you will come in contact with over the course of your life and work will think and feel and respond to stimuli as if they are creatures from another planet.

Your own story, your autobiography, provides you with a frame of reference for interpreting the world. It is important to remember that the person you are communicating with likely has not shared that story, shared your experiences. Empathic listening requires that you understand how the situation affects the other person in the framework of their own experiences. When you do this, regularly and sincerely, you create a deposit in their emotional bank account and allow the other person to truly open up and express the fundamental issue.

This deposit creates credibility and trust, a safe environment for this other person to express the real need, the real feelings that they have. Rather than speaking in code because they are afraid to expose themselves, they will speak more plainly because you have accepted an understanding of the situation based upon their needs and experiences instead of yours.

In the book, Covey uses the example of a Father talking to his Son about school. How many of you recall a conversation with your own parents that went something like this:

Child, “I don’t understand why I have to go to school. I hate it.”

Parent, “I walked to school, 3 miles each way, and up-hill both ways. If I can do it you can too.”

We have heard this type of example before but, silliness aside, it is an example of projecting one’s own autobiography onto another. This conversation is going to go nowhere fast, because the parent is not listening with empathy.

Practical Applications

In order to develop this habit, ask questions that promote your own understanding of the situation - questions that probe into the feelings and motivations of the other person. This can be difficult, for you as the questioner as well as for the person answering. Until you make that deposit in their emotional bank account they may not trust you enough to be open.

Ask questions like these of yourself, if the answer is no, ask the speaker to elaborate:

1. Do I feel that this is the deeper problem?
2. Do I believe that this person really trusts me to answer honestly?
3. Do I know for certain the emotion behind this problem?
4. Have I been in this situation? If so, does this person have the same experience that I do?
5. Can I give an honest response based on my understanding of this person’s feelings?
6. Do I understand the basis for this person’s perception of the situation?

These are just some sample questions to ask yourself, you may think of others. I recommend that until you have incorporated this habit into your routine you carry a note card with the questions written down as a memory aid.

Assumptions to Avoid

Your first response when listening to another person may be to frame their problem in terms that you recognize. This sort of interpretation does not foster empathic communication. Remember that this other person does not necessarily have the same experience that you do. To become an empathic listener and communicator it is important to work toward helping the asker find the answer, in terms of their own experience.

Stay away from a responding “I do it this way because”. This projection will cut you off from the trust of the other person. Once you understand where they are coming from, then you may offer a response that is based on your experience, but expressed in terms of the other’s point of view.

Avoid being judgmental. Your own experiences and biases may affect your response. There may be cases of conflict where these very biases are the basis of the discussion. Keep in mind that part of your responsibility is to assist the other person to become an empathic listener as well.

Building the Habit

I ask you to take on three simple activities that will help you administer and adjust to your new habit.
These activities are:

1. Create a Weekly Plan

Take some time at the end of your Weekly Review to plan your activities for the coming week. If you are not familiar with the Weekly Review, click here for more information. One of the basic principles that Covey teaches is that of the Big Rocks. These are the vital commitments that you need to put into your agenda first. Then you have room for the smaller stuff, the “pebbles and sand”. Your Big Rocks for this week include practicing one of the Practical Applications listed below:

1. The next time that you see people in a discussion about a problem or conflict, cover your ears and watch the emotions that are displayed. Picking up on non-verbal communication is a powerful part of the empathic listening process.
2. Make a conscious effort to have an empathic conversation with someone that you are close to (this makes the development of trust easier). Assist them with a problem that they may have, paying close attention to their point of view.
3. Listen to someone that you look up to as a good communicator. Where do they use probing questions to get at the need behind the need?

2. Make a Personal Commitment

Commit yourself to adding one of the above activities to your weekly schedule in order to learn the new habit. Because most new learning is lost the first week, guard against this by sharing. If you have trouble keeping appointments with yourself, get a friend, partner or co-worker to hold you accountable.

3. Teach to Learn

One of the best ways to establish your own understanding of a new topic is to explain it to another person. Pick someone that you can teach the concept of Empathic Listening to, it can be your accountability partner or someone else. This can be a very powerful way for you to improve your listening skills and your ability to communicate clearly.