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What do you do when conferences become stultifying?

You know when the speakers in a conference begin to battle to have the best presentation? One slide chases the next, most of the listeners are comatose, yawning or keeping themselves awake only through artificial means? Only the speakers don’t notice and continue blissfully unaware. I’d like to know how much money is wasted on unfruitful meetings in Austrian firms daily. In international firms it’s probably somewhat more professional; here an agenda is usually distributed with an order of business (normally rather too long). The managers of American multinationals are usually stricter in not allowing the speakers to deviate from the topic. Still even with the Americans the professionalism of meetings leaves much room for improvement. The bad habit of allowing personal differences to interfere in work matters (of course well rationalized and cleverly argued) must be vehemently opposed. A ground principle for the success of meetings is to ensure that the participants have good personal relations.
 
What is to be done to maximise the speed and efficiency of meetings? Tip number one is the setting of an agenda without too many points, which should be communicated in written form to all participants at least three days before. Only this allows written preparation. The points should at the latest at the beginning of the meeting be separated into three categories. Are they related to information, decision-making or work themes? The first category must be simply accepted. If you wish to give the listeners the possibility to comment, then you must set aside enough time for this. Besides the use of audio-visual presentation media (overhead or projector), the resolution minutes should also be on display. The ever present but rarely used flipchart usually suffices for this. If you deal with topics that require a decision, make a short summary of the main points and then a quick vote. Besides the good old raising of hands the voting can be carried out using adhesive dots. Then, at the latest, one needs a moderation case full of all its’ wonderful colourful things, from laser pointers to carts in all shapes and sizes. Then you will ask yourself, »What do I need it for, when nobody’s here to moderate the meeting?« Correct! Particularly when group tasks are supposed to be worked on, it is not possible to obtain quick and effective results with technical aids, especially when the boss must play the double role of moderator and leader.
 
Here the idea of an external moderator suggests itself, who can train an internal employee as quickly as possible. Three to four sessions should suffice to produce a well functioning temporary solution. Even better is to train the chief secretary, which then prevents him/her from writing overlong minutes. Moderation can also be learned through a course, which is the best solution. The best moderator is one who is unaffected by the outcome of the meeting; this leads to less tension.

Whether you wish to learn professional moderation yourself, or want to try out moderated meetings, it will certainly be worthwhile. Because every minute saved can be multiplied by the number of participants and as a result means a great deal of time!

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