Leading Meetings

Which of the following sentences would a good facilitator NOT say?

• Let’s move on. This topic has been exhausted.

• Are we getting what we want from this discussion?

• Does anyone have more to add to this topic?

• Please don’t interrupt Molly. Everyone will have a chance to speak.

The official record of what happened in a meeting is called the ______________.

• meeting minutes

• meeting memorandum

• meeting record

• meeting roll

Tom is the recorder for a meeting. Which of the following tasks does his job include?

• Telling the group to stick to the agenda

• Taking notes on attendees, topic discussion, and decisions

• Reminding the group about how much time is left to the meeting

• Correcting attendees who violate the ground rules

When you are planning a meeting, what is the first thing you should do?

• Write an agenda

• Find out when people can attend the meeting

• Clarify the purpose of the meeting

• Define outcomes for the meeting

During part of a meeting, a group reviews the agenda, lists ground rules, and assigns roles. What phase of a meeting is this?

• Planning

• Starting

• Focusing

• Facilitating

Sam is planning a meeting. He has prioritized the topics his group needs to cover and lists them in order of importance on the agenda. He’s also estimated how long his group will spend on each topic. What else might Sam consider in developing an agenda?

• Include an agenda item for the group to evaluate the previous meeting

• Schedule time to revise the agenda after the first two topics

• Plan for a break every 30 minutes

• Think about alternating high-energy topics with low-energy topics

A plan or outline for a meeting is called ______________.

• a draft presentation

• a memorandum

• an agenda

• meeting minutes

Shelly is meeting facilitator. She is trying to get attendees to discuss a topic no one seems very interested in. What should she do?

• Directly ask participants a yes or no question, starting with lower-level people

• Ask open-ended questions

• Confirm with the group that no one is interested in the topic and drop it from the agenda

• Ask the dominators first for their input on the topic to get things going