Analysis of Effective and Ineffective Meetings: Report and Findings

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of effective and ineffective meetings, contrasting their key characteristics. It highlights the importance of inclusive environments, flexible agendas, and the avoidance of power dynamics in effective meetings. The report delves into the significance of meeting agendas, explaining how they improve engagement and participation. It also outlines the roles of a chairperson in keeping meetings focused, including controlling discussions, setting time limits, and reminding members of key topics. Furthermore, the document details the essential documentation required for meetings, such as attendance sheets, codes of conduct, and minutes from previous meetings. It also covers the distribution of documents, recording and producing minutes, task and maintenance roles of members, and the concepts of defensive and dysfunctional roles. The report explores the challenges of discussion in meetings and how a chairperson can guide it effectively. Finally, it identifies follow-up activities, including publishing minutes, task assignments, and debriefing, along with steps for ensuring accurate minutes and the importance of accurate minute-taking.

1. Contrast the characteristics of effective and effective meetings
Firstly, effective meetings are inclusive while ineffective meetings are selective in nature.
Effective meetings aim at including the ideas and opinions of each member who is involved
in the meeting. On the other hand, ineffective meetings are selective. Those in authority make
decisions their own decisions. The views of most of the members in the meeting are not
represented.
Secondly, the agenda in effective meetings can be fixed or flexible while in ineffective
meetings, the agenda is fixed. In effective meetings, members are free to discuss agenda
deeply where there is a need for such discussion. On ineffective meetings, seniors have
hidden agenda and therefore such meetings tend to be rigid. Thirdly, in effective meetings,
leaders do not use their power to oppress other members while in ineffective meetings,
positional power is mostly used by leaders to dictate what should be done.
2. (a) Explain why it is important to have a meeting agenda, and how a meeting agenda
could improve participants meeting engagement
Agenda are important because they help those involved in a particular meeting, to identify the
major topics of discussion of that day. Members, therefore, have knowledge of what should
be discussed. Unplanned topics should not be brought to the table.
Secondly, agenda help people to do away with excuses. The agenda of discussion of a
meeting are prior given to the members to ensure that they prepare for the meeting. One can
therefore not complain that he or she was not ready for discussion when the agenda is
available.
Thirdly, agenda help people to get serious and ready for discussions (A. Allen & Beck 2014).
When people have agenda to focus on, they become serious keeping in mind that their views

are important in that particular meeting. They, therefore, do not waste time during the day of
the meeting.
To improve member engagement and participation, the agenda should be distributed among
the participants to ensure that everybody actively participates in that particular meeting.
Decisions on all the agenda will, therefore, be made from this discussion. Every member
should feel free to share his or her ideas based on the agenda scheduled for that day.
(b) How can a chairperson keep the meeting focused on the agenda?
First of all, the chairperson should control the meeting by ensuring that the members do not
deviate from the topic of discussion. The chairman interrupts with the opinions of a member
who brings another issue of discussion, which is not part of the discussion of that day.
Secondly, the chairperson, with the help of the members, should set a specific time of
discussion for each agendum. This ensures that there is no extra time for discussion of
unscheduled ideas.
Thirdly, the chairperson should remind the members of the major ideas of discussion to
ensure that they maintain their focus on those ideas. He or she should also remind the
members of the same, as the meeting proceeds.
3. Select and name the common pieces of accurate and error free documentation
required for the meeting, and what attributes should they display?
One of the key documents required for a meeting is the attendance sheet. This is a document
designed by rows and columns, which is used to display the names of those who attended the
meeting. The names of the attendees are filed in this document with respect to other
information such contact and position in the organization.

The code of conduct is another important document. It is also called the code of ethics. This
document displays the rules and regulations which govern that organization. Every member
in the meeting is required by the law, to abide by those rules.
A copy of the previous meeting is also an important document in a meeting. This one should
be accurately prepared. After confirmation, it is signed by the chairperson and the secretary.
It displays the issues which were discussed in the previous meeting.
4. Outline and organize the key factors to consider when distributing documents, and
recording and producing minutes within the designated timeline
When distributing documents, it is important to ensure that each member in a meeting gets a
copy or access to the document distributed. This helps to make sure that everyone in the
meeting is aware and contributes to discussions based on that particular meeting document.
The documents should be neat and clear. When recording minutes and other meeting
documents, accuracy should be an essential factor to consider. This helps to ensure that
recorded issues are true and as discussed (Mandl, Hauser & Mandl 2013). When producing
minutes, care should be taken to ensure that the minutes do not fall into hands of third-hand
parties.
5. Discuss the task and maintenance roles of the members of a meeting and give
examples of each role
Some of the task roles are as outlined below.
The information seeker has the role of looking for information from different primary and
secondary sources while still putting into practice the relevant facts.An evaluator has the role
of critically examining issues according to the basis of certain theories and logic. For
example, an evaluator may use theories such as AbrahamsMaslow’s theory, to explain why
some basic issues should be first dealt with, and not others.

On maintenance roles, the harmonizer has the responsibility of uniting the members, when
differences arise among them. His or her major role is to spread peace, harmony, and unity
among the group members. For instance, when a certain member becomes aggressive, the
harmonizer cools him or her down.
A follower, on the other hand, is less involved in the discussion but keeps into account all
that is being mentioned. He or she is usually not too talkative and does not actively
participate in the meeting. For instance, such a member will record in a notebook; the issues
discussed but may not raise any question regarding them.
6. Explain the terms ‘defensive role’ and ‘dysfunctional role’
Defensive roles are those roles which aim at protecting an organization or a board when
serious crises arise. These include lawyers, security officers among other experts in that field.
On the other hand, dysfunctional roles refer to those roles, which are not in any way helpful
to the organization. These roles are performed by aggressors, play personals, noise makers
among many others. They have no positive contribution to the meeting or organization.
7. (a) How does discussion impose the biggest challenge in a meeting?
Discussion, though a good method of expressing ideas may be very challenging in meetings.
Meetings are scheduled to take place within a certain period of time. Discussion forces
people to talk so much as they question and answer each other. Most of the issues might be
repeated in discussions as different members’ air out their views and opinions. Discussions
also give an opportunity to those who play dysfunctional roles, to intervene and brings
compromising issues which might lead to disagreements and even wastage of time.
(b) Describe how the chairperson can guide the discussion.

The chairperson can lead a discussion by following a certain criterion. If it is the first time the
members are meeting, the chairperson should take the initiative to introduce the members by
their names and possibly by their position, after which they should feel free to communicate
and give their opinions. The chairperson can now proceed and deduce a topic of discussion.
The topic should be understandable to all members in the meeting. He or she should now
foster an open process through which the members can discuss their ideas and opinions in an
orderly manner.
In this process, the chairperson should make sure that all members in the meeting are actively
involved. Those members who seem to be dormant or partially passive in the meeting should
be provoked to air out their ideas. The chairperson, with the help of other members, should
ask questions to enquire more advanced clarifications on disturbing issues.
The chairperson should now guide the members to summarize their discussion and findings
and finally come up with relevant solutions to issues discussed. He or she should now give
his or her end remarks and guide the members to make plans for future discussion. By so
doing, a chairperson can effectively lead discussions
8. Identify the follow-up activities to a meeting.
There are several follow up activities that may make meetings successful. To start with, the
chairperson should follow up closely and ensure that they are published. Members are usually
likely to react positively to issues when action towards them is taken promptly. The published
minutes should be complete and error free, including important details such as date, venue
and time, attendees, major agenda discussed, and agreements made. Additionally, the leader
of the meeting should follow up members who are assigned tasks during the meeting, before
the next meeting is conducted. This helps to make sure that all tasks are under constant
progress and all activities are accomplished as per the stated dates and time.

Debriefing is another major follow up activities which make meetings effective. This is the
process in which the leader of the meeting questions the members on how issues and
activities are handled. This is usually carried out after the meeting. Members give their
opinions on the strengths of the meeting, and where implementation of changes should be
done.
9. What steps can the meeting chairperson take, both during and after meeting, to
ensure that the minutes are accurate and reflect the decisions taken at the meeting?
To ensure that minutes are accurate, the chairperson should keep a record of the major issues
discussed and solutions of the discussion. This will help him or her, to compare his or her
records with those of the secretary or the recorder of the meeting. Additionally, the
chairperson should often remind the minute taker to record some major solutions to problems
of the issues discussed, as the meeting proceeds. During the publication of the minutes, the
chairperson should confirm that the meetings are accurately recorded before the final
document, (which will be used as the previous minutes in the next meeting), is printed and
published.
10. Explain why it is important to take accurate minutes of a meeting but not to record the
conversation verbatim
Recording accurate minutes is very important. First of all, minutes are very important in
providing protection to a company or organization. When crises occur, the court might ask
for the previous minutes, to confirm issues discussed. An organization can fall into serious
crises when this documentation is not available. Secondly, minutes are used to measure the
success or failure of an organization. It is through the minutes that decisions made can be
evaluated if they were put into practice. Additionally, the action is taken in reference to the
issues discussed and recorded in minutes.

REFERENCES
A. Allen, J & Beck, T 2014, 'Understanding workplace meetings: A qualitative taxonomy of
meeting purposes', Management Research Review, pp. 791-814.
Mandl, C, Hauser, M & Mandl, H 2013, 'Interdependency of Meetings and Organizations', In
The Co-creative Meeting, pp. 21-27.