WE LOVE MEETINGS – THE EFFICIENT KIND

THE GOOD MEETING

PREPARING AND
CONDUCTING MEETINGS
THAT LEAD FORWARD
PERHAPS WE
SHOULD MEET?
Meetings. As we all have meetings, we are all familiar with them. We recog-
nise the feeling of necessity and the effect of meetings, but familiar is also
the feeling of time wasted and that the exact meeting we’re in at this very
moment is absolutely pointless.

We love meetings and we hate meetings. We
all know when a meeting is working out and we
certainly know when it is completely derailing.
Preparation, form, and leadership are key, and
with this e-book you will obtain four staedy
ways of conducting meetings that actually lead
somewhere.
applying them at meetings is anything but
harsh. Creating and enforcing a framework lets
everyone know what to expect of a meeting
and makes it easier for all parties to enter the
meeting room feeling well-prepared and leave
with a feeling of having spent their time well and
that they are now capable of carrying out the
decisions made at the meeting.

People have various perceptions of the term
meeting, and in this publication we use the term
as defining a professional gathering in a busi-
ness or an organisation where you would rea-
sonably expect certain ground rules and make
demands of both the leader and attendees of
the meeting.
As sharp-edged and shrill as words like ground
rules and demands may sound, the point of
This e-book supplies you with four questions
to ask before initiating your next meeting. The
questions are inspired by Christopher J. Frank,
Vice President of American Express, and they
are neither exceptionally brilliant nor especially
surprising. They do, however, force you to ques-
tion the why and the how of having a meeting,
as well as to consider what we can take away
from meetings. And that is not really a bad place
to begin.

Enjoy - have a good meeting.

CONTENTS

PAGE 4

PAGE 5

WHAT TYPE OF
MEETING IS THIS?
WHAT IS THE
POINT OF THIS
MEETING?
PAGE 8

PAGE 9
WHO DO YOU
INVOLVE – AND HOW
DO THEY ACHIEVE
AUTHORITY?
WHAT SURPRISED
YOU AT THE
PAGE 12 MEETING?

ABOUT FIRST
AGENDA
WHAT TYPE
OF MEETING
IS THIS?
A summoned group of people walking into a
meeting room should all be well aware of the
type of assembly they are about to attend, as
well as any one of them should know clearly
what is expected of them individually and what
the desired results of the meeting are.
This is, however, very often far from the case
in the reality of busy organisations. You have
probably experienced being at meetings with
someone demanding information off you that
Vi elsker og vi hader møder. Og vi ved godt, hvor-
you were not prepared for and did not have,
når de fungerer, og hvornår de kører af sporet.
because no one had informed you that this was
an aim of the meeting.
Nøgleordene er forberedelse, struktur og le-
delse, og denne e-bog giver fire sikre greb til at
You will presumably also have seen the oppo-
afvikle møder, der fører til noget.
site situation of having prepared some infor-
mation to pass on only to never be asked for it,
Et møde er et bredt begreb, men i denne sam-
because a meeting turned out to be a simple
menhæng er det defineret som et professionelt
orientation with the attendees’ role of sitting
møde i en virksomhed eller organisation, hvor
quietly listening as opposed to taking part and
det er rimeligt at opstille spilleregler og stille
sharing information.
krav til både deltagere og mødelederen.
Always clearly define the specific
Selvom spilleregler og krav kan lyde som noget,
type of meeting:
der rimer på skarpe kanter og dårlig stemning,
er pointen i mødesammenhæng lige omvendt.
• Decisive – with the purpose of making one
Ved at skabe en ramme, hvor alle ved, hvad
or several decisions. In this case, it is im-
der skal foregå, gør man det nemmere for alle
portant that the leader of the meeting does
not give in to the temptation of asking new
input of participants, or discussing other
options and alternatives, or bringing new
bits of information into the discussion. And
it is also imperative that participants have
actual authority to make decisions.
• Informative – with the purpose of sharing
relevant knowledge and facts with the right
people. Orientation and sharing of facts and
information in a meeting rarely demands
parter at møde forberedt op til et møde og
much preparation from participants, but it
gå derfra med følelsen af at have brugt tiden
does require the leader of a meeting to be
fornuftigt – klædt på til at gøre det, der lige er
clear and outspoken and willing to run the
blevet besluttet.
entire meeting from start to finish. Remem-
ber, that questions are always allowed but
Denne e-bog giver dig fire spørgsmål, du bør
should not give cause to further discussion
stille dig selv inden dit næste møde. Inspirati-
and confusion about actual decisions made.
onen til spørgsmålene er hentet hos Christo-
pher J. Frank, der er Vice President i American
• Inspirational – with the purpose of devel-
Express, og spørgsmålene er hverken specielt
oping ideas together. Lots of resources lay
geniale eller voldsomt overraskende. De tvinger
hidden within organisations and businesses
os bare til at overveje, hvorfor vi holder møder,
and a meeting is a good chance of develop-
hvordan vi holder møder og hvad vi får ud af
ing ideas or doing brainstorms with inspira-
dem. Og de overvejelser er ikke helt dumme.
tion coming from unexpected angles point-
ing in surprising directions. This is a type of
God fornøjelse – og godt møde.
meeting that offers much potential but also
includes an inherent risk of running unpre-
dictably wild; although this unpredictability
is a key factor in driving forward the devel-
opment of ideas. Be sure to create the right
setup for the meeting and consider taking
it somewhere outside the office to some-
place new and inspirational. And do remem-
ber to book enough time out of everybody’s
schedule.
WHAT IS THE
POINT OF THIS
MEETING?
Have you ever attended a meeting but been uncertain of what the meeting
was actually about? You are surely not alone in this experience and it might
– as mentioned before - be caused by the meeting type not being specified.
But it may simply be because the purpose itself of the meeting has never
been clearly established.

The leader of a meeting should always ensure Some examples of sentences of purpose are:
that everyone attending a meeting - including
themselves - is able to enunciate and commu- The purpose of the meeting is
nicate the purpose of the meeting. orientating workers of the moving
of our office premises
Journalists planning an article work with the
concept of angles; the angle of the article is its The purpose of this meeting is
reason for being. To be more specific, angling a deciding whether we change from
story is being able to say “I wish to say that…” PC to Mac
and when you have that sentence ready, you will
know what the story is in its essence and that The purpose of this meeting is
will make it easier to convey to others. generating specific ideas for the
new campaign
Much in the same way you should be working
with a basic statement for a meeting saying
“The purpose of this meeting is…” The tricky bit
is keeping it brief and saying it in one sentence
only.
It might be a good idea to ask attendees how
they perceive the purpose of the meeting.
Perhaps try initiating a meeting by giving par-
ticipants a minute or two to state in a single
sentence what the meeting is for, perhaps with
the added challenge of doing it in a mere ten
words.
The answers will supply insight into the various
views of your meeting culture disclosing how
much time people spend preparing for meet-
ings and how successfully you have commu-
nicated the purpose in your request for at-
tendance. This will also give you information to
analyse following the meeting to find out what
the attendees’ perception of the meeting was
beforehand and how this corresponds to their
perception of the meeting subsequently.
Yet another option is asking the attendees to
send you their view before the meeting, pref-
erably allowing some time to review the vari-
ous submissions. This way you will know how
to better equip the participants if turns out
that your expectations of what they know and
expect regarding preparation time and general
knowledge of the meeting are slightly off.
 ”
THE NUMBER OF MEETINGS IN
DANISH BUSINESSES IS INCREASING.

A report from the Danish main

organisation of executives, Lederne,
states that Danish executives spend
upwards to 10 hours weekly
on meetings – most of which end
up being unproductive.
WHO DO YOU INVOLVE

AND HOW DO THEY

ACHIEVE AUTHORITY?
Summoning people to a meeting means choosing who is relevant and,
indeed, singling out many people that are not. For the most part it is neither
possible nor desirable to invite every employee for a meeting, certainly not
if your business tallies to more than a handful individuals. And even if you do
not, it will often make no sense to involve everyone and make them all spend
time on every meeting.

With that said, it is plausible that valuable and
useful or even critical information exists among
the people who are not attending the meeting.
That is why anyone planning a meeting must
have a clear view of what you know in advance
and who can add something to that knowledge
and how.
Furthermore, it is a good idea to run a stake-
holder’s analyses. Who stands to lose out on or
gain from a decision? Whose opinions should
be voiced? And who is likely to feel left out and
perhaps for this reason feel an incentive to op-
pose the decision being made at the meeting?

Typically, knowledge will be shared between IN OTHER WORDS:

every level of an organisation and if you wish to Make sure you involve the people
reach the best decisions you must ensure the
relevant to the specific matter and
right information and swear in the right people
people to whom the matter is rel-
prior to the meeting.
evant. Having these people in your
A meeting with the aim of making costly deci- corner of the ring increases the
sions might not have to involve an economic chance of conducting a good meet-
executive or manager, but it is rather a good ing and making the right decisions
idea to have discussed the framework of a granting a good result. And if you
budget and financial scope in advance so as to can lower the number of attendees
not make a decision that will later be revoked
at the same time, all the better.
by the one in charge of finances. Is the meeting
about the implementation of a new computer
system, you might not need attendance from
the CIO but would do well to have been briefed
by this person before the meeting, knowing
the course of action and being able to answer
questions from attendees.
WHAT SURPRISED
YOU AT THE MEETING?

One drawback of meeting is the ever-present

risk of losing concentration. Most of us have
been to so many meetings in so many meeting
rooms that our brains simply trail off at the sight
of doing it once again.

Changing the frames and form of meetings is a regular basis, an open conversation and
one way to counter this. For example, you could curious discussion will point to issues and
have your meetings in varying locations, have knowledge that everyone ought to be aware of.
Vi elsker og vi hader
walk-and-talk møder.
meetings, runOgthevi meetings
ved godt, hvor- parter at møde forberedt op til et møde og
når de fungerer, og hvornår de kører
standing up – or you could blend surprisesaf sporet.
into gå
At derfra medtime
the same følelsen af atofhave
this way brugt tiden
conducting
your classic meeting. fornuftigt – klædt
conversation and på til at gøre
discussion is det, der lige er
an opportunity
Nøgleordene er forberedelse, struktur og le- blevet besluttet.
to clear out whatever misunderstandings and
delse, og denne
Being the persone-bog giverof
in charge fire sikre greb
a meeting til at
you prejudice that may be found in larger organi-
afvikle møder, der fører til noget.
could introduce a time-out and ask participants Denne
sationse-bog
wheregiver dig is
no one fire spørgsmål,
able to talk todu bør
everyone
to reflect on the meeting and what has been stille dig selv inden dit næste møde. Inspirati-
everyday.
Et møde
said. er et bredt
Try asking begreb,
meeting men i denne
participants what sam-
they onen til spørgsmålene er hentet hos Christo-
menhæng er det defineret som et professionelt
find surprising, and you will probably receive pher
OpenJ.questions
Frank, derander Vice President
a curious i American
disposition will
møde
answersi engiving
virksomhed eller organisation,
new perspective as well ashvor
a Express, og spørgsmålene er hverken
also improve follow-ups and make them more specielt
det er rimeligt at opstille spilleregler og
good discussion that no one might have fore- stille geniale
fruitful.eller voldsomtmeeting
Distributing overraskende.
minutesDe is tvinger
an
krav
seentil
orbåde deltagere
reached og mødelederen.
purposely. os bare til at to
opportunity overveje,
pose thehvorfor vi holder
question of whatmøder,
was
hvordan vi holder møder og hvad vi får
found surprising in the meeting and to collect ud af
Selvom
Often youspilleregler og krav
will find that kan lyde
answers and som noget,
comments dem. Og deand
feedback overvejelser
commentseron ikke helt dumme.
issues and topics
der rimer på skarpe
on surprises kanter
highlights the og dårlig stemning,
difference of what is for upcoming meetings.
er pointenknowledge
common i mødesammenhæng
in one part oflige
theomvendt.
organi- God fornøjelse – og godt møde.
Ved at skabe en ramme, hvor alle ved,
sation but completely hidden from employees hvad
der skal divisions
in other foregå, gøror man det nemmere
departments. And iffor alle
these
individual departments are working together on
 ”
Try asking what meeting
participants find surprising,
and you will probably receive
answers giving new perspective
as well as a good discussion
that no one might have foreseen
or reached purposely.
FOUR TIPS
OF A GOOD
MEETING

#1 #2
SPECIFY THE TYPE OF MEETING WHAT IS THE POINT
– IS IT DECISIVE, INFORMATIVE, OF THE MEETING?
OR INSPIRATIONAL

#4
WHAT SURPRISED YOU
AT THE MEETING?

#3
WHO DO YOU INVOLVE
– AND HOW DO THEY ACHIEVE
AUTHORITY?
 GOOD MEETINGS YIELD
BETTER DECISIONS
Better and more efficient meetings are on the target list in most
businesses and organisations. Usually, several parameters are
lagging and it often takes a bit of work with both the culture, the
anatomy of the organisation, and some internal processes before
improvement can be seen in the form of better and effective
meetings creating an improved and more streamlined base for
making the right choices and decisions.

On our blog you can gather tricks, tips, and advice for plan-
ning, conducting, and documenting meetings, and you can
read more about gaining a better outcome and increased
efficiency from the time you spend on meetings.

VISIT THE BLOG