Meetings are pervasive throughout industry, business, government and our private lives. The corporate and government world spends millions of dollars on meetings and it is estimated that one third of those dollars are wasted. We waste millions because we don't run meetings well, the wrong people attend, the team leader isn't in control, the agenda isn't clear and participants don't engage sufficiently to make sound decisions. Along with these process and procedure failings are the indirect costs associated with travel time, facilities, materials, lost productivity, lost sales, and general operating costs.  
 
The good news is that we can do something about this waste.  We can strengthen our skills to run effective meetings.  
 
Meetings have several purposes. They are required to inform, persuade, influence, instruct, stimulate and ultimately to make decisions. Make sure you are clear on why you are calling participants together for a meeting.   
 
There are six important tasks one should complete before calling a meeting. They include: clarifying your objectives for the meeting – in other words clarify why are you calling the meeting in the first place in one to three statements; deciding who should attend and when they should attend; preparing the agenda so that it clearly indicates which item is for decision, information or action; scheduling the meeting including the date, time for each agenda item, and the expected end time for the meeting; and arranging for the physical setting, ensuring there is sufficient seating, proper room set up, and appropriate technology for presentations, and don't forget the coffee and juices.  
 
As a meeting facilitator or meeting leader, you have several important functions. Here are seven to keep in mind: 

1. Initiator.  You set the stage. You want to ensure that the meeting starts on time, and that you review the agenda, discuss the objectives and introduce the subject matter.  
2. Information puller. You want the participants to engage in the discussion so that means from time to time you will need to request information, ideas and thoughts from them. You will also want to ensure that everyone is participating so you may need to ask direct questions to specific participants because they are not engaging in the conversation.  
3. Information giver. As a facilitator/leader you may have information that is applicable to the topic and therefore it is your responsibility to share that information. At what point you share it may vary. There are times when you will want to share it at the beginning of the topic under discussion as it will assist in providing clarity to the discussion; or you may want to wait and see what may come from the discussion before providing it. The first strategy moves the discussion in a specific direction, the second one allows learning to take place while participants struggle through the thought process.  
4. Clarifier. From time to time you will need to interpret what the participants are saying so that it is clearly understood. This means asking questions for clarification or giving your own take on the matter to ensure that both you and the participants understand what is said.  
5. Summarizer. After each discussion, or agenda item, summarize what was said, review alternatives as appropriate and make sure everyone is on board.  
6. Tester for consensus. This function sometimes occurs at the end of the summarization process. Here the facilitator/leader tests to determine how much agreement there is among the group/team. Consensus doesn't mean one hundred percent agreement. It means that everyone in the meeting has had a chance to participate in the discussion and his or her points have been heard. Once consensus is reached the next step is to record the result.  
7. Documenter. After each discussion, the facilitator/leader documents, or ensures that someone documents, the decisions made along with who will carry out the decision and by when. 

As a facilitator/leader, not only do you have these seven functions to juggle you also have several group relations functions to fulfill as well. These include:
 
Encouraging: Drawing others into the conversation by helping them to express themselves and contribute to the team or group.
 
Empathizing: Being sensitive to interests, concerns, ambitions, frustrations and other group emotional reactions.
 
Harmonizing: Contributing as a peacemaker by smoothing out interpersonal clashes and moving unproductive behaviour to productive behaviour.
 
Modifying: Changing your opinion when facts warrant it. Remember you can’t change others opinions, only your own. You can give people the opportunity to change their thinking, but only they will do so and not because you said so.
 
Gatekeeping: Keeping the channels of communication open. In any group setting there are several channels of communication operating at the same time, the leader/facilitator’s role is to keep those channels flowing.
 
Evaluating: Requesting the group to assess how well the meeting went and whether it met the objectives laid out at the beginning. This is important if you wish to incrementally improve your meetings.
 
The next time you are charged with facilitating or leading a meeting review this article and you may find your meetings more productive with less time wasted. Rather than hearing, “Oh no, not another meeting!’ maybe you will hear, “We get things done in our meetings, decisions are made and we know what to do after them.” 

Are you caught in a "rush trap"? A "rush trap" happens when you feel you need to make decisions before you are ready. It occurs when we feel pressure from our boss, colleagues, customers or from our own anxiety to "make a decision now!" When faced with this predicament I always asked: "What will happen if we don't make the decision right now?" The answer led me to believe that the end of the world wasn't at hand, the business wouldn't fail or we wouldn't lose the customer.  We still had time to stop and to discern the best approach. Discernment, however, may be becoming a lost practice in today's fast paced world.

Our race to make quick decisions has exponentially increased with the advent of email, text messages, cell phones, and instant access to information. If we don't answer emails right away, the telephone starts ringing from our colleagues or customers asking about the email they just sent, and what are we going to do about it. Just a bit more pressure, right? Not too long ago we used to send and receive memos and letters by "snail mail." The mail service gave us enough time to frame an appropriate response because we knew it wouldn't go out until the next day. Today's business environment dictates a more immediate response. And this will not slow down soon as the use of technology to interact with those important to us will continue to increase for the next several years.

Often we react to this pressure by sending emails followed up by more emails. For example I have received emails as well as sent them with only partial information. Now what happens? I either send more information to clarify my first email or recant the first email and send a different response reflecting a change in the decision. All resulting in confusion or increased scepticism down the line.

Why do we put ourselves in this position? Is technology governing us or do we govern technology? It's time to get back in control of the decision-making process.

What to do: According to Wisdomcommons  discernment is: "the ability to grasp, comprehend and evaluate clearly..." When we discern we seek to make the best possible judgement with the information we have at the time. Sometimes the issue is quite complicated and we need  more reflective time or to call upon a higher power before we decide.  I have found that working through a difficult decision with prayerful and reflective silence has a settling effect on the decision-making process. It calms the mind and allows me to respond with greater clarity. Take time to discern an appropriate response when called upon to make difficult decisions - even when pressured by others.

Richard P. Fontanie MSW, FCMC, Updated from the archives Fontanie Learning Solutions.