Meetings, meetings, meetings

Boring, time-wasting verbage, or essential management tools? Meetings can be seen in either way, but since they are so much part of our lives in Child and Youth Care, it is worth examining their purpose, structure and value in order to maximise their potential in our agencies.

The students identified a number of types of meetings “management meetings relating to policy, finance, property and staff; senior staff meetings relating to administration, staff deployment and planning; team meetings, supervision, education and consultations relating to direct child care work; inter-agency, community and even public meetings. Rather than dealing with each of these, the class decided to abstract a set of principles which may apply to all meetings of whatever nature.

Purpose of a meeting
A meeting should never take place simply because it is scheduled in the timetable. “We always have a staff meeting on Monday mornings from 09h00 to 10h30" is a poor reason for the meeting unless its purpose is clearly specified. Parkinson's Law (work always expands to fill the time allocated to it) is quick to operate in such a case. Each meeting should have a stated purpose which then guides all other aspects of the meeting, such as who should attend, the time scheduled, etc. This statement of the purpose is helpful in focusing people's thinking more efficiently on the issue or issues before the meeting.

The structure of a meeting
Apart from the specific purpose of a particular meeting, the purposes of meetings can be stated in more general terms, and it is helpful when planning a meeting to bear these in mind.

For example, most meetings are held in order to facilitate informed decision-making. It follows that the meeting should be structured sequentially with this in mind, in the following three stages:

Reporting: In order to make a decision, the meeting needs information. Frequently this will be in the form of a follow-up report based on a previous meeting or decision. (See Paperwork below).

Discussion: The information before the meeting is considered, analysed and interpreted according to the professional viewpoints and experience of the various team members present. Theoretical considerations represented by consultant team members can be weighed against the constraints and realities of administration and practice. The combined problem-solving skills and methods of those present are used to develop options for decision.

Decision: In some cases consensus is sought for a decision to be made by the meeting; in others the decision is the responsibility of the team leader who is guided and advised by the meeting. In either case it is essential that the decision is accompanied by operational detail, such as who will do what, how, when and where. Only when this is done can the decision be meaningfully evaluated later.

Venue
There are obvious considerations regarding venue such as geographical convenience and size of room. Two less obvious aspects are worth mentioning.

One is the choice of remoteness from or closeness to the actual service activities of the organisation. A management committee, for example, which regularly meets in a central venue away from the campus itself, can lose its touch with the realities of the programme, and thus develop idealised and at best ill-informed conceptions of what the agency actually does or should do. Similarly, senior staff who meet in hermetically sealed administrative offices can reach lofty theoretical heights in their discussions untempered by an awareness of the day-to-day working conditions of the on-line staff. A property or house subcommittee should always meet in situ, while a finance meeting could well take place in the city. In each case the decision about venue should always be taken with thought.

A second less obvious aspect is that regarding the formality or informality of the setting. Too often we assume that a cosy informality is desirable, so we sit around in easy chairs balancing cups of tea on our laps. A face-to-face conference table formality, specifically where people can have their paperwork and writing pads conveniently before them, usually makes for a more focused and workmanlike arrangement. Informality is more appropriate to interviews with clients and families where formality can be intimidating, but there is no doubt that it can reduce the efficiency and concentrated effort of a staff or committee meeting.

Time
With the increasing urgency and cost of child care work. Benjamin Franklin's reminder that “time is money" has never been more true. A number of aspects relating to timing are important.

Frequency: Again, considered decisions need to be taken to frequency, and this will depend on the nature of the meeting. In many child care areas a one-hour meeting once a week is far less efficient than a ten-minute meeting once a day. Scheduling in a children's home, for example, is complex: who is taking John to the dentist, who will attend the high school PTA on Tuesday, when can we fit in the extra maths lessons for Susan, is the hall free for the aerobics class on Friday ...? Much of this will be planned well in advance; much will have to be planned on a day-to-day basis. A stereotyped time slot such as one hour once a week will not cover this sort of need. Nothing robs a programme of its spontaneity more than having to “wait for next Tuesday's staff meeting" for a decision which could be made today.

Punctuality: All staff teams should establish firm expectations around punctuality. One member delaying the start of a meeting by “just ten minutes" can waste eighty minutes of agency time if eight people are kept waiting. Quite apart from considerations of courtesy, punctuality is a measure of how seriously staff take their work responsibilities.

Duration: All of us have experienced meetings which “drag on and on", and a number of factors are to be blamed. Poor statement of purpose and poor structuring are common culprits. The chairman of the meeting plays a critical role here. The meeting should always start with an agreed closing time, and if this heightens the time pressure slightly, then those present are kept on their toes. The chairman will always keep the meeting to the Agenda, keeping anecdotal and irrelevant diversions to a minimum (without necessarily making the meeting entirely grim and joyless). Good summing up during discussion places firm “full-stops" at the end of each point: “Well, we've established that Peter is unhappy about being here and that he's not getting much help from his family". In other words, “if you all agree with that, then we needn't dwell on it further". A good chairman will also be able to decide whether the current meeting is the best time to pursue a particular point, or whether it should be referred to another meeting: “it seems that we haven't enough Information here, so shall we ask Roger and Anne to clear the weeds and research this for us, and to bring a tidier proposal to the next meeting?" Such referrals get two people to tackle an issue systematically, and save the rest of the team the time spent bumbling through the spadework.

Paperwork
The work of a meeting is significantly assisted and complemented by good paperwork. Information both prior to and after a meeting can be profitably circulated in writing. For example, the research task which Roger and Anne took away with them from the meeting just mentioned could be reported on in a document circulated to team members before the next meeting. The chairman could then reintroduce the discussion: “Thanks to Roger and Anne for preparing this information for us and clarifying it under a number of helpful headings. Is there any further information available under any of their headings before we discuss this?" All staff should be trained in the efficient use of paperwork and report-writing. Some “meetings" take place entirely on paper, for example, hand-over reports at the end of a working shift when time for a verbal handover is not available. The mediation of information for meetings or following meetings is vital. A large children's home will often employ a confidential typist to ensure that information and decisions are communicated speedily to all concerned “and in a children's home certain confidential information may have to reach the social worker, the child care worker, the school teacher and other team members. One children's home uses green paper for all confidential information, and the rule is “no green paper on view, always under lock and key".

Conclusion
Whatever the functional purpose of a meeting, touching base with others confirms the various roles played by fellow staff members, prevents isolation and “solo performances", and emphasises the team structure.

The whole principle of the multi-disciplinary team is reflected in the pulling together of a range of professions and vantage points to enable fully-informed discussion and problem-solving, and in sending team members out again into their respective practice settings, all to serve the goals of the organisation.

The meeting is the nexus of this process.

There are meetings which take place between two people or between twenty people. All should be consciously used as essential management tools. It has been suggested that one of the primary tasks of the director of a children's institution is the scheduling of meetings – the creative and purposeful grouping and regrouping of team members, whose respective knowledge and skills combine with and complement each others' in a competent and effective total service to the children and their families.