Leadership for Saints: Part 51

Planning a Great Meeting: “Little Things” Really Matter
by Rodger Dean Duncan and Ed J. Pinegar

The meeting room environment can significantly contribute to or detract from the effectiveness of your meeting.  Never take this for granted.  Even if you delegate the actual physical set up, taking a personal interest in the details will pay rich dividends.  Ignoring the details can results in unpleasant surprises. 

Plan far in advance.  Especially in a meetinghouse used by more than one Church unit, be sure to reserve the room as early as possible.

Use a room suitable for the occasion.  A classroom would be adequate for an auxiliary presidency meeting, while a Ward Council meeting would be more comfortable in the Relief Society room or another more spacious setting. 

Arrange for audio-visual needs.  If you need an overhead projector, be sure it’s there at the appointed time and that it has an extra light bulb.  If a chalkboard or white board is adequate, be sure they are clean and that you have suitable writing instruments.

Use a seating arrangement appropriate for your purpose.  If you want lots of face-to-face interaction, a circular or U-shaped seating arrangement works best.  For a training session, you might consider a classroom effect with rows of chairs.  (Most participants appreciate having a table for a writing surface.)  If you are eager to create an atmosphere of collaboration (in a missionary correlation meeting, for instance), you might consider a room and seating arrangement that bring people closer together physically.

Be sure the ventilation is adequate.  Nothing stifles a meeting’s effectiveness like a lack of free-flowing fresh air.

Check the temperature.  Where possible, keep the room temperature fairly cool – 65° to 70°.  Set it near the low end to stimulate the group (remember, the room automatically grows warmer when the people arrive).  Avoid going over 75° unless you want your group to nap.

Check the lighting.  To stimulate creative thinking, open the curtains and let in the view and the sunlight.

Consider amenities.  Relief Society sisters are great about using simple items – like a table cloth, a centerpiece or a framed picture – to enhance the meeting space and contribute to the “message” of the meeting.  The rest of us would do well to follow suit.

Greeters and ushers. Any gathering like sacrament meeting or larger should have greeters assigned to welcome people. Greeters – stake missionaries or full-time missionaries are an excellent choice for this assignment – should cheerfully and reverently welcome each person entering the meeting room. A firm handshake and good eye contact contribute to effect. For especially large meetings like stake conferences, ushers (wearing “usher” badges) should escort people to their seats. This contributes to reverence and helps fill the seats in an orderly fashion.

Stimulating Participation

Our planning, coordination, leadership and shepherding meetings depend heavily on participation.  An atmosphere of free exchange is created only when participants sense that mutual sharing of opinions and ideas is welcome.  If you’re the leader of the meeting, be careful not to “pull rank.”   As always, lead by love and influence, not by position or authority.

One good way to encourage participation and discussion is by the skillful use of questions.  Stay alert for cues from the group that suggest problems.  If participants begin to fidget, seem bored or show by their expressions that they either disagree with or don’t understand, consider asking questions to discover what’s going on.

Four basic question types can help.

 

General and overhead questions are better for starting a discussion.  Specific and direct questions are best used after participants are “warmed up” and are comfortable with group discussion.

Here are some useful guidelines for generating discussion.

1.   Solicit feelings and opinions.

Ask questions that draw people out and invite them to express their ideas:

2.      Paraphrase.

To help people reach mutual understanding, paraphrase what one person said and state what you believe that person meant:

3.    Encourage involvement.

Sometimes people hold back in meetings.  They may lack confidence, they may feel overwhelmed, they may be distracted, or they may simply be content to let others carry the load.  You can encourage their involvement in the meeting by asking such questions as:

4.   Request a summary.

Note:  When the participants in your meetings realize that you sometimes ask “summary questions,” they will tend to listen more carefully.

5.   Ask for examples.

Quotes Worth Remembering

As members participate in councils, they learn about larger organizational issues. They see leadership in action, learning how to plan, analyze problems, make decisions, and coordinate across subunit boundaries. Participation in councils helps prepare members for future leadership responsibilities. – Daniel Ludlow

It is just as important to focus on gospel fundamentals and on people (rather than programs) in stake councils as it is in ward councils, and it is just as important that those who participate in stake councils be able to do so in a spirit of free and open discussion.

– M. Russell Ballard

Sometimes we discount useful communications, perhaps unintentionally, because of their source. Most are familiar with the marvelous episode in 2 Kings 5 wherein the leprous Naaman gets feedback not from the prophet, but from his servants. But he was man enough to receive correction from his servants and thereby was aided in finally being obedient to the prophet's direction.

– Neal A. Maxwell

Note: The excerpts of Leadership for Saints posted on Meridian are only a fraction of the contents of this 349-page book. To learn more about this ground-breaking book and to order copies, click here.