Setting meeting ground rules is something I've been doing for a very
long time, as a meeting facilitator it is a must if you want successful meetings,
I'm going to share with you the rules that I use all the time, they're tested,
tried and true and give the explanation behind them, I want you to also stay tuned to
the end of this video because I have something really special for you to
download. Hi if you're new here welcome, my name is Adriana Girdler and I'm a
Productivity Specialist. Having a very clear set of ground rules is critical to
having successful meetings, so I want to share with you mine that I use all the
time, so let's get to it. Number one, the most important one is, you
are responsible for our success, this is a critical meeting rule because you want
people to ensure that as a meeting facilitator, it is not your job as a
facilitator to make sure that it's successful, it is everyone in the
meetings job, so first rule that I lay out right away, so people are extremely
clear, rule number two, one person speaks at a time, have you ever been in a
meeting where everyone's talking over each other, if you have make note in the
comment below and tell me your story, but this one, if you don't set the ground
rules right away, you can't time people out, and you really want people to
be respectful of each other so one person speaks at a time, number three,
be supportive of all opinions, this is really important in meetings,
particularly when you are trying to be creative, people are gonna come up with
ideas that maybe don't make that much sense, but you don't want to right away
shut them down, because then your whole purpose of creativity and your meeting
is gonna go out the door, so be supportive of those opinions, you'll be
amazed at how you can build off of them, so I just let people know be supportive,
it is critical you do not want to be cut off,
number four, is be on time when you're returning from breaks, yeah I know this
is a given, but you'll be amazed at all of a sudden you give a break and people
wander after to their desk, start doing their email, and a half hour goes by, and
you only scheduled in a fifteen minute break, I actually don't even do 15-minute
breaks anymore because of this issue and problem, I do five to seven eight minute
breaks really enough time for you to scoot to the washroom and come back,
however I give multiple of them throughout the day, so I just don't give
two, one for the morning, one for the afternoon, I'll maybe give six, so the key
is really, tell people you're not gonna have time, make sure you come back,
we have a lot to accomplish, so this one, really is a good one to reinforce, number five,
think process not personality, let me know if you ever come across this where
you're talking, and all of a sudden you're in a meeting, and it goes to a
person and how they're not working well, or they're not doing things right, that
is not going to be helpful whatsoever, and whatever that you're trying to do,
you want to think about what is it that you're trying to
fix, your objective of your meeting, it's about the process itself, and not about
the personalities behind it, this one is really important, if you don't want your
meeting to be derailed you got to ensure that people focus on the objective at
hand, which is about a process, it's never about a person, so really important to
reinforce it and to call people out on it, number six, think how it can be done
not how it can't, I did this one particularly because it's really easy
for people tell me what is not working, and then that's it, well that's great
that you told me it's not working, tell me how it can work or what we can do to
make things work, so this is something that is really important, I do try to
call out people on this, and reinforce that this is really important, think
about how it can be done, be flexible, number seven, be flexible in your
thinking, out-of-the-box thinking is required, okay this is a little bit of a
word that we hear all the time, out of the box, out of the box, but really it's
about flexibility, I want people not to be so single-minded and only thinking
about one way, there's never one way to do things, there is multiple ways to do
it, and if you really want to be good at what you're doing, you build off of ways,
and you create a brand new way, that's the beauty of it,
so with number seven, tell people to be flexible, really important, particularly
when you're in a meeting, and you're trying to resolve issues,
number eight ,what is said here stays here, if you want to have trust, and you
want people to really be honest and open, because that's the really only way you
can resolve things at this meeting that you're about to have, is about issues and
conflict then this has to be honored, and ensure that it's enforced, so I always
say, what is said here stays here, because I need that transparency,
we're going to fix a problem or have resolution to an issue that's really
been hurting a team, a department, or the organization for a long time, number nine,
turn phones and computers off, you think that this is a given, but I have
other videos that talk about etiquette and you'll be amazed how many people are
on their phones, in their group and on their computers, just don't do it, I
actually tell people to turn them off, and you'll be amazed, people will shut
down their screens, turn off their phones, I do a little caveat, I say listen, if you
have an emergency, then put it on vibrate and walk out of this meeting, go outside
in the hallway in order to take your call, you'll be amazed how people are
very respectful of this when you lay it out, and last but not least, number 10,
details, details, details, if I'm skimming the surface in the meeting, I'm wasting
everybody's time, we usually have to resolve something or come up with
something new, we're in a meeting, and you want to use meetings to ensure that they
are really productive, so if that's the case, I need the details, and you better
make sure when you walk out of the meeting, when you have action items you
have the details, like responsibilities, and due dates, and is everyone clear with
what they're supposed to do, and by the way I'm going to put it on some sort of
share Drive that everyone can access, really important these meeting rules
make a difference in a productive, effective and efficient meeting, now for
my special treat for you, is you can download this poster it's a PDF, now
please take note it's not this size as it's a PDF, so it's going to be an 8 by 11, now
what can you do with this, oh my goodness so much, you can print it out poster size,
you can put it in your powerpoints, make sure you open up every meeting with this
information, you actually want to put it in every meeting room, make it something
that your organization says, this is really important, meetings are important
to us, so let's ensure everyone follows a rule, so it's not just one person, really
cool thing to have, so grab it from the link below, it is yours because you are
now gonna be a meeting expert, that being said, I would love to hear from you, do
you actually have a favorite rule that you're going to incorporat,e or do you
have some additional rules that you say, hey Adriana why don't you add this to it,
I would love to hear from you, please subscribe to this video give it a thumbs
up and share it with all your friends and colleagues, until the next video see
you later, good luck with your meetings