Visuals

One of my sons seems to do a little better when we provide him with a visual cue, rather than just barking commands at him. After this revelation, I learned from my sister, an early childhood professional, that it's understood that all kids do better when they have both visual and oral directions, schedules, etc. So why don't we do this for adults, too? I started thinking of some ways to better manage a meeting with visuals. Have a timer on the table that can help move the agenda along when the meeting has a certain amount of time alloted to each agenda item. Consider adding photos or pictures or some other visual appeal to a meeting agenda or materials. Give people a smiley face to hold up when they agree with what another meeting attendee is saying. The ideas are endless for visual cues.

Rosters and meeting minutes and more

I had lunch with a good friend and colleague today. We discussed the need, or perhaps lack thereof, for so much formality associated with meetings. We were primarily discussing formality as in forms, documents, rosters, meeting minutes and more. When do we need a committee roster, typed minutes for the meeting, charters and the like? I'm not sure, but I err on the side of formality for groups such as nonprofit boards, government entities, planning bodies, etc. This kind of formality seems appropriate when the result of the meeting has accountability back to a funder or policymaker. I'm not so keen on all of the formality when it comes to committees or work groups that just need to get the work done and not be bogged down with paperwork and detailed word-for-word rehashing of conversations being translated into "minutes". And if you're going to require all of this document formality, you need to have someone to do that work.