Ineffective Meetings
Introduction
I once read a famous quote by Dave Barry that said, “If you had to identify in one word, the reason why the human race has not achieved, and never will achieve it’s full potential, that would be meetings.” Picture yourself sitting in a room full of your peers at work and all of a sudden the meeting is adjourned and you have no idea what happened and are unable to articulate what you learned from the interaction. Believe it or not, this is a common place for many individuals in organizations today. Meetings are used as a common means of disseminating information and soliciting feedback. If meetings are so vital to the effective operations of businesses, then why is there such a feeling of disconnect and discontent for them. I would pose the reason is because of the ineffectiveness of the gathering.
Context
I am currently employed as a Customer Service Manager for AXA-Equitable. It’s a wealth management firm with operations all over the world. I work in the National Operations Center in their Call Center. Our Call Center is staffed with 4 front line managers who have a span of control of approximately 25 customer service representatives. The 4 front line managers, report to the Division Manager, who reports directly to the Department Head. The staff meetings are scheduled bi-weekly at the same time, with the front line managers and division manager in attendance. The agenda is typically sent out in advance with the topics that will be covered with the specified
Meetings 2
allotted time for each item. We rely upon this time together to receive updates on the business, to include new initiatives or changes coming down the line. Additionally, this is
the opportunity for us to collaborate...
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... team suffers because it’s not able to capitalize on the thoughts and ideas of all parties.
In conclusion, ineffective meetings can have a significant negative impact on an organization. That impact can range from a lack of knowledge due to inefficiencies, loss
of productivity, employee disengagement, and poor problem-solving opportunities. Managers are the liaison between the organization and their employees. They are tasked with effectively communicating the goals and objectives of the company to their respective teams. Given the magnitude of that responsibility, it’s imperative that organizations provide their leaders with the proper training and tools to successfully complete such a daunting task effectively.
Works Cited
Barry, Dave. “Quote Garden.” Quote Garden. N.p., 2011. Web. 14 Feb 2011.
http://www.quotegarden.com/committees.html.
Managers have a multitude of formal responsibilities and are accountable for the actions of their employees. Managers must lead and direct an organization through manipulation and deployment of an organization?s resources. People in a management position are expected to carry out specific functions, jobs, and responsibilities; they must influence people, manipulate the environment, money, and time to achieve
Therefore talk about the cost of bad meetings. Because bad meetings lead to even more meetings, and over time the costs become awe-inspiring.
When I worked for The Home Depot we had a lot of walk and talk meetings. Most of are communication with managers or department head were done on the way to do something else. These meetings where limited to only a handful of participants and there should still be a purpose for the meetings to not waste people’s time. The most unique meetings I have ever attended were The Home Depot’s store meetings. We would take the main lumber aisle, uses upside down Home Depot buckets and 6”x8’ pieces of lumber to make benches, for the stage we would use a medium sized store ladder. This was a great work out because we had to set up the benches before the meeting and put it all back after. I found these meetings to have great team building benefits as well.
The most valuable of the Five Dysfunctions is absents of trust because the other four dysfunctions need to build on this foundation. The author explains, that a good team can discuss difficult topics without concern of additional conflict (pg. 43). I think this is an important part of teamwork and management, because staff members need to voice their opinion without feeling intimidated by management, so issues can be resolved. I have been in meetings before and noticed a lack of involvement from staff because they felt no one really cared about their input or knew if they disagreed with management they could be reprimanded later. Those type of meeting are difficult to be a part of and seldom does anything productive or good come from
Rogelberg, S. G., Allen, J. A., Shanock, L., Scott, C., & Shuffler, M. (2010). Employee satisfaction with meetings: A contemporary facet of job satisfaction. Human Resource Management, 49(2), 149-172.
A group of people working on a team means a group of different sets of minds working together. Thus, it is inevitable that there may arise conflicts on a certain topic within the team, as certain viewpoint may seem right for the circumstances for some teammates and may different for others. However, it is not that they are not solvable.
First and foremost, effective managers are of course, required to have the basic management skills in order to be able to manage an organisation. Any managers has to possess certain technical skills which allow them to perform specialised task, particularly those first-line managers as they spend more time helping employees to solve work-related problems and they are mostly involved in supervising individual performance and instructing subordinates, for instance, ensuring that the products and services are being delivered to customers on a daily basis. (Robbins and Coulter, 2005) In other words, managers are required to possess "the ability to utilise tools, techniques, and procedures that are specific to a particular field." (Lewis, Goodman, and Fandt, 2004:12) In fact, managers are the first to look up for whenever employees encounter problems. (Griffin & Ebert, 2004)
Managers are responsible for setting goal and objectives for their staff .And the setting objectives managers must work with team .Managers ensure that the team objectives are met when the objective individual and specific to team .They can easily focus their target, improving and increasing customer satisfaction.
There are many different benefits to having diverse dynamics within a team. Communication seems to be the key to making the dynamics of a team work. A team is very much an interpersonal relationship with many potential benefits as well as pitfalls. The dynamics can often cause conflict within that team which can negatively affect the team's performance. It is common for people on a team to try to ignore or bury problems due to a desire to not create a scene. This can be very destructive because the issues do not get resolved. There are some specific steps that can be taken to resolve that conflict. When it comes to resolving an issue, the methods of doing so can be as dynamic as the team itself.
A manager needs to be in constant communication with his staff. The lack of communication can lead to misunderstandings and dissatisfied employees. “Communication is the single most important skill of any manager.” (About.com) I believe this is statement from about.com is absolutely right. In order to lead, a leader must communicate his orders to his followers.
The Employee Retention Committee Meeting involves certain number of people who coordinate according to the schedules setup by the members and correlate their activities with the work of related committees (Liebler 2008 pg 326). The meeting was scheduled ten days earlier and personally notified to the committee and still promptness was ignored by the chairman. Also committee members should be more responsible and participating but we have seen that some members have forgotten that there was a meeting. A committee is more than an informal group that meets to discuss an issue and share ideas, even if such a group meets regularly (Liebler 2008 pg 312). It is a duty of the chairperson to check to the compliance with mandate deadlines and action and obtain a meeting space (Liebler 2008 pg 326), but in the present circumstances we see that both the duties were not considered and meeting was held in a small and stuffy room with no enough chairs for the committee members. It would be rather better if the meeting would have been scheduled in a larger room with better surroundings. The duties o...
An organisation is a deliberate arrangement of team consisting different personal identities to accomplish some specific goals and managers are the ones who hold the responsibility of mastering and placing them together to strive for that purpose (Robbins, Bergman, Stagg, and Coulter, 2008). Robbins et al. (2008) have stated that managers are people who coordinate and oversee the work activities of others so that the goal is accomplished effectively and efficiently. Managers usually possess qualities such as having strong communication skills, flexibility, imagination, enthusiasm, problem solving skills, and of course the desire to be a great leader (Phdinmanagement.org, 2014). The structure of management conducted by a manager is often influenced by the four functions introduced by Henri Fayol (planning, organising, leading, controlling); how Henry Mintzberg’s management roles play in the organisation and also the three essentials management skills proposed by Robert L. Katz (Robbins et al., 2008).
Management is not just about making decisions, watching over employees, and bossing others around. Good management results in satisfied customers, who provide better customer service. In order for new managers to be successful, they need to have good communication, human skills, and the ability to motivate others. The ability to do these skills effectively makes a big difference to a manager and the company’s overall success. Companies depend on managers to fulfill their skills and knowledge to help their company excel.
Being in a position of management, it is your responsibility to ensure that your team of associates are well informed on what they need to accomplish. With poor communication, there may be a lack of understanding of what is expected. This creates a domino effect in which every step down the way is performed. Beyond the consistency of strong work production, the morale in the workplace may be affected. It can be disheartening to an individual to put so much effort into what they are being paid to do just to find out that because of poor communication their work may have all been for nothing. Being a good leader doesn’t only require that you have the ability to communicate, but to be able to listen. Taking in the information and comprehending it is the first step to conveying what you are looking to accomplish. Getting to the point with people immediately with a task at hand can prevent the inability to finish any given responsibility in a timely manner. Sometimes change in the workplace can bring out a side in someone that you wouldn’t normally face with a normal interaction. People become comfortable with how things go on a day to day basis. When changes in management occur or policies change after a longer period of time, the most loyal of employees can take an offense to a change and have it not sit well with them. This ties in to not only being able to effectively
Management role is to provide powerful leadership and define goals and constantly ensure employees commitment to the organization in return the reward employees when targets reached. There is no fundamental conflict between the both sides and when the conflict occurs it presumed as abnormal behavior or an outcome of poor