Moderating a meeting in Zambia is commonly known as “chairing a meeting”. So do not be shocked, as moderator, when you hear someone say “through the Chair” with a raised hand. That is a way of asking for recognition and permission to say something in a meeting.
Now I find “through the Chair” to be both irritating and annoying. I mean why not just indicate your intention to speak, in silence with a raised hand? Irritating, right?
It is annoying because of the hypocrisy and contempt it comes with. People that usually shout “through the Chair” almost always want to speak out of turn. They bully the moderator by continuously repeating the phrase until they are allowed to speak. You cannot really fault them because of the false belief created that they respected the chairperson who allowed them to speak.
This 3 minute read is about making your long meetings short, as moderator or chairperson .
Photo: Christina on unsplash.com |
Assert Authority
Make everyone understand, from the get-go, that you are THE authority of the meeting and that you intend for the meeting to be orderly and respectful. Everyone should stop to listen when you speak, and that everyone’s contribution should really be through the Chair’s permission to speak. Set ground rules.
A workplace meeting with higher ranks in attendance is much easier to control because you can ride on the fact that company leadership acknowledges your chairmanship and authority of the meeting. This should be enough to put the fear of god in those that might want to be unruly during the meeting.
Objective Presentations
It is important that each presenter keeps their presentation short and to the point. You will do well to guide that they give a brief presentation on how they are tracking against goals, what they have achieved so far, and how they plan to achieve the remaining part of their goals. They can also indicate areas where they need help so that the right people are assigned to offer the right help. It is not necessary to dwell on challenges.
After each presentation, allow questions from those seeking clarification on one or two things raised in the presentation. Contributions from others should also be allowed. However, they should be guided not to present problems but solutions or opportunities. This helps individuals to shift from an attitude of complaining and being emotional to that of being positive and solution based. So rather than being emotional and complaining of how the lack of a particular product has shifted business away to a competitor, one can simply say, “we need to stock product X. This will help return lost customers and grow our sales”. See? Meetings should be solution based; not an exhibition of how our emotions affect our work interactions, or how well one can expose the other.
Explain Technical Jargon
Once in a while you will have that one presenter who will use technical language that can only be understood by those found in a particular department or committee. It is your duty as moderator to interrupt the presentation and ask the presenter to explain technical jargon in plain English for the benefit and understanding of others present in that meeting. You do not want people leaving your meeting with assumptions.
At the end of the meeting, you will realize that your style of moderation managed to eliminate toxic emotions and helped everyone to be civil with each other. Controversial people who love ‘hot’ meetings are also neutralised by discussions that focus on solutions rather than problems. They slowly learn to address issues with each other without waiting for an attacking opportunity in a meeting. Everyone leaves the meeting feeling like they had a successful, objective and productive meeting.
Thanks for being here. Feel free to add what you feel I have left out in the comments
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