Meeting Synopsis

Note: This is a meeting synopsis originally completed on December 10, 2020 as part of a meeting simulation group project.

Executive Summary

To better understand how to perform meetings in the business world, we have conducted a meeting simulation. Our company, Dumb Starbucks, needed to resolve two main issues: hiring a permanent human resources manager and bridging the linguistic divide within our company. With Aaron as chair, Martin as administrative assistant, Rich as assistant manager, Dona as Director of Human Resources, and Hunter as Director of Marketing, we conducted an effective simulation of a business meeting.

Planning Meetings

Each member brought their skills to the table: ● Aaron was our extrovert, so naturally, he led our planning. ● Dona, with her laid-back attitude, set a relaxed atmosphere which allowed the team to open up and discuss. ● Hunter was already familiar with meetings and cleared up any confusion for the less experienced team members. ● Rich was also familiar with meetings, so he could write our minutes and action notes (and distinguish between the two, as there was some confusion). ● Martin had some mic issues, but he expressed good ideas when the mic worked.

All members assembled for our planning and actively discussed what to do for our project. According to our textbook, that is an essential part of being in a team because all members need to attend, participate, and communicate (Cheesebro, O'Connor, & Rios 2007). We also did a good job using our time management skills; we planned to meet and discuss the project at various times so the group could accommodate everyone's schedules and collaboration went smoothly. Not only did we meet at convenient times, but we stayed on topic throughout our discussions. To help ourselves conduct the actual meeting, we wrote a script that helped us write our action notes and minutes in advance. In our script, we decided Dona would hire Toby Flenderson for the permanent human resources manager position as an executive responsibility, and Hunter would provide a constructive-originative resolution by motioning for Spanish classes for our managers (Jay, 1976).

Leading Meetings

Aaron did an excellent job at leading the meeting. He set the pace and led the flow without constricting other members. During the meeting, Hunter and Dona initiated motions and added meaningful discussion to support their motions. Rich added to the realism by disagreeing with the first motion rather than voting in favor with the rest. Martin supplied an idea during discussion that we tabled for a future meeting. Every member dressed well and spoke clearly. Thanks to our practice runs, everyone performed their part and missed nothing. Due to going on the second day, we could take advantage of advice given to previous groups and avoided common mistakes of previous groups (and real meetings) such as improperly making a motion and voting to end a meeting rather than simply adjourning. Our professor commented that we could have been more enthused but noted our lack of joy adds to the authenticity of our meeting simulation. The meeting itself went well, though it had some room for improvement. Even though we offered people time for discussion, we should have allowed more time to let the members reflect on the motions to provide more detailed and thoughtful answers (Rogelberg, 2020).

Conclusion

We did an outstanding job collaborating and joining in the conversation with simple and realistic ideas to solve the problems at hand. All the motions had the correct verbiage of '*I move that*,' and the meeting followed the agenda distributed before the meeting. We even made writing the minutes and action notes easier on ourselves. The only fault was that the meeting itself felt almost rushed. Though we were mindful of the strict time limit because of the test review we needed to get to, if we allowed ourselves to paraphrase our script rather than strictly following it, our discussions would be longer and feel less rehearsed. However, it says something when the biggest criticism of our teamwork comes from our own after-the-fact opinion and not our professor. We were cooperative, efficient, effective, and reflective whenever we came together.

References

Cheesebro, T., O'Connor, L., & Rios F. (2007). Communication skills: Preparing for career success. Upper Saddle, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.

Rogelberg, S. (2020, November 25). Why your meetings stink-and what to do about it. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from: https://hbr.org/2019/01/why-your-meetings-stink-and-what-to-do-about-it

Jay, A. (2020). How To Run a Meeting. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from: https://hbr.org/1976/03/how-to-run-a-meeting