Determining Meeting Attendees and Location

Be cognizant of when it is appropriate to include certain attendees and locations. Sue Karch, Senior Vice President of Risk Management for Northern Trust, recently published corporate guidelines for global meeting etiquette. In it she asks that “when planning a meeting, ask yourself the following questions:

• Does the topic have relevance or should it have relevance beyond my local office(s)?
• Would the best outcome be achieved if attendance were limited to Partners in my local office(s)?
• Is the objective of the meeting to simply inform, or to make decisions and/or define action steps? Based on this, what is the right level of individual to have in attendance, and what is the optimal number of attendees?
• Based on the agenda, what is the likely length of the meeting?
• Is it important to be able to see materials – can they effectively be provided to attendees in advance?
• What office location is most impacted by the topic?”
  A quick review of these considerations can help to design the appropriate meeting participation.

Rotate meeting leadership and scribe roles

This is a tough one to let go of if you are a project leader, but is a valuable way to promote inclusion and participation. If a team member is leading a meeting, updating the project plan or publish notes, the level of involvement is much higher. Yes, it is easier to do it all yourself. Don’t. Wake up the team by raising your expectations of them. Whoever takes the minutes should be the next meeting’s leader, since one prepares you for the other. Don’t allow team mates to disengage during the calls.

Part 1 | Part 3

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