Australian Community Development Blog

Community Meetings - The Most Common Cause of Failure?

Actually to be honest, I don't know if this is the most common cause of failure or not. But its certainly one I think many community leaders and facilitators fall foul of commonly.

Here's what Marv Weisbord says about defining success in large group meetings:

"A meeting succeeds when people do things afterwards that they couldn't or wouldn't do before. If that sounds too simple, try this: a successful method helps a system transform its capability for action."

And one of the most common failures that community leaders and facilitators make is not scheduling the meeting for long enough or with enough overnight breaks. They think "If we make the meeting too long, people won't attend." Or "We just need to get through a certain amount and if we cram we won't need as long." or "These meetings are so boring, lets get it over and done with as soon as possible."

The reality is that for community meetings to meet Marv's criteria for success, attendees need to change their perceptions so that they work less in isolation and more in collaboration. They need to build trust, get the important issues out on the table, develop an understanding of the 'whole' by hearing from other stakeholders, come to some sense of an agreed way forward and finally plan their actions.

How do you know in advance how long this will take?

I'm not aware of any formula but here's the relevant factors:

1. What is your purpose? The narrower the purpose or task, the less time will be needed. (For example, developing a strategic planning or vision for the whole community generally requires more time than developing a plan for just one aspect, eg youth development or economic development.)
2. What outcomes are you trying to achieve? If its just getting input for a decision you need to make, then you won't need nearly as long as if you're looking for subsequent involvement in the implementation.
3. Has any work already been done on this issue?
4. What sense of community or goodwill already exists amongst the group. A community that barely knows one another or where ill will exists will need longer to build the necessary goodwill.
5. The more overnight breaks in your schedule, the better. For example, 16 hours over 3 days is MUCH more effective than 16 hours over 2 days.
6. I know this goes against the norm but a schedule which see the last session of a meeting in the morning rather than late afternoon is often more effective.

I'd love to be able to give you a formula to know how long you will need but I don't know of any. Personally, I use my experience, the experience of others and my gut instincts. Find out what has worked for others and then adjust accordingly.

But the golden rule has to be this - if in doubt, set more time or a schedule which sees more overnight breaks. (You can always finish early if you don't need the full time scheduled.) Many Australia based community leaders and consultants alike do the opposite and live to regret it. Believe me, I know from experience on this one.

Leading Meetings That Matter

If you're interested in the issue of making your meetings more productive - and given their importance to community and organisational development you probably should be - this recently published book (Don't Just Do Something Stand There! Ten Principles For Leading Meetings That Matter) is a classic.

I don't know of 2 people better experienced than Marv Weisbord and Sandra Janoff to tell us about how to do what the subject of this post suggests.

There are dozens of gems in this book. Here's one to try.

One of the critical issues with leading productive meetings is getting the right people in the room. How do you decide on who the right people are?

First you need to be totally clear on the purpose of the meeting. Once that's done, Marv and Sandra suggest applying the acronym ARE IN which stands for:

• Authority to act (eg decision making responsibility)
• Resources such as contacts, time or money
• Expertise in the issues to be considered
• Information about the topic that no others have
• Need to be involved because they will be affected by the outcomes and can speak to the consequences

Identify the people who meet these criteria and you've got your ideal attendees.

9 Principles for Effective Large Group Meetings

My last post mentioned the importance of using large group meetings for community development PROVIDED they are based on the latest most effective principles and practices.

For maximum effectiveness, follow this maxim: "Principles Precede Practices"

Here's my list of 9 principles for success. They are my words but I have learnt principally from (and borrowed some of the words from) my US based friends and colleagues Marv Weisbord & Sandra Janoff. Gil Steil and Nancy Aronson.

1. Clarity of Purpose

2. Quality Meeting Conditions - Natural Light and Healthy Food

3. Facilitate Attendance of All Relevant Stakeholder Groups

4. Active Engagement - No Expert Presentations

5. Focus on the 'Whole' Before Looking at the Parts

6. Self Management - Based on Guidelines

7. Focus on Future Opportunities Instead of Present Problems

8. Discovery of Common Ground

9. The Length of the Meeting(s) Needs to Be Proportional to the Circumstances and Desired Outcomes

Of course, not all meetings involve large groups of 30 or more but, with some modification, the principles still apply to smaller meetings.

Also, you don't need to apply all 9 principles at once. Like everything in life, its a learning process. Start at #1 and work your way down. If you haven't previously clarified, documented and shared the purpose of your meetings, try it and see what happens.

The Backbone of Quality Community Development

I had to start this blog with my favourite theme - periodic structured large group meetings.

Many community leaders have had downright terrible experiences with large group meetings. So before you tune out let me emphasise that I'm talking about quality meetings based on the latest most effective principles and practices.

I'm not talking about meetings where certain sections dominate. I'm not talking about meetings where people are seated theatre style. And I'm certainly not talking about meetings with lots of talk and no action.

What I AM talking about is meetings where a representation of what we call the 'whole system' come together, have equal voice, and develop specific action plans with the mutual understanding and goodwill needed to see those plans through.

Because of past bad experiences or the desire for the quick fix, its easy for community leaders to look elsewhere for quality community development and one of the current favourites is online initiatives.

Don't get me wrong, what online and other non-meeting offline approaches provides is awesome. (In fact, a large part of my Australian SME Marketing Blog is focused on online developments, many of which relate to both marketing and community development). But with one proviso, nothing has the power to match quality face to face meetings.

In this Knowledge Era that we're now well and truly into, what matters is the ability of parts of the system to learn from other parts. When this happens, the system AUTOMATICALLY changes or develops.

Another word for this 'learning' is communication and we know that nothing replaces face to face communication - with one BIG proviso.

What's the proviso? I've already said it. The meetings needs to be based on the latest most effective principles and practices. (More on this in my next post).