How to Run a Meeting

Teaching Tech Together

Greg Wilson

http://third-bit.com

0. You don’t have to invent this yourself

2

https://www.askamanager.org/

1. Does there actually need to be a meeting?

• To collaborate ? That’s a different kind of gathering…
• To inform ? Only if you are expecting questions
• To consult ? Only if people get a vote
• Otherwise it’s just informing with pretense
• To discuss ? Yes
• But only in small groups
• Or with well-defined procedural rules

3

2. Create an agenda

• If you don’t care enough to make a list, you don’t need a meeting
• Include timings
• Prioritize
• Plan to end early

4

50 Minutes Plus a Break

“The fundamental unit of time is the bladder”

5

3. Have clear rules for making decisions

• “The Tyranny of Structurelessness” (Jo Freeman)
• Every group has a power structure
• The only question is whether it’s explicit and accountable
• Or implicit and unaccountable
• If you need Robert’s Rules, you need training

6

3. Have clear rules for making decisions

• Martha’s Rules
• Proposal with sponsor
• A day before the meeting (no sandbagging)
• Sense vote (+1, 0, -1)
• If no one objects, proposal passes
• Discussion as needed
• Binding vote (+1 or -1 only)

7

4. Put someone in charge

• Moderators should not do all the talking
• Any more than conductors play all the notes
• Call on specific people in order
• Allow them one point at a time
• Keep a backlog

8

5. Require politeness

• All the other rules are special cases of this…
• No technology during in-person meeting
• Except for assistive technology or family need
• “Please put your devices in politeness mode”
• No interruptions
• Except by moderator
• No rambling

9

“But what do we talk about?”

​

Progress, plans, and problems go up

Context and priorities come down

10

6. Record minutes

• So people who weren’t there know what happened
• So people who were there agree what happened
• So people can be held accountable at later meetings

11

7. Manage “that guy”

• Three stickies
• Interruption bingo
• This is the moderator’s other job
• https://coast.noaa.gov/ddb/

12

8. Be an active participant

• Decline invitations
• Read the agenda and material before the meeting
• Take your own notes
• Use participants’ names
• Pause before speaking
• Put down your hand

13

9. Life online

• No mixed-mode meetings: all in person or all online
• Do not record the meeting without willing consent
• Take minutes in a shared document
• Review meeting protocol at the start
• “Are we chatting in Zoom, Slack, or the doc?”
• Raise hands digitally
• /hand another budget item is better

14

10. Seek truth, not victory

• No social dominance displays
• “Well actually…”
• Don’t raise points you don’t actually believe in
• The devil doesn’t need more advocates
• Don’t make excuses for your questions or opinions
• “This is probably stupid, but…”

15

Everything has its price

Once you learn what a well-run meeting looks like, the struggle will be to sit still while other people flail around ineffectively.

16

Please Read This

17

Thanks, Dad

​

​

​

​

Start where you are

Use what you have

Help who you can

18

Discussion

• Who gets a vote in your group?
• How are new people added to that pool?
• When and how do people lose their votes?
• Where and how do other people find out what has been decided and how it affects them?
• Where and how can non-voters raise issues?

https://third-bit.com/2020/08/31/governance/

19