MEETING MANAGEMENT
MEETING MANAGEMENT
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Learn and demonstrate the
ability to plan, prepare,
conduct and follow up on
meetings.
Meeting Management
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MEETING MANAGEMENT SKILLS
RELEVANCE
Why is this subject covered?
Meeting management is a key soft skill that cluster staff
need to have to coordinate a variety of actions and actors.
How does this relate to my day to day tasks?
Cluster staff routinely hold meetings with different partners
(responding agencies, government, affected populations,
donors), to coordinate assessment and analysis, strategy
development, resource mobilization, and advocacy. Staff
must ensure meetings are purposeful and productive.
Meeting Management Skills
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MEETING MANAGEMENT – CLUSTER ROLES
Programmatic Response
MEETING MANAGEMENT
ROLE PLAY
MEETING MANAGEMENT
EXERCISE - OBJECTIVES
• Identify and address common
cluster/humanitarian coordination
challenges
• Share tips and best practices for
addressing these challenges
• Discuss what can be done before,
during and after cluster meetings to
ensure more successful meetings
Meeting Management
You are invited to
attend a cluster
meeting, at the Peace
House at Sloma City, to
support coordination of
an effective
humanitarian response
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MEETING MANAGEMENT
EXERCISE – ROLE PLAY INSTRUCTION
Meeting Role Play - Slomania
• 9 volunteers:
1. Cluster Coordinator
2. Information Manager
3. WFP
4. FAO
5. Slomanian National Red Cross
6. Samaritan SLOCON (local, main NGO)
7. World Friendly Vision
8. UNDP
9. CRS
 The rest of us will be ‘co-cluster coordinators’
Meeting Management
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MEETING MANAGEMENT
MEETING AGENDA
1. Share information and facilitate
collaboration – Who is doing what
where?
2. Agree on team to be sent to do a
‘joint’ rapid needs assessment in the
Northern affected areas.
3. Agree on next steps to develop a
joint emergency response plan
Meeting Management
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MEETING MANAGEMENT
EXERCISE – DEBRIEF ROLE PLAY
• Observers: What were the common
coordination meeting challenges?
Coordinator: What were the meeting
challenges?
• How well were the local actors integrated?
(SLOCON, National Red Cross)?
• Identify good meeting management and
facilitation practices
• Identify 1 to 2 things which would most
improve this meeting
Meeting Management
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BEFORE
• Prepare objective, agenda, attendance list
• Secure right attendees; personal contact
• Choose appropriate venue, time/date
• Send clear invites in advance
• Assign roles (co-chair, note taker, etc.)
• Ensure meeting is necessary, focused, and
provides unique value
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DURING:
• Lead the meeting (confidence)
• Review agenda and ground rules
• Guide using active listening, summary
• Balance agenda/timeframe with discussion/inclusion
• Avoid personal focus, arguments
Challenges
 Discussion off topic or agenda hijacked
 Participants do not contribute
 Large participant group
 Sensitive meeting topics
 Agenda overloaded
 Facilitation viewed as not neutral
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AFTER:
 Create and disseminate meeting minutes (incl.
an action-points matrix)
 Ask meeting participants for feedback
 Foster trust by following through on all
commitments
 Ensure that outstanding topics go on the agenda
for future meetings
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MEETING MANAGEMENT
DURING THE MEETING – DIFFICULT SITUATIONS
Difficult Situation
Tips
Discussion gets off track
(derailing/hijacking
agenda)
Post the agenda visibly, note the issue (parking lot), remind all of the
meeting objective and redirect with a question, work behind the scenes
(bilateral discussions outside the meeting)
People are not contributing
Try to gauge why they are not participating, ask questions/comments (if
appropriate), break into sub-groups, record inputs on a flip chart
Off topic issues
If appropriate, ask to discuss at a different time and place and focus on
the task at hand
Managing large groups
Keep meetings short, break out in smaller groups
Sensitive topics
Meet with main stakeholders beforehand, work deals out in private
Overloaded agenda
Don’t try to do everything in one meeting (3 main objectives in 60 to 90
minutes), consider shorter meetings, help with team-keeping, parking lot
Facilitation when ‘not
neutral’
Co-chair/co-facilitate, thematic sub-groups/working group meetings
Last resort: delay or reschedule the meeting until the issue is resolved
Meeting Management
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MEETING MANAGEMENT SKILLS
RELEVANCE
Why is this subject covered?
Meeting management is a key soft skill that cluster staff
need to have to coordinate a variety of actions and actors.
How does this relate to my day to day tasks?
Cluster staff routinely hold meetings with different partners
(responding agencies, government, affected populations,
donors), to coordinate assessment and analysis, strategy
development, resource mobilization, and advocacy. Staff
must ensure meetings are purposeful and productive.
Meeting Management Skills
14