How to Communicate Effectively in a Business Meeting
...eeting. Generally, the facilitator has to be effective in addressing these participants concerns, issues, and complaints. Without proper preparation, often times, the facilitator may not have developed a strategy for dealing with these participants in future meetings. Therefore, the problem continues to exist, causing the meetings to run long. Other meeting participants become frustrated because debates began on a particular topic causing the meeting to run longer than anticipated by the facilitator. However, if the facilitator was responsible, he or she would invite these types of participants to contribute towards the meeting, but at the same time keep an eye on the clock and the agenda, always ready to tighten the reigns and move the discussion forward (Daine Schilling 2004). In my place of business we have several types of meetings, which consist of very important information. However, it is very important to be creative when giving and receiving information in a meeting. Sometimes at my place of employment we receive too much information, and sometimes the conductor looses the attention of the audience. I believe the old saying still holds true, “it’s not what you say but how you say it”. Gaining, and keeping the attention of the audience may determine the effectiveness your presentation. Non-verbal communication can easily be detected in a meeting also. Body movements will let you know what is on the mind of the receiver. In today’s society we utilize a collaboration of methods to send, and receive information while we communicate in business meetings. Meetings are used for virtually any intellectual task that requires the coordination or agreement of several people. Statistical studies suggest that office workers spend as much as thirty to seventy percent of their time in meetings. Paradoxically, even with the widespread distribution of computers, most computer systems in use aid the work of separate individuals rather than their work in groups. In meetings, computers are typically left behind in favor of more passive media like chalkboards and flip charts. Media influence the course of a meeting because they interact strongly with participants, resources for communication and memory. Chalkboards, for example provide a shared and focused memory for a meeting, allowing flexible placement of text and figures, which complements our human capabilities for manipulating spatial memories. However, space is limited and items disappear when the space is needed for something else, and rearranging items is inconvenient when they must redraw and then erased. To explore these ideas, an experimental meeting room known as the Colab has been set up of Xerox PARC. In the Colab, computers support collaborative processes in face-to-face meetings. The colab is an experimental meeting room designed for typically use by two to six persons. Each person has a workstation connected to a personal computer. The computers are linked together over a local area network Ethernet that supports a distributed database. Besides the workstations the room is equipped with a large touch sensitive screen and a stand up keyboard. Brainstorming is important when deciding how you will prepare for a business meeting, since brainstorming phase involves the initial generation of ideas used in the presentation, it is important to encourage synergy in group interactions and to not interfere with or inhibit the flow of ideas. In the organizing phase, the group attempts to establish an order for the ideas generated in the brainstorming phase. With an written order of ideas this can be established incrementally by using two basic operations: linking ideas into presentation order and moving operation allows these operations to be discussed prior to actually executing them by moving items near each other before clustering or linking (Falkoff, A. D. and K. E. Iverson 1973). The third phase, will be evaluation, which determines the final form of the presentation. Participants review the overall structure to reorganize ideas, fill in missing details, and eliminate peripheral and irrelevant ideas. Preparing an activity checklist will be helpful also just to ensure that your business meeting will be successful. It is very important to maintain an detailed list of things that you want to accomplish while conducting a meeting, because everything that has a beginning should have an ending, and a successful ending at that (Aiken, M., Sheng, O. and Vogel, D. 1991). a. Recognizing stages of group process b. Providing motivation c. Establishing a model of behavior d. Managing group creativity, anxiety, and conflict. e. Managing group creativity, anxiety, and conflict f. Maintaining awareness of own feelings as an indicator g. Demonstrating flexibility h. Planning the meeting i. Observing communication patters j. Determining levels of consensus k. Sensitivity to time management After following the above steps will ensure a successful business meeting (Chilberg, J. C. 1998). Process gains consist of the following; stimulation receiving feedback from other group members, imitation observing others and learning from them. Commitment can create an agreement to the decisions made and objectives pursued. Direction helps employees understand both the collective aim of the group and how an individual’s work contributes to group success. Process Losses consist of; coordination difficulty integration members, contributions due to tack of strategy. Socializing and interaction with other group members not focused toward the task. Poor memory, missing or forgetting contributions due to lack of strategy can cause a negative feedback from your audience (Aiken, M., Sheng, O. and Vogel, D. 1991). In many of the meetings that I have attended in my organization it always seems like your told how things, how they should be and what you’re not doing. Too much time is spent on what is wrong and not enough time spent on how the problem can be fixed. A person ends up leaving the meeting feeling drained and wondering if they are performing effectively on the job. What we say and how we say it to people can produce positive or negative results. It is important to monitor your tone of voice when s...