M EETING M ANAGEMENT

Learn and demonstrate the ability to plan, prepare, conduct and follow up on meetings. 2 M EETING M ANAGEMENT L EARNING O BJECTIVES Meeting Management

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. 3 M EETING M ANAGEMENT S KILLS R ELEVANCE Meeting Management Skills

Programmatic Response M EETING M ANAGEMENT – C LUSTER R OLES

M EETING M ANAGEMENT R OLE P LAY

M EETING M ANAGEMENT E XERCISE - O BJECTIVES 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 6 You are invited to attend a cluster meeting, at the Peace House at Sloma City, to support coordination of an effective humanitarian response 6Meeting Management

M EETING M ANAGEMENT E XERCISE – R OLE P LAY I NSTRUCTION 7 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

M EETING M ANAGEMENT M EETING A GENDA 8 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

M EETING M ANAGEMENT E XERCISE – D EBRIEF R OLE P LAY 9 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

B EFORE 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 10

D URING : 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 11

A FTER :  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 12

M EETING M ANAGEMENT D URING THE M EETING – D IFFICULT S ITUATIONS 13Meeting Management Difficult SituationTips 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 contributingTry to gauge why they are not participating, ask questions/comments (if appropriate), break into sub-groups, record inputs on a flip chart Off topic issuesIf appropriate, ask to discuss at a different time and place and focus on the task at hand Managing large groupsKeep meetings short, break out in smaller groups Sensitive topicsMeet with main stakeholders beforehand, work deals out in private Overloaded agendaDon’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

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. 14 M EETING M ANAGEMENT S KILLS R ELEVANCE Meeting Management Skills