COMP 208/214/215/216 Lecture 2 Teams and Meetings

Lifecycle of a Typical Team Forming Storming Norming Performing Forming – Storming – Norming – Performing, Bruce Tuckman 1965

Forming Liaise with colleagues to form your team Return the filled registration form to me Incomplete teams will be completed by me tomorrow. Missing people will be assigned a team at random.

Forming The team is formed Members introduce each other, and learn about each other’s skills and personalities They discuss the team mission, and make a preliminary assessment of duties and allocation of tasks.

Forming 4 or 5 Talk to Strangers! Bigger is not Better

Storming The team gets down to real work under pressure, and meets its first crisis There are differences of opinion about what to do, or about how or when to do it, or the quality of what is done Sometimes the differences are resolved peacefully, sometimes not Always best to discuss any differences

Norming Resolution of differences requires agreement as to team norms and practices Norms are rules or standard procedures for how a team does things They will possibly differ from one team to the next

Performing Once team members are agreed on their goals and how they will work together, they can get down to doing the work Ideally, each team should reach this stage as soon as possible

Meetings Meetings are important: –They ensure that everyone knows what is going on –They provide opportunity for discussion –They foster commitment as a group Group meetings are an integral part of this course: groups are required to meet weekly

There are different kinds of meetings: Meetings vary according to their –size –formality –purpose Most of what follows applies to all types of meetings: where specific I shall deal with small meetings intended to review progress on a project

Meeting roles Chair: –responsible for calling the meeting, setting the agenda, controlling the meeting. Secretary: –responsible for recording the business of the meeting (minutes), circulating the meeting notes. Participants: –responsible for relevant agenda items; making constructive contributions. In small meetings, the secretary and chair are participants as well. You may want to try different roles at different meetings

Purpose A meeting should have a clear purpose at the outset, and should not be distracted from that purpose. Your meetings are mainly to: –Report progress so that everyone knows what is happening –Decide what needs to be done, and who is going to do it –Agree on a set of actions for the forthcoming week

Before the meeting The chair: –Prepares an agenda –Circulates the agenda to the participants The participants –Before the agenda is produced, ask the chair to include items they want to discuss –Read the agenda when it arrives –Prepare for any items they need to report on –Think about other items they can contribute to –Tell the chair if they cannot attend for any reason

The Agenda - I Heading –Date, time and place of meeting It is good to meet at a regular time and place each week This can be electronic, teleconference –Purpose of Meeting Standard items –Apologies for absence –Minutes of last meeting –Action points from last meeting –Matters arising Meeting: 1. Apologies 2. Minutes 3. Matters Arising

The Agenda - II New Items: –Typical for your meetings: Review of plan in the light of reports Identification of tasks Allocation of responsibility for tasks –Other issues people want to raise General progress Difficulties Requests for support and advice. 4. Review of plan 5. Tasks for coming week 6. Allocation of Tasks

The Agenda - III Closing Items –Any Other Business Last minute additions, since agenda was produced –Date and Time of Next Meeting Fix a date and time which makes it possible for everyone to attend Also agree who will chair the next meeting and who will be secretary. 7. Any Other Business 8. Next Meeting

During the Meeting (Chair) The Chair should follow the agenda in order. –Ask someone to start the item (e.g. report their progress) –Invite comments –Ensure the discussion remains focussed, and that everyone stays calm –Force a decision if necessary –Summarise what has been agreed –Move onto the next item

During the Meeting -Secretary For each agenda item, the secretary should: –Note what was reported –Note what was agreed –Note any actions that were identified, and who will carry them out. Do not record too much detail. We don’t need a blow-by-blow account of the discussion, just a record of the conclusions.

During the Meeting - All Stick to the agenda! Be constructive Stick to the point Be considerate - don’t try to score points Be reasonable Make a note of the agreed actions for which you are responsible

After the Meeting The secretary writes the meeting note (minutes) The secretary circulates the meeting note to all invited to the meeting (and to the project monitor) Everyone reads the meeting note Everyone tries to carry out the actions they were assigned.

Meeting Note - I The meeting note is primarily to record actions that have been agreed. –It is not a verbatim record of the discussion. It should be kept succinct: –It should be as short as possible, while conveying the required information.

Meeting Note - II Heading –Gives the date, time and place of the meeting Present –Records who was present at the meeting Apologies –Anyone invited who could attend and said so.

Meeting Note - III For each agenda item: –Reported: What was reported about the item, and who reported it –Agreed: What if anything the meeting agreed about the item –Action: What was agreed should be done, and who agreed to do it Date, time and place of next meeting. A simple factual record is what is needed

Team Wiki & Meeting Notes Each team will be provided with a wiki You need to upload notes of each team meeting to your team wiki –Within 3 working days of each meeting –It is OK to type the notes directly into your wiki. Your project monitor will check on your progress via your team tools

Summary Prepare for the meeting. –Know what you need or want to say when you arrive Stick to the business of the meeting Make sure everyone knows what was agreed and what they are meant to do after the meeting. –Carry out the actions given to you. Upload meeting notes to your team wiki each week.