Effective School Management

participant should be to move the meeting towards the positive behaviour
outlined by the (a) items in the group performance checklist. This can be done
by, for example,
(1) drawing in someone who is being ignored or is remaining silent;
(2) asking quite deliberately for other views and stressing that it is ‘Speak
now or for ever hold your peace’;
(3) asking people to talk one at a time;
(4) drawing attention to the use of time;
(5) asking exactly what decision is being minuted;
(6) summarizing the stated opinions as you now understand them.
Good questions which a consultant, an observer or an observant participant
may usefully ask are as follows:
Question
When to use
What do you understand to be the
Whenever they have not been
goals of this meeting?
stated.
What order of priority should these
When the agenda looks items be
in?
too long.
What do you understand ‘X’ to have
When someone has not listened.
just said?

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MANAGING MEETINGS
6 9
Where is the discussion aiming now?
When you do not know.
Where are we in the systematic
When the discussion rambles
approach?
formlessly.
What has just been decided?
When it is not clear what has
been decided.
How exactly did we reach that
When it was not reached syste-
decision?
matically.
Who is to do that?
When an action is not assigned.
When is this to be done by?
When no time has been set.
For instance?
When airy-fairy generalizations
are made.
What was your purpose in saying
When an unhelpful contribution
(or asking) that?
has been made.
Have you followed your plan?
When they have not.
How is the time going?
When everyone has forgotten its
passage.
Are we helping you?
When discussion on someone’s
point makes slow progress.
PERSONAL APPLICATIONS
(1) Carry out a process review following your next meeting using the Group
Performance Checklist.
(2) Arrange to video or observe a meeting and carry a process review alone or,
preferably, in conjunction with the other participants. Be prepared for
discrepancies in the way you and others rate the meeting and explore them.
PREPARING FOR A MEETING
Whether you are to chair a meeting or participate, you will greatly enhance
the chances of achieving the sort of outcome you want if you spend a short
time in preparation. The checklists which follow may help.