Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
Cohen et al's meeting design characteristics - Coggle Diagram
Cohen et al's meeting design characteristics
Temporal characteristics
Meeting legnth
Good practice points towards the three to five hours whereas around a third of boards typically spent between six to eight hours in their board meeting
The three to five hour mark as being more likely to produce better perceptions of meeting quality in attendees than a longer meeting
Promptness of start and end
Research found a clear correlation between promptness at the start and end of the meeting and perceived meeting quality.
Being on time was seen as both an example of good temporal courtesy (presumably leading to less frustration from other attendees) and it is also less disruptive in that board members do not feel like they are having to wait on late members to start
Use of breaks
The most obvious benefit of thoughtful scheduling of breaks (especially longer and/or virtual) board meetings is to ensure that all attendees are able to maintain mental performance throughout the meeting
Psychological research shows that one's attention can only be held for around 30-40 minutes so a good practice process would ideally be to take short breaks after this amount of time
Breaks are useful as a method of enhancing relationship-building through small task and are thus often experienced as warm hospitality
Breaks can be useful when a group conversation gets stuck such that after a break, insight often emerges
Following group conflict, to allow emotions to settle so that more rational and depersonalised dialogue can continue
Time of day
Different people have different chronotypes, this splits people into either larks who perform better in the morning or owls who perform better later in the day
There is a pattern of an early morning peak, an afternoon trough and early evening rebound
Unless individual chronotypes are known and are on average, significantly skewed from a normal distributions, board meetings should be scheduled in the morning
If a board meeting is likely to extend over a longer period or even a full day, then important discussions and decisions should be scheduled earlier in the agenda or if this is not possible, appropriate restorative breaks need to be built in so that focus and decision making capacity does not fall off a cliff later in the day
Physical characteristics
The basics: lighting, noise, temperature and refreshments
These include appropriate lighting, little background noise, appropriate temperature and access to refreshments
Regardless of how much they may influence meeting attendees emotions and concentration, there is evidence to suggest that the most important psychological principle is to give attendees control over these characteristics
In terms of lighting, the simple fact of being neither too light nor too dark was actually seen as important to perceptions of meeting qaulity
Temperature and the presence of complimentary refreshments did correlate with perceived meeting quality did correlate with perceived meeting qulity
Meeting refreshments are complimentary is seen as good hospitality and creates better feelings of comfort and positivity
Appropriate refreshments for personal well-being may have a positive impact on participants' ability to focus - having a variety of caffeinated and decaffeinated options and minimising sugary snacks can have a significant impact on the ability to maintain mental energy levels throughout long meetings
Meeting space
The overall meeting space is naturally a key consideration when planning a board meeting location
Ensuring the space is large enough and uncluttered to minimise distractions is one first consideration
More importantly the cultural symbolism needs to eb taken into account, this is what Shein described as the cultural symbols and artefacts that are the visible aspects of an organisation or group culture
It may be the best option to hold a meeting offsite, this be preferable if the agenda is to be more strategic and future thinking. - this would have the function of creating more distance and perspective and could be particularly beneficial for executive directors who would be less prone to being interrupted or puled back into their day to day responsibilities
Technology use
Technological solutions have been applied to the boardroom to help with meeting and governance functioning
Careful consideration rather than blind adoption of the use of technology in board meeting design is important as there are also many downsides of technology use
Virtual teams find it much more difficult to build trust than face to face teams
Virtual teams suffer when they are required to have conversations that need greater interaction and are more creative and strategic
If virtual board meetings are to be employed, the following may be important
Directors have face to face meetings first to build a personal relationship or as a minimum have had an opportunity to hold a one-to-one conversation prior to the meeting to build up a level of mutual understanding and some rapport
Virtual meetings are used as an ad hoc addition built around more predictable face to face meeting patterns
Include some more socialisation at the start of the meeting
Ensur video use to be able to see people as well as hear them to emphasise and humanise
Agree specific ground rules around virtual meetings that may be different from face-to-face meetings such as individuals flagging when they want to add to the discussion, ensuring that all individuals contribute, monitoring interruptions and at the outset confirming that all attendees are comfortable with the meeting being recorded
CGI key advice on virtual meetings
The choice of the right communication channel is vital
Virtual meetings need to be well structured and avoid unnecessary complexity
Preparation is key
The Chair will need additional techniques to run an orderly meeting
Ground rules for participants should be circulated to all those joining the meeting
Clear instructions on accessing the meeting system or app are essential
Good boardroom practices are even more necessary
Research shows that simply having technology such as mobile phones on a table during a physical meeting can reduce levels of trust and concentration
Seating dynamics
To encourage participation, one should seat the other part next to you so they are facing the same direction
To facilitate direct and open communication, the advice would be to seat the other party across a corner of the desk from you or in another place where that person will be at right angles - this allows the for the possibility of more honest disclosure
If one wanted to take a competitive stand against someone, the advice would be to position that person directly across the table from you
In order to block two meeting attendees from being disruptive, the general advice would be to sit one either side of the chair to block their interactions
Different options that board meetings have might be to encourage or even position individuals in different seats each time the board meets or to ask them to shift sound in positions after every break - this will enable participants to talk to different people in break small talk, perhaps challenge thinking, symbolically keep them on there toes and mix executives and NEDs to encourage team cohesion
Meeting space arrangement
How the meeting space is used dynamically as a way of improving meeting function
One general principle is to ensure that the space is as flexible as possible so that it increases participant's feelings of control and enables changes to suit a board meetings different gears of monitoring/mentoring, strategising and decision making
For example, breaking into smaller groups to sit in with no tables may be useful to encourage more discussion or standing up around a whiteboard may be chosen to increase creativity
Procedural charatceristics
Meeting goals
Providing goal or theme clarity before, during and in reviewing the meeting can have a significant impact on meeting effectiveness
Being clear on the purpose of a meeting, or indeed an agenda item is in terms of a decision or discussion, a key design distinction that will enable better board outcomes
Agenda use
Research found that having a formal agenda with prior access was correlated with positive meeting evaluations whereas no agenda or an agenda tabled only at the meeting was not
Pre-meeting talk
Creating the time, space and opprortunity for pre-meeting small talk is a significant predictor of meeting effectiveness even while considering further good meeting procedures
One study by Allen et al (2014) found that the impact of small talk was even greater for those who had an introverted personality type
Cultural differences of individuals as well as personality type will also impact on effective discussion
In certain cultures and as a result of the potential contribution by individual board members who have worked in these cultures, the individuals themselves will, conversely, value pre-meeting discussion or actively discourage it
Visual displays
Board meeting conversations will never completely follow a logical and linear process
At times, topics may take lateral turns as a variety of stakeholder perspectives are shared
In order to best capture the content and flow of meeting dialogue it is recommended that visual displays be used to allow attendees to organise information and retain collective memories more effectively
Individual preferences of attendees should also be taken into account in utilising alternative use of data and visual displays
Meeting arrangements
Board meeting ground rules which govern the meetings allowable behaviours, types of interactions, topics and how the meeting is conducted are a vital tool to support effective meeting fucnioning
It is important that a meeting agreement is discussed, mutually agreed and committed to, formalised, regularly reviewed and for the purposes of meeting design, related at the statt and end of each meeting to ensure that each meeting participant understands the rules of engagement for the meeting
Research shows that there a number of factors that decrease the likelihood of dishonesty in people
When people are asked to provide a pledge or sign to confirm their honesty - a board might consider an initial verbal or physical signing in to the meeting agreement at the start of the meeting to provide a reminder of their commitments
Moral reminders at the time they are required can also decrease the likelihood of dishonesty. It may be appropriate for a chair or company secretary to voice a directors responsibility as required at a particular pertinent time i.e a key vote
Dishonest behaviour is also reduced through supervision, a board could employ tactics such as utilising the empty chair tool, invite stakeholders to attend meetings, publish minutes or even livestream the meeting
Minutes
The preference of the company to have detailed full minutes or brief minutes may be static for all meetings or may be agreed at the outset or may be dependent on the type and purpose of the meeting
Each attendee should be prepared to review draft minutes to ensure the their points were captured
Meeting recorded
It is not uncommon for a board meeting to be electronically recorded
This may be for use as part of board evaluation or it may be as a record for information purposes for board directors
It may also be for cultural transparency reasons
Attendee characteristics
Number of attendees
As the size of a meeting increases, the participation per director is naturally likely to decrease and therefore more time will be needed to involve all attendees
One way around this is to be clear when inviting participants as to why they are there and whether their participation is more for observation and informational reasons than for them to be a full member of interactions
The Board and particularly the chair should be cognisant of the balance of members versus invited attendees to ensure that board members remain as the driving contributor and decision makers
Presence of a meeting faciltator
The role usually falls to the chair in any board meeting as the fe facto meeting facilitator to control the meeting flow, to assist in decision making and to allay any significant derailment from the agenda
There may be times when chair wants to take a more active role in discussions, when the board format requires smaller group discussion as part of an extended strategic away day board meeting or when a thorny relationship issue needs to be discussed