国际商务英语Chapter14MeetingPreparationConductionandAttendance.ppt

Chapter 14,Meeting Preparation, Conduction and Attendance,Chapter 14 Meeting Preparation, Conduction and Attendance,1 Preparation 2 Conduction 3 Attendance,1 Preparation,1.1 Preparation as Organizers 1.2 Preparation as Participants,1.1 Preparation as Organizers,To hold a large group meeting, the organizer needs a detailed plan with many factors considered as follows: Is the registration process efficient so that all the participants can walk through quickly painlessly before the meeting starts? Make sure everything is ready: the meeting badge, the meeting packet with all the necessary items like conference programs, a layout of convention center/place, ball-pens and meeting papers, and meal tickets. Is the publicity adequate so that the conference attracts the largest possible audience? Is the location for the meeting appropriate? Are the meeting sites large enough? Are the space arrangements for the conference programs the best possible?,Are audio-visual equipment and other convention facilities available and in good maintenance? Are the meals and breaks well planned? Have overnight accommodations been arranged? How is the budget allocated? Is it adequate enough to cover all the expected and planned items and some contingencies? Have the speakers been confirmed so that the conference can proceed smoothly as planned in the conference programs?,To enhance efficiency in the meetings, the organizer has to make sure that a meeting is justifiably necessary by asking some questions as follows:,(1) Is there a compelling reason for a meeting? Could the matter be handled just as well over the phone, by a memo, email or fax? Or could it be handled as well by one or more people without the need to consult others or cooperate with others? Are key people and material available ? Are all the participants, especially the key ones, well prepared for the meeting? (2) Is the job beyond the capacity of one person? Does it call for more information than any single person possesses? Does it take more time than any single person has available? (3) Are individuals tasks interdependent? Could one member complete his share of the task without input from other members? Could participants benefit more from an in-person meeting by sharing ideas and information in a group? (4) Does the meeting involve much discussion which will lead to decision and solution? A meeting would be unnecessary if the questions have only one right answer or the tasks have fixed outcomes but absolutely necessary if the goal is to generate ideas or solve problems. (5) Are misunderstandings or reservations likely to arise if there is no meeting? There are cases in which a meeting is equally necessary when confusing or controversial information and ideas are communicated. A meeting may help to straighten things up and improve the situation.,It is advisable to set an agenda to list the topics to be covered in a meeting. A complete agenda contains these information:,(1) a list of the attendees (and whoever else needs to see the agenda). It can help to keep a meeting in a right size, which is very important to a fruitful meeting. When the meeting is primarily informational, a large group will be acceptable but its better to keep attendance to no more than 7 members when the meeting is primarily for decision or solution. A list of attendees can also help to make sure all the important relevant personnel will be available and present at the meeting. (2) the meetings time, length and location (3) necessary background information. It can give new details to the attendees or remind them of what they may have forgot or describe the meetings significance. (4) a brief explanation of each item and the goal or objective of the meeting. A good agenda goes beyond just listing the topics and describes the goal for the discussion. The best goals are result-oriented, specific and realistic rather than process-driven, vague and general both in contents and wording. Clearly defined goals help the attendees to prepare for the meeting better and keep the discussion on track. But as a matter of fact, so many people go to a meeting with a vague idea of why they are meeting and a vague meeting is unfortunately often the result.,Example 1,Agenda Date: July 15, 2007 To: Tony Blake, Fred Dugan, William Bethel, Flora White, Linda Rivera, Edwin Goldsmith, John Clinton From: Jerman Ross Subject: Planning meeting for new San Francisco office Time/place: Tuesday, September 18, from 9:00 to 11:00 in the 18th floor No. 3 Conference Room Background: We are still on the target for a November 15 opening date for the San Francisco office. Completing the tasks below will keep us on schedule-vital if were to be ready for the winter season We will discuss the following items: (1) office equipment Please come with a list of business machines and other equipment you think will be needed for the office. At the meeting well refine this list to standardize our purchases as much as possible. Lets try to start out with compatible equipment! (2) office decoration Barbara Curtis of the San Francisco Design Group will present a preliminary design for our reaction. She will come up with a final plan based on our suggestions. (3) promotion Edwin wants to prepare a series of press releases for distribution to San Francisco media a month or so before the office opens. Please come with suggestions of items that should be mentioned in these releases.,Example 2,Agenda Planning committee meeting Monday, Oct. 21, 2007 11:00 AM to 12:00 Am Executive Conference Room I. Call to Order Roll Call Approval of Agenda Approval of Minutes from Previous Meeting Chairpersons Report on Site Selection Progress Subcommittee Reports Persons Proposed Time a. New Markets Alan 5 minutes b. New Products David 5 minutes c. Finance Jane 5 minutes VII Old Business-Pricing Policy Craig 10 minutes For New Products VIII New Business a. Carson and Canfield Data on Sarah 10 minutes New Product Sales b. Restructuring of Product Territories Edith 10 minutes due to New Product Introductions Announcements X. Adjournment,1.2 Preparation as Participants,Participants must read the meeting announcements or the agenda carefully for comprehensive information and make all the necessary preparation as required: prepare a report, offer comments and suggestions, share information and ideas, dig up facts and figures and evaluate them.,2 Conduction,2.1 Beginning a Meeting 2.2. During a Meeting 2.3. Concluding a Meeting,2.1 Beginning a Meeting,Effective openings get the meeting off to a good start. In his or her opening remarks the meeting initiator should set the stage for a constructive session by covering the following points: (1) identify the goals and objectives of the meeting even though they have been outlined clearly in the agenda (2) provide necessary background information that help the participants to be well aware of the context and the subjects to be discussed and thus help to enhance understanding and discussion (3) outline the contributions the participants can make during the meeting. (4) preview the meeting with the items to be addressed one by one. (5) remind participants of time pressure by previewing the available time for the meeting as a whole or for each item on the agenda,a good example,“Were faced with a serious problem. The reject rate has almost doubled in the last year, from 4 to 7%. We need to decide whats causing the ascending rate and come up with some ideas about how to reduce them. By “reject rate”, we mean the products that are inferior in quality and can not meet the national quality standard. It might result from the poor quality of the raw material, the misoperations of our workers or inappropriate storage. Tims going to compare our rate with industry figures. So we can get an idea of how much of the problem is an unavoidable cost of doing business in the new situation. Jennifer will talk about her experiences with the same problem at Wiscoby, where she worked until 2005. That company had some good ideas we may be able to use. We are counting on everyone here to suggest areas where we can cut reject rate and cut our losses. Once weve come up with good ideas, Ill ask each of you to work out a schedule for putting the ideas to work in your departments.” Well begin by hearing the reports from Tim and Jennifer. Then well all work together to brainstorm a list of ways to cut reject rate. The goal here will be to get as many ideas as possible. Once weve come up with a list, we can decide which ides to use and how to make them work. Tim and Jennifer have promised to give brief reports in half an hour, so by 9:30 we should be ready to start brainstorming. If we get our list put together by 10:00, well still have another half hour to discuss which ideas to try and how to put them into action.”,2.2. During a Meeting,A good meeting is a cross-flow of discussion and debate rather than a series of dialogues between individual members and the leader. Good leaders just occasionally guide, mediate, probe, stimulate and summarize. Mostly they just encourage the participation, lead and let others to thrash out their ideas. A good leader should avoid being either so domineering as to mute suggestions or so passive as to lose control of the group. A good leader should be able to keep the meeting moving along as scheduled, pace the presentations and discussions reasonably so that all the items on the agenda can be covered adequately while allowing enough time for all the main ideas and participants to be heard , and summarize tactfully and effectively the achievements, the important points and ideas in the discussion and the feelings of the meeting group. He must always keep discussions on track by using time constraints, relevancy challenges and other tactics.,To stimulate active participation, a leader must successfully take advantage of the commitment and the talents of everyone present. He may use NGT method to give every participant an equal chance to air their views, have all the participants take turns to speak, use overhead questions or relay questions to address the group as a whole, use direct or reverse questions to aim at a particular individual. He should be able to keep a balance. While preventing the few overtalkative ones from dominating the meeting, the leader can draw out the shy types by directly asking them to contribute their ideas and suggestions on the relevant issues.,Parliamentary procedure, also known as Roberts Rules of Order, is a time-tested method of planning and running effective meetings with orderly and active participation. It was initially designed to help people, with obviously clashing perspectives and potentially clashing personalities, to work together in the legislation. One of its most important features was to set up standards citing exactly what would be construed as proper notification of scheduled meetings. By following the schedule strictly under Roberts Rules, the leader can keep discussions clear and efficient while safeguarding the rights of everyone involved in deliberations, allowing the members with minority viewpoints a chance to speak , discouraging uncivil behavior, maintaining order, preserve a spirit of harmony and accomplish team and organizational goals. Roberts Rules has proved an appropriate way to operate a meeting when a groups decision will be of interest to an external audience, when a haste may obscure critical thinking or when emotions are likely to be strong. (You can visit the following websites for further information: /parlipro.htm or /rror/rror-00.htm),To conduct a fruitful and harmonious meeting, the leader has other jobs to do: acknowledge and enhance the value of other members comments, promise sincerely to deal with good ideas later even though they may be irrelevant to the agenda, get along well with other members and win potential enemies over as allies. In the background of globalization, its all the more important for a meeting leader to pay attention to cultural and ethnical differences.,2.3. Concluding a Meeting,Its time to close a meeting when the scheduled closing time has arrived, or when the group lacks resources to continue or when the agenda has been adequately covered. A good conclusion has three parts: (1) a warning that time is running out so that the group can wrap up business and everyone has a chance to have a final say (2) a summary of what information has been conveyed and what actions will be taken after the meeting so that everyone knows his responsibilities and assignments. (3) an acknowledgement of the groups good will and good work and a special mention of a particular individuals merit if necessary so that everyones incentive will be stimulated for better performance in the future.,an example,We have about 15 minutes before we adjourn. We still need to hear Ediths report on the restructuring of our product territories, so lets devote the next 10 minutes to that. Only 5 minutes left. Id like to wrap up our meeting by making a list of the suggestions we have brainstormed just now We wont have to meet again unless further notice before the promotion conference next Friday. Wed follow the revised schedule we have worked up just now. Miss Reagon will have copies to everyone first thing tomorrow morning. Dick will call the hotel to book a larger meeting room, and Liz will take care of the awards and prizes. Lets all plan to meet over dinner at the hotel next Friday night. We really got a lot done today. Thanks to all of you, were back on schedule. Tony, I appreciate your excellent work on the financial analysis. We couldnt have gone so far without you. You were all great about coming in early this morning. The extra rehearsal will make a big difference in the presentation in our bid for the contract. Those flipcharts are terrific, Flora. And your suggestion about using the animated images will make a big difference, Sylvia. Lets all celebrate after we get the contract.,3 Attendance,When you are invited or required to attend a meeting you must prepare yourself well as required by the invitation letter or the meeting announcement: prepare a report, offer comments and suggestions, share information and ideas, dig up facts and figures and evaluate them. Time is another important thing we could never afford to ignore.,Effective listening is often blocked by a variety of physical and mental barriers including:,(1) prejudgment. It is a series of basic assumptions people operate on in life but they can be incorrect or inappropriate in new situations. And some people listen defensively, viewing every comment as a personal attack. With such prejudgment they are likely to distort messages by tuning out anything that doesnt confirm their assumptions. (2) self-centeredness. It is a tendency to dominate and domineer in meetings and conversations. Self-centered listeners eagerly blabber about their own problems and trivialize others concerns whatever the subject may be. In most cases we would not be so self-centered but even a little of it would invite abhorrence and aversion. (3) selective listening. This is a very bad habit of tuning out anything not to your taste until you he