Although effective team meeting plays a vital role in organizational decision making, yet blunders and conflicts during the meeting can result in unfulfilled desired results.
Before taking any corrective action towards the trend, one should be more focused and more attuned towards the path that one has chosen.
The reason why conflicts and issues take place during most of the team meeting can be a as a result of a number of factors.
– One of the core issues is poor team communication among team members.
This happens when members fail to understand each other’s view point.
– Then there could be lack of understanding of goals and objectives which besides fulfilling the core objective, must also be consistent with organizational goals.
– A one man show or one man control, can also decrease the level of confidence since other’s feel left out. This results in members failing to commit themselves to the project.
– The team sometimes does not understand how to use new information.
– One Group member sometimes intimidate the others, as a result of which the team members’ productivity deteriorate.
However we must not forget that there is always a cure to every desease, though objective being only to find the right one. Similarly a team and eventually team meetings can be managed effectively and efficiently. If certain ground rules are kept in mind from the time when the team is created.
The initial most points to be kept in mind should be to amalgamate the team members and blend in their ideas in such a manner as not only to make the decision making effective but also to maintain the overall organizational goals and objectives.
The team members must have a good level of understanding between themselvesand must be capable of recognizing the rights of each other and the extent to which they can interfere or participate in the team discussion. Every member should have an equal opportunity to express his ideas or his perception which must not be discourage by any other member.
In other words team building should start from the phase of norming and move onto performing rather then first forming and then storming.
It is natural to have a team leader but someone from the organization must also keep an eye on the level of control held by the team leader, the direction in which the team is moving, and the means through which every issue is dealt.
The team must also be asked to sit with the management after every short interval and bring up the new ideas that contributed by every individuals .So that in order to make sure that neighter any member rights are being voilated not is anyone disproving to be an essential part of the team.
Any team member may offer one or more items for the meeting agenda as long as the items follow the meeting’s norms. For example, some teams require that meeting agenda items must be of concern to the entire group, not just a few of the members in order to be added to the agenda.
Provide an opportunity to each team member to offer appreciation to other team members for specific reasons, for example, “I appreciate you, for your excellent arrangement of this meeting you keep every one on track”. Keep conversation focused on the topic. Feel free to ask for only constructive comments and try not to repeat comments.
The meeting must be productive and rational hence the team members must respect these guidelines from the start, and be aware of any dominant issues or players who may choose to enforce their opinion on others. Give everyone the opportunity to speak in a productive way excluding bias and personal opinion. Everyone in a meeting should be allowed to change their opinion through the process of productive interaction.