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Facilitating effective meetings: Creating desired meeting results

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A facilitator is one who contributes structure and process to interactions so groups are able to function effectively and make high-quality decisions.* (Bens, 2012)

team meeting
I recently attended a full day session on building facilitation skills for meetings. Despite the large amount of time I spend in meetings—as a participant and as a facilitator-participant—I have never formally learned about meeting design. The facilitator, Charles Holmes  ran a great session and I learned a lot. In this blog post, I write about one key idea from the session: Desired meeting results (the ‘learning outcomes’ equivalent of meetings).

Desired Meeting Results

Desired meeting results (DMRs) are concise written statements sent to meeting participants ahead of time, which help participants picture what they must accomplish by the end of the meeting.

Characteristics of DMRs

  • Are specific and measurable
  • Are nouns (not verbs) [the verbs appear in the agenda]
  • Answer the stem “By the end of the meeting, we will have…” (a decision, a list, an agreement, an awareness, a plan, etcetera)

Why use DMRs?

DMRs help participants gain clarity on the following:

  • What do we want to accomplish in this meeting?
  • How will we know this meeting has been a success?
  • What do we want to leave this meeting with?

How DRMs differ from meeting purpose and agenda

DMRs are different from the purpose, which describes the overall “why?” of having the meeting. And, they are different from the agenda, which describes the how of getting to the DMRs (the agenda is where you find the verbs).

Below is the framework that was suggested at the workshop. As mentioned above, this information would be sent to participants ahead of time:

  1. Why we are having this meeting (this is the purpose)
  2. DMRs
  3. How we will achieve the DMRs (this is the agenda; it links every item to a DMR)

Here is my stab at applying the framework to a meeting I am having on Tuesday.

Revisiting the DMRs at the close of the meeting

At the end of the meeting, it is important to revisit the DMRs. And, though this isn’t uniquely related to the DMRs, it is also useful to spend some time debriefing “What worked?” and “What would you do differently next time?”

For additional resources on meeting design, see:

MIT Human Resources

Into the Heart of Meetings: Basic Principles of Meeting Design (Book, 2013)

Let’s Stop Meeting Like This: Tools to Save Time and Get More Done (Book, 2014)

And, of course, work by Ingrid Bens (quoted at top of page)

 

*Bens, I. (2012). Facilitating with ease: Core skills for facilitators, team leaders and members, managers, consultants, and trainers. San Francisco, CA: John Wiley & Sons.

Desired meeting results (sample)

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Desired Meeting Results Framework

Why are we having this meeting (the purpose)
DMR (specific, measurable, nouns instead of verbs)
How (agenda – links every item to a DMR)

Here is my stab at applying the above framework to a meeting I am having on Tuesday.

Why: To advance the work of the BMLSc program review and renewal initiative

DMR:

By the end of this meeting, we will have
1. Program-level learning outcomes that we are ready to send out to graduates, course leads, and section leads for their feedback

2.
a) Feedback to CH on the draft surveys so that she can prepare a revised version
b) A date selected by when the revised surveys will be ready

3.
a) Decision about who will craft a draft of the text that will accompany the surveys
b) A date selected by when the draft text will be ready

4. A meeting date to discuss a plan for the next 6-12 months (we may or may not get to this)

Agenda:
1. As a group, review the PLOs on the Google doc and make further edits.
2. Amanda and Isabeau to provide feedback to CH on the 2 draft surveys. If helpful, we can all spend time revising the surveys using the survey tool. Decide by when CH can have next version to share.
3. Discuss who should craft the email that will accompany the surveys and make a decision. Agree on when that survey will be sent out.
4. Determine a meeting time during which we (who?) will create a long-term (6-12 months) plan that can be presented to Andrea H before the end of July.

Predicting: 5 key messages from “Small Teaching”

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I recently read “Small teaching: Everyday lessons from the science of learning,” an excellent book1 by Dr. James Lang. To help me remember what I read and as a way of sharing some key messages from the book with a broader audience, I have decided to write some blog posts on select concepts. The first post was about retrieval practice and this second one is about predicting.

“Making predictions about material that you wish to learn increases your ability to understand that material and retrieve it later” (Lang, p.43)

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1) When students take time (even just a few seconds) to make predictions about material they are about to learn, it increases their retention (or the memorization of facts) and comprehension (or the use of those facts in other contexts).

2) Even when the prediction the student makes is incorrect, it can increase subsequent retention. However, as Lang cautions, learners “have to receive fairly immediate feedback on the accuracy of their predictions or pretest answers if we don’t want those wrong answers to leave a deeper impression than the correct ones” (p.52). Providing fast feedback to students is essential in all prediction activities.

3) Prediction has a positive effect on retention and application of knowledge for the following reasons:

a) prediction helps implant new facts more strongly into the brain’s network of connections (and this promotes the activation of new facts in diverse contexts). “Prediction helps lay a foundation for richer, more connected knowing.” (Lang, 2016, p.49)

b) prediction activities can help students identify gaps in their knowledge.

c) prediction activities (and pretests) give students a better understanding of what the final assessment may consist of and this might help improve their study preparation.

4) As the instructor, you should speak with your students about why you are asking them to make predictions and/or take pretests on material they haven’t learned yet. By doing so, they will understand the ‘power of prediction’ and won’t feel you are being unfair.

5) Prediction questions should be at the conceptual level. In other words do not ask questions that are ultra-specific and that require students to draw on precise prior knowledge. Lang reminds us: “Predictions work because they require students to draw up whatever knowledge they might have that will assist them in making their prediction.” (p.59)

To learn more, see the Faculty Focus post titled: Learning on the Edge: Classroom Activities to Promote Deep Learning by James Lang.

Reference: Lang, J. (2016). Small teaching: Everyday lessons from the science of learning. San Francisco, CA: Jossey Bass.

Photo credit: Motion blur by Frank Monnerjahn  flic.kr/p/4Ny6Md

Retrieval practice: 5 key messages from “Small Teaching”

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I recently read “Small teaching: Everyday lessons from the science of learning,” an excellent book1 by Dr. James Lang. To help me remember what I read and as a way of sharing some key messages from the book with a broader audience, I have decided to write some blog posts on select concepts. This first post is about retrieval practice (see here for an entire site created by Dr. Agarwal and devoted to the topic).

“The more times any of us practice remembering something we are trying to learn, the more firmly we lodge it in our memories for the long term.” (Lang, 2016, p.20)

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5 Key Messages about Retrieval Practice from Small Teaching

  1. Students’ learning is enhanced when students are given opportunities to practice remembering.
  2. Give students multiple chances to practice remembering (i.e., frequency matters).
  3. As you design and select retrieval practices to give your students, make sure they are aligned with the high-stakes assessments you will be giving during the course. For example, if your students’ final exam (accounting for a significant portion of their marks) involves multiple choice questions (MCQs), make sure you give in-class retrieval practices that allow students to practice MCQs.
  4. When possible, use retrieval practices that involve writing and not only on oral practice. The former enhances learning and also means that everyone has to participate.
  5. If you are asking a retrieval question during class, remind your students not to look for an answer in their notes or textbook. When students draw information from their brain, this helps their long-term retention.

For more information on the science of learning and a host of ideas on how to implement small teaching, get the book!

You can also read posts on small teaching by James Lang here:

Footnote 1. Why do I think this book is excellent? Because:

  • This book is well written (key ideas are clearly communicated; his writing is tight and accessible; he makes good use of story telling, plus he manages to weave in humour).
  • Research based. Lang draws on relevant research studies to make a case for why the concepts he writes about matter to teaching and learning.
  • Loads of practical ideas.

Reference: Lang, J. (2016). Small teaching: Everyday lessons from the science of learning. San Francisco, CA: Jossey Bass.

Photo credit: Ben Francis, Creative Commons. https://flic.kr/p/8vLYT5

Helpful coaching questions

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I recently listened to an excellent conversation between Michael Bungay Stanier and David Stachowiak on the Coaching for Leaders podcast. The theme of the episode was “These coaching questions get results” and, at the end, Michael invited listeners to reflect on how they might use the information. I’m taking him up on the invitation.

As you might know from reading some of my previous posts, I am keenly interested in exploring the ‘helping role’ of educational developers.  Michael talked about coaching as helping people learn versus teaching them. I liked that distinction. I recognize, however, that as an educational developer, I do both; yet, when in ‘coaching’ mode, I need to remind myself where to focus.

Bungay Stanier also talked about the power of questions and the importance of asking good questions (remember to wait, he reminds us). These are some questions I especially liked and will use/continue using:

  • “what is on your mind?”
    • I like this one because it leaves the response open and doesn’t assume the conversation is going to be focussed on topic A/problem B.
  • “and what else?”
    • I like this question because it allows the conversation partners to go deeper, but doesn’t assume a particular direction

And I chuckled when Bungay Stanier said :

A statement that starts with “Have you considered….?” is really just ‘advice disguised as a question’!

Yikes! That is one change I’m going to make!

Finally, he suggested incorporating the following into a coaching conversation:

  • What was most valuable about our conversation?

I haven’t been using that question when I coach/help because I feel some discomfort about doing so (mainly around worrying that I’m looking for compliments). But others have used it ‘on me’ and I’ve typically appreciated the opportunity to reflect on–and solidify–what has been most useful. I’m going to try it out.