Effective meetings: three parliamentary procedure concepts for smoother and faster meetings

Much of the world’s business takes place in meetings, both large and small. If you’ve been to a lot of meetings, you’ve probably experienced ineffective meetings that seemed like a waste of time.

Parliamentary procedures have been developed as a way to help deliberative assemblies of all sizes run their business efficiently and effectively. Some view these procedures as a rigid set of rules that are obstructions to getting things done. At times, these rules have been used and abused without understanding the concepts and values ​​they are meant to embody.

Three concepts underlying proper parliamentary procedure help keep meetings on track and on time. I call them the “three ones”. Use these concepts to enhance your next meeting, whether or not you use formal parliamentary procedure.

ONE THING AT A TIME

The first concept is that a group should only consider one problem at a time. Until that issue is resolved through some decision, agreement, action, or election to postpone action on the issue, nothing further should be discussed. When people focus their attention on a problem, they can solve it more quickly.

Meetings can be derailed by distractions. When attendees raise issues in any way, go off on tangents, have side discussions, and otherwise try to address multiple issues, it undermines their own interest in completing the meeting successfully. Keep your meetings on track by calling people back to the topic before the group now.

ONCE PER MEETING

In any meeting (or day of long meetings) an issue should only be discussed once. Discuss it fully, do what you have to do, and move on. If a problem really can’t be solved and the group decides to move on to other topics, don’t bring it up again in the same meeting; the decision to go ahead means that the matter is resolved for the purposes of the current meeting. Combine this concept with “one thing at a time” to refocus attention on the problem at hand.

Reviewing old and unresolved issues can seriously bog down a meeting. When people continually rehashes and problems, they lose the progress they could make on other issues. Remind the group that there are other important topics to discuss at this meeting and that the previous topic can be discussed again at another time.

ONE PERSON AT A TIME

Large deliberative assemblies could not get things done if everyone spoke at the same time. Smaller groups can also experience confusion, disorder, circular arguments, loss of information, hurt feelings, and other sources of ineffectiveness when people talk to each other. Avoid these bad effects by making sure everyone speaks one at a time.

When people speak one at a time, they have a chance to fully express their opinion. It is polite to listen to people without interrupting them, and members of your group will appreciate receiving this respect. Also, others in the meeting will better understand what is being said when they can focus their attention on a single speaker. Use this strategy to increase knowledge transfer, clarity, and respect.

Although sometimes perceived as a simple set of rules, parliamentary procedure is based on concepts that lead to more effective and efficient meetings. Whether you’re leading a large formal meeting or a small informal group of co-workers, use the “three ones” to improve order, efficiency and speed in your meetings.