As a follow-up to yesterday’s list of faculty comments on their resistance to attend teaching events with or without speakers on teaching methods, this blog will proffer some practical, “successful” ideas to increase attendance. They are derived from the experiences of faculty developers over the past decade, plus a sprinkling of marketing techniques I’ve learned over the past couple of years.
A DOZEN STRATEGIES TO INCREASE ATTENDANCE
Here are a few suggestions you might want to consider. You may have tried many of these already. I hope there’s 1 useful idea in the list:
• Conduct an anonymous, short, online survey to determine topics that interest them; give them ideas to check off. (Note: If they don’t respond, shrug it off, dust yourself off, and start all over again. After shrugging and dusting, elicit ideas from your peer developers at similar institutions and don’t use “off” 20 times in a sentence.)
• Pick topics in which faculty have interest or need information based on the survey results
• Package the event so that it is salable; make believe you’re Steve Jobs promoting the latest iGizmo.
- Provide adequate info on each workshop, including title, detailed abstract, speaker bio and pic, links to speaker’s publications, Websites, blogs, etc.
- Select a title that will grab their attention, not an “academic” title
- Post an abstract that will pique their interest and suck them in
- Prepare copy like a business marketer, not academician
- Send out multiple announcements and reminders that are worded differently; be creative; use a video promotion
• Tease or encourage attendance with special perks, such as free books from the speaker or a trip to Hawaii
• Require registration at each workshop to provide the illusion of importance; that will also help you to gauge deployment of personnel and resources
• Open the workshops to staff on topics of broader appeal, such as coping with stress, time management techniques, how to conduct meetings, and suggested activities during furloughs
• Promote aggressively to area institutions to increase attendance and build positive PR with those institutions; request their financial support; you’ll get the regional reputation for quality workshops and speakers
Please let me know your experience with any of the above. Suggestions are also welcome to share with others.
COPYRIGHT © 2010 Ronald A. Berk, LLC
As a follow-up to my previous blog on meeting management, I thought it would be useful to develop a scale so you can evaluate your own MM skills and, maybe, those of your meeting leaders and colleagues. Let me know whether completing this scale was a meaningful exercise.MEETING MANAGEMENT SKILLS (MMS)) SCALE
DIRECTIONS: Read each statement in the context of the meetings you conduct. If you do it MOST or ALL OF THE TIME, circle YES; otherwise, circle NO. Add the number of circled YESs determine your MMSE score at the bottom.
IN THE MEETINGS I CHAIR:
1. I start on time. YES NO
2. I end on time or earlier. YES NO
3. I assign times in advance for all items on the agenda. YES NO
4. I solicit agenda items and input from ALL attendees in advance. YES NO
5. I distribute reports and other materials to attendees in advance. YES NO
6. I do not permit attendees to add items at the meeting. YES NO
7. I try to schedule meetings when attendees are available. YES NO
8. I try to engage ALL participants in the discussion. YES NO
9. I do not reward attendees who arrive late by recapping what they missed. YES NO
10. I cut off or summarize discussion to keep all items within their allotted times. YES NO
11. I limit active meeting attendees to between 5 and 10. YES NO
12. I will cancel a meeting if there is no need for face-to face discussion. YES NO
13. I will schedule electronic meeting communications (e.g., Webinars, online votes) when appropriate. YES NO14. I attain closure on every agenda item (i.e., vote, referred to committee, or tabled). YES NO15. I give a 10-minute warning before the meeting ends to wrap up business. YES NO
Score 1 point for each circled YES. Write your total score here: _______
MEETING MANAGEMENT SKILL (MMS) CATEGORY:
13−15 High
9−12 Moderate
0−8 Low
COPYRIGHT © 2009 Ronald A. Berk, LLCHow did you score? What was your category? Was this scale useful? Did you learn anything about yourself? Did I miss any key elements of proper meeting management? Let me know your thoughts.
Meetings have a bad reputation in virtually every institution—colleges and universities, small businesses, corporations, and families. (Note: For guys, when our significant other says, "We need to talk or meet," we may start shaking in our boots, Crocs, or Birkenstocks. That meeting is usually not about something positive we did.) The primary reason for the reputation is because meetings can be major time wasters, accomplishing very little, and often deteriorating into just another social event, or they may be the signal for bad news announcements. If you’re a social butterfly or other insect, you may look forward to these meetings. However, productivity-wise, that reputation and the negative images associated with meetings are well-earned.
Why does this happen everywhere? PUTRID LEADERSHIP!! It’s the leader or chair who is totally responsible. Although the men and women who try to conduct meetings are probably wonderful people from law-abiding families with pit bulls surrounded by barbed wire fences, most of them stink at running a meeting properly. In most cases, this is not done on purpose. Many leaders are simply not trained in the state-of-the-art of meeting management.
About a decade ago, I had the privilege of attending a presentation by Stephen Covey (the “7 Habits” guy). He was invited to Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions to address administration issues for the hospital and university staff, including faculty, administrators, and academic and medical personnel. One topic covered was how to conduct meetings. As he described the key elements in managing a meeting, there was a lot of rustling in the audience, especially a high incidence of elbow-in-the-ribs jabbing. It was clear that most of us felt we violated and observed our colleagues violating every rule for proper meeting conduct. EVERY RULE!! That was significant. I learned sooo much that afternoon.
Given this ubiquitous problem with meetings, right now I want you to take your previous experiences in conducting meetings or just sitting in them and scour them from your memory. Block them out completely. Let’s begin with a clean slate.
According to experts in business and time management, such as Covey, Dan Kennedy, Brian Tracey, Alec Mackenzie, Alan Lakein, David Allen, and Richard Walsh, there are right and wrong ways to conduct meetings. (Sidebar: The principles to guide those meetings are not hidden in a high-security, top-secret government installation. We don’t need to hire Jack Bauer of 24 to find them. They have been documented in nearly 50 books on time management over the past 35 years. End of Sidebar.) We now hop to the next paragraph because the sidebar was so long.
If you follow the guidelines presented below, the time-management benefits will become obvious. The workplace doesn’t need another putrid leader. Law firms, corporations, universities, Congress, and the White House are in dire need of competent leaders who can run meetings effectively and efficiently.
Here is the best advice from the experts:
1. Start and stop on time
2. Prepare a detailed agenda with times for each item
3. Enforce the assigned times of each agenda item during the meeting
4. Don’t permit agenda-busting
5. Invite only those who need to attend
6. Hold the meeting only if it is absolutely necessary
7. Schedule meetings when key participants are available
8. Do not serve food regularly—coffee, yes
9. Engage everyone in the meeting
10. Attain closure on every item
11. Give a 10-minute warning before the meeting ends
12. Prepare the minutes and executive summary immediately after adjournment or sooner
Space on this blog doesn’t permit detailed explanations of these strategies. If this list raises your consciousness level the next time you plan a meeting or walk into one, it will have served its purpose. Since retiring from Johns Hopkins, I admit I do not miss attending meetings, even well-conducted ones. HAPPY MEETINGS, MY FRIENDS!
COPYRIGHT © 2009 Ronald A. Berk, LLC
