Meetings can be engaging, with everyone leaving feeling like their time was well spent. This is exactly how our physician members and guests felt after giving up their Saturday to participate in the Physician Leadership Institute course on Facilitating Meetings.

Participants took turns facilitating mini meetings throughout the day, putting into practice what they were learning about time keeping and gate keeping as well as various strategies to engage their table groups.

Take home messages included:

• What are common complaints of meetings? It takes too long and the meeting goes off track. As the meeting chair your key roles are gate keeping and time keeping. How do you do that? Here are two ways:
  • Gate keeping – have a parking lot to write down great ideas or questions no one has answers to and look for opportunities to fill the parking lot. For example, “It looks like we’ve gotten off track but this sounds important, let’s park it,” or, “We might need to review some background, let’s take this to the next meeting.”
  • Time keeping – “We have 10 minutes to discuss the next item, I may interrupt you so we
    can keep on time.”
• Be clear on your intention for the meeting. Is it to:
  • Share information
  • Solve problems
  • Make decisions
• How do you ensure participation from all? Here are some tips:
  • Take time at the beginning of the meeting to introduce new people
  • Offer food or refreshments at the start of the meeting when possible – this allows people to
    feel welcomed as well as to transition their focus and attention to the meeting at hand
  • Regulate participants who may be dominating the discussion with phrases like:
    • “Sounds like you’re really passionate about this issue Fred, but let’s hear from others.”
    • “Thank you Shirley. We only have 5 minutes left and we haven’t heard from a few other folks in the room.”
  • Allow space for and invite those who may not normally join the discussion to speak with phrases like:
    • “Does anyone see this differently?”
    • “Jane, you look like you have something to say.”
  • Basic meeting rules:
    • Tell the truth
    • Listen hard
    • Be decent

One participant commented, “I’m looking forward to going to my next meeting!” after this course.

Mary Yates, CMA faculty, was described by course participants as “funny, upbeat, knowledgeable” and having “total engagement with everyone”. Her expertise is in the area of leadership development, team effectiveness, performance management, meeting and retreat facilitation, human resources management, curriculum design and quality improvement. Mary is currently the director of the Physician Workplace Support Program, a unique service offered through the Physician Health Program of the Ontario Medical Association. Mary was an absolute pleasure to host in Richmond!