Pre-Meeting Planning and Meeting Facilitation ETM5361/MSIS5600 Managing Virtual Project Teams

1. Pre-Meeting Planning and Meeting FacilitationETM5361/MSIS5600Managing Virtual Project Teams Nicholas C. Romano, Jr., Ph.D. Nicholas-Romano@mstm.okstate.eduPaul E. Rossler, Ph.D., P.E. prossle@okstate.edu

2. Overview • What things should be considered in planning a virtual team meeting? • How does facilitation work in a virtual setting? • What are the key facilitator roles and behaviors?

3. What tendencies do virtual teams exhibit during meetings? • What can be done to increase the probability of good meeting outcomes?

4. Four roles relevant to all virtual meetings • Owner – defines meeting objectives and outcomes • Participant – prepare for meeting and take active responsibility for involvement • Facilitator – conducts the meeting process • Technology – enables team members to meet and accomplish tasks

5. All virtual meetings require three activities • Selecting the appropriate technology and type of interaction (synchronous, asynchronous) • Planning for people issues, scheduling the meeting, and dealing with meeting logistics • Developing an effective agenda and facilitating the effective use of technology

6. Meeting purposes: Almost 2/3 involve complex group processes (Monge, P. R., McSween, C., & Wyer, J. 1989)

7. Audio Technology • Advantages • in place • easy to use • cheap • Disadvantages • low media richness • primarily “same time” • less useful for large groups

8. Video Technology • Advantages • personal • fulfills participant expectations • high media richness • Disadvantages • not universally available • expensive/lacking standards • potential for cultural confusion

9. Data Technology • Advantages • widely available • more time independent • very cheap • Disadvantages • impersonal • low media richness • requires extended support

10. GroupSystems • Integration of • Collaborative Technology • Attention Dynamics • Knowledge Management • Customized Repeatable Processes

11. Mtg. Tech. Based on Duarte and Snyder, 2001

12. Team Processes GSS Tools • Brainstorming • Topic Commenter • Idea Organizer • Categorizer • Group Outliner • Group Matrix • Alternative Evaluator • Vote • Stake Holder Analysis • Assumption Surfacing • Group Writer • Team Graphics • Screen Prototyper Idea Generation Idea Organization Idea Evaluation and Prioritization Idea Exploration Idea Development and Exposition

13. Collaborative Technology Uses Electronic Brainstorming Alternative Analysis Topic Commenter Activity Modeler Other Tools Categorizer Outliner Survey Vote Data Standardization Logical Data Modeling Physical Data Modeling & Population Legacy System Analysis Migration Systems Identification Functional Requirements Definition Functional Feedback on Prototype Systems Business Re-engineering/Modeling Strategic Planning Proposals (DEIS II, TASC, CIM Tools, SBPR) Division (SED) Logistics Functional User Conferences & Demos

14. Relevant experience Must be in on decision Are crucial to implementation Most affected by the problem addressed Responsible to resolve or implement decision Direct responsibility and authority over topic of discussion Enough knowledge to contribute meaningfully Information unavailable elsewhere Guidelines for who to invite to meetings Summarized in Romano, N.C. and J.F. Nunamaker. Meeting analysis: Findings from research and practice. In Proceedings of 34th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences. 2001: IEEE.

15. Optimal traditional meeting sizes Source: 3M Meeting Management Team and J. Drew, Mastering meetings: Discovering the hidden potential of effective business meetings. 1994, New York: McGraw-Hill.

16. Developing an agenda Handle before meeting Prioritize topics and specify success for each List potential topics Define goal for each Handle during meeting Handle after meeting Based on Kaner, S., Facilitator's Guide to Participatory Decision-Making. 1996, Gabriola Island, British Columbia: New Society Publishers.

17. Example meeting planning format Duarte and Snyder, 2001

18. Building the agenda

19. Deciding participant privileges

20. Example virtual team meeting agenda

21. Factors that influence meeting effectiveness • Ability to recall what was said • Opportunity to contribute • Social status • Motivation to participate

22. Relationship between meeting factors and facilitation

23. One or more people Embedded in software Source of facilitation lies on a continuum (Source: Doug Vogel)

24. A variety of problems lead to unproductive meetings • Pace • Poor meeting design • Poor focus • Lack of closure • Poor process Research findings summarized in Bostrom, R.P., R. Anson, and V.K. Clawson, Group facilitation and group support systems, in Group Support Systems, L.M. Jessup and J.S. Valacich, Editors. 1993, MacMillan Publishing: New York. p. 146-168.

25. Interventions that improve group processes and outcomes • Applying Structured Procedures • providing instructions to group members • extending problem formulation • extending idea generation • separating idea generation from evaluation • delaying solution adoption  Research findings summarized in Bostrom, R.P., R. Anson, and V.K. Clawson, Group facilitation and group support systems, in Group Support Systems, L.M. Jessup and J.S. Valacich, Editors. 1993, MacMillan Publishing: New York. p. 146-168.

26. Encouraging Effective Task Behaviors • discussing task procedures • applying explicit criteria • using factual information • maintaining focus on task goals

27. Encouraging Effective Relational Behaviors • encouraging broad participation and influence • managing conflict constructively • emphasizing consensus acceptance over majority votes • applying active listening techniques • discussing interpersonal processes 

28. Training • training group members and/or leaders • training external facilitators

29. Facilitator behaviors • Recognizing stages of group process • Providing motivation • Establishing a model of behavior • Managing group creativity, anxiety, and conflict Source: Hayne, S.C., The facilitators perspective on meetings and implications for group support systems design. The DATA BASE for Advances in Information Systems, 1999. 30(3, 4): p. 72-90

30. Maintaining awareness of own feelings as an indicator • Demonstrating flexibility

31. Facilitator interventions • Planning the meeting • Observing communication patterns • Determining levels of consensus • Creating situations conducive to learning • Synthesizing information and building cognitive maps (categories) (Source: Hayne)

32. Recognizing implicit vs. explicit decisions • Detecting variance from structures • Confronting the group regarding its process • Providing structure to focus group limits and boundaries • Intervening when appropriate at level of group instead of individual • Providing closure

33. Facilitator roles • Ensuring members identify and maintain discussion focus and a procedure for that focus • Ensuring everyone has an opportunity to contribute to the discussion and decisions regarding focus, procedures and decision issues • Understanding group values and providing new values in the process • Sensitivity to time management (Source: Hayne)

34. Some techniques • Auditing team commitment • Nominal group technique • Baby and bathwater technique • Multi-voting

35. Auditing team commitment

36. Nominal group technique for generating/prioritizing ideas • Silent generation • Round robin listing • Clarification (modification, grouping) • Voting and ranking (vote score, number of votes) • 7 = most important, 1 = least important • Discussion and action planning

37. Baby and bathwater technique for managing disagreement

38. Multi-voting for sorting out strongly held positions • The same idea can look different depending on the criterion used • Can cast votes based on one or several criteria • Can cast all votes for one or several ideas

39. Summary • Four roles must be played in virtual team meetings (owner, participant, facilitator, technology) • All virtual team meetings require selecting the right technology, developing an agenda, and facilitating that technologies use • Structure, process, and facilitation influence meeting outcomes