Chapter 11 – Meetings: Leadership and Productivity
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Chapter 11 –Meetings: Leadership and Productivity
Teaching Notes
In this chapter, students will learn to do the following:
• Decide when a meeting is the best forum.
• Complete essential meeting planning.
• Conduct a productive meeting.
Application 11.1: Evaluating Experiences in Meeting Management
Application 11.1 will serve as a good breakout application immediately after finishing the
Application 11.2: Case Study – Wisconsin Frozen Delights
Planning a Meeting
The Case: Wisconsin Frozen Delights
The New Vice President of Operations has an opportunity to set the tone for a working
environment that is safe, accessible to all, and collaborative in nature. By meeting with
Chapter 11 – Meetings: Leadership and Productivity
Approaches to Teaching
This application offers the opportunity to design a meeting, including deciding whom to
invite; establishing the purpose, objectives, and end products; setting the agenda; and writing
Example Response to the Assignment
For the collaborative work space, students will probably select a program such as
Google.docs. If so, they will be able to upload their documents and create their work plans
in that space. The instructor may want to ask them hand in a hard copy of their work plan
and submit them, or simply allow the instructor access to the work space for a review of
their electronic space.
1. Objectives and End Products
Wisconsin Frozen Delights – Safety Meeting Objectives and End Products
Objectives
End Products
Review general safety and accessibility
guidelines for plant
Flip charts listing key guidelines and
linking guidelines to certain areas of the
plant (if appropriate)
Identify areas of current problems and
approaches to correcting them
Lists of current issues by area and matching
list of possible approaches to correcting
them
Brainstorm on ways to obtain employee
input on additional safety or access
concerns
List of ideas
Decide on next steps
Ranked or sorted list of ideas with action
Chapter 11 – Meetings: Leadership and Productivity
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2. Agenda
Wisconsin Frozen Delights – Safety Meeting Agenda
Date and Time: February 4, 2013, 9:30 a.m.
Location: 7th Floor Conference Area
Meeting called by: Valerie Koehler, VP
Operations
Attendees: See distribution list
Facilitator: Nancy Drott
Please read: Wisconsin Frozen Delights
Policy Manual – Chapter 3: company
guidelines on safety and mobility
awareness
Note Taker: George Villarosa
Please bring: list of any safety or other
concerns voiced by your departments
Objectives:
▪ Review general safety and accessibility guidelines for plant
Agenda:
Time
Topic
9:30 – 9:45
Introductions and review of agenda
9:45 – 10:15
Group overview of current guidelines
Nancy Drott
10:15 – 11:00
Current problems and resolutions
Nancy Drott
additional employee input
of action items
Dillman
Chapter 11 – Meetings: Leadership and Productivity
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WISCONSIN FROZEN DELIGHTS
E-mail
To: (the student may create names for each of the attendees)
Date: January 31, 2013
Subject: Initiatives to Improve Plant Safety and Access
Attachment: Meeting objectives and agenda
Dear All:
Please join me on February 4 at 9:30 a.m. in the 7th floor conference area for a meeting to discuss
current safety issues and initiatives to improve safety and disabled access here in our plant. I also
invite you to join me and President Dillman for lunch immediately after the meeting.
Sincerely,
Valerie Koehler
Vice President, Operations
Application 11.3: Conducting a Problem-Solving Meeting
This application is designed to familiarize students with problem-solving approaches and
provide practice with selecting an effective approach to adopt in a specific situation and
practice in actually conducting a meeting. Students will learn that these somewhat
artificial tools can produce genuine results when a problem situation is matched with an
appropriate approach.
Approaches to Teaching
The application should be preceded by discussion of the problem-solving approaches and
Chapter 11 – Meetings: Leadership and Productivity
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The assignment works well as a role-playing simulation. In this case, a group of six or
Example Response to Assignment
Since the case involves a change situation and the President has multiple purposes in mind
for the meeting, a from/to analysis would be appropriate. The somewhat more structured
Date: November 22, 2013
To: Senior Staff
Subject: Meeting to discuss diversity initiative
Meeting time: December 2, 8:15 – 10:45, Executive Conference Room
Dear Senior Staff:
As you all know from previous conversations, I believe that OmniBank lacks the diversity in
personnel to provide services in line with our stated mission and take full advantage of the
opportunities offered by our market. I am thus calling a meeting of all senior staff to begin
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• Where are we now with respect to diversity? What do we look like to ourselves and to our
customers and the community we serve?
• How do we compare to our competitors with regard to diversity? Do we have any
benchmarks in this area of our business?
• What should we set as our goals and objectives?
Please come to the meeting prepared to offer your ideas on these questions and to discuss this
exciting opportunity freely and openly. I realize we are likely to encounter resistance and inertia
along the way and will have to use creative thinking to solve problems that may arise. I’m
counting on each of you to bring your talents, skills, and commitment to helping OmniBank
succeed in making these critical changes.