1.5 - About University

Typical functions of workgroup and team meetings• Meetings define workgroups and teams. Those present belong; those absent do not. Indeed, meetings are oftenthe only occasions when a workgroup or team seems to exist. At other times, it may seem as if people are focusingmore on their individual roles and projects than on group goals and teamwork.• Meetings germinate group culture and enable group learning. Knowledge and experience are shared, workhabits nurtured, influence and power exercised, and ways of understanding and working are established in theworkgroup or team.• Meetings clarify collective purpose and focus. In this way, the workgroup gains and maintains power to achievebusiness results. Meetings also help members understand how their work aligns with the work of others in the groupand with the group’s overall success.• Meetings support commitment to the group’s purpose and to specific decisions and action plans. Membershipimplies an obligation to support group decisions.• Meetings demonstrate status. Human nature being what it is, we are often concerned with our status relative toothers in a group. One’s standing and degree of influence are often displayed in the interactions and decisionmakingprocesses that take place in meetings.• Meetings meet a very human need, to be part of a group and communicate with other human beings.H OW TO USE THIS LEADERSHIP TOOL“Sometimes the meeting is the message, and accountable results are simply by-products. It is the entirely humaninclination of…managers to want a tribal assembly from time to time—the frequency usually varying accordingto the level of managerial anxiety—not only to communicate ideas and problems, but to see the expressionsaround the table, (and) to gauge the mood. …”—Owen Edwards, UPWARD NOBILITY: HOW TO SUCCEED INBUSINESS WITHOUT LOSING YOUR SOULHow would you summarize or briefly describe the purposes and functions served by your workgroupor team meetings? Consider having the members of your workgroup or team respondindependently to the two questions posed here. After they have done so, discuss their answerswithin the workgroup or team, as a way of gaining clarity on meeting purposes and functions.After members’ responses have been discussed in the group, prioritize them for the group as awhole. This will be a learning experience for the group, as the purposes and functions servedby workgroup or team meetings are redefined and perhaps even significantly reframed. [☛ 7.1Problem Framing]WEB WORKSHEETWhat purposes are served by our workgroup or team meetings?[☛ 2.6 Clarifying Purpose]340 SECTION 11 TOOLS FOR LEADING MEETINGS