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Effective Communication in Business Meetings The great management guru Peter Drucker once said, “Business communication is all about understanding what has not been said. ” Especially today business communication is one of important factors to be successful in the changeling business environment because during opened working environment one can meet lots of others for discussing but how to make an effective communication in business meetings?
There are some of factors to impact deeply on result of an effective communication in the business meetings as clear goal or objective, careful planning, use materials, communication skills and conflict management. People may ignore to be involved in meetings, if they know their time will not be useful or non-productivity. Meetings should be completely carried out periodically or prepare urgently (if required) during work running of any organization. There are ways to spend the time more effectively.
First factor considers here is goal or objective of business meeting. The goal or objective is built basing on actual situation of works what need to solve or make a decision, even just making a relationship. A business meeting without goal or objective considers as one walks around without home port, especially today’s challenging business environment is more focused in result. Imaginably there is no specifically stated desired outcome of the meeting so that is no point in availability the meeting.
The goal or objective impacts people on gathering includes, but not limited to: communicating information, problem solving, team building, and making decision. Scheduling or preparation, communication, conflict management and follow-up are some of key factors to make sure that meetings are productive and efficient and that is being more essential in the today’s complicated working environment. The key for achieving the goal is an advance planning by everyone involved in the meeting. Detailed planning is a guideline to build an effective business meeting.
Planning for meeting will support attendees to have a visualizing in advance how the meeting will be organized, where meeting attendees will sit, who will present in the meeting and how long the presentations will last. The meeting time and location should be confirmed one day before meeting to support attendees having a proper arrangement. Besides the meeting location should be able to accommodate all guests, convenient location, technological capabilities, and a comfortable condition. When the ocation has been determined, next important step is to start researching the information needed for the presentation, creating an agenda. The agenda should start with a quick objective or goal reminder, followed by the time frame allotted to each presentation. Research and investigation are perhaps the most important piece of planning an effective business meeting, which will help discover, summarize and organize the topic of the meeting. By making a convincing argument on the topic, the participants will be able to provide facts, instances, and definitions to support the subject.
There are five main sources that can provide information for presentations. First of all is personal experience. Personal experience reflects the flow of thoughts and meanings persons bring to their immediate situations. The second resource is internet, especially in the 21st centuries which is considering as era of information technology. The goal is to improve the ability of people from all walks of life and interests to access, search, and use the information distributed in Internet resources.
According to Usunier, & Roulin (2010, Apr), “there is no geographic limitation to Internet access and suppliers in any country can create Web sites containing information and dialogue content” (p. 189-227). Using a search engine is becoming more common in finding research. Instead of using search engines, online libraries are also available to support for finding research. Third resource is written and visual resources in different channels as magazines, journals, newspapers, books, broadcasts, and documentaries which can be consulted for information, arguments, and evidence for presentation in the meeting.
The fourth resource is research methodology. Appropriate methodology is taking short time to find out the needed information. Pullin (2010, Oct) states “the research methodology was qualitative in nature and, to ensure scientific rigor, a multi-method approach was taken in collecting and analyzing the data” (p. 460). The fifth source is other people. In order to accurately use other people as a source is also a shortest way to help presenter receiving needed information for meeting, but presenter should clarify the provided information as doing an informational interview with the person.
Research can make the presenter feel more confident in communicating the presentation, and as a result, the presentation will be more powerful. “The vital elements of the communication process are the source, encoding, the message, the medium, decoding, the receiver, and feedback. An understanding of those components can help you design effective conversation communication programs” (Jacobson, 2009, p. 12). Those components will be handled easily by effective communication skills, which are essential in conducting a successful business meeting.
Communication is an art which is not mastered by all so an effective communicator should be taken clearly when sending or receiving the messages. “Effective communication is one where you are able to send and receive messages in a clear, coherent manner overcoming all the barriers” (Bardia, 2010, p. 29). People listen to what is being said and engage in dialogue. Communication skills include: influencing, negotiation, making an impact, dealing with conflict and dealing difficult people.
Business research has identified communication apprehension as a problem for improving communication skills. Aly (2005) states “communication apprehension as an individual level of fear or anxiety associated with either real or anticipated communication with another person or persons” (p. 98). When a speaker gives a speech in front of a large group of people, seemingly anxiety and fidgeting produce interfering, off-task thoughts and its result is apparent of word jumping or increased rhythm of heart that inhibit skill development.
Public speaking is a common source of stress for everyone. Many of us would like to avoid this problem entirely, but this is hard to do. Once there is determination as how to overcome the fear? overcoming the fear can be done by making sure the topic is known, analyzing the audience competently, knowing the speech content well, recognizing value and uniqueness, and focusing on communicating with the audience instead of on the fear. Some other strategies that can ensure the meeting is effective are clarifying, confirming and summarizing.
Making sure that the purpose of the meeting is clarified will reduce any chances of the audience misunderstanding the content. By asking the audience questions, or answering their questions, we can confirm that everyone understands. This is true when summarizing is used. By summarizing all the information at the end of the presentation, the presenter is, once again, making sure the information was understood. An effective communication in meetings is not only solely responsible for speaker but also share the burden those who attend the meeting.
An active listening communication strategy will help ensure a successful meeting. Urquhart (2004) states “these four steps to become a more active listener: Hearing, feedback and interpretation, evaluation and response” (p. 3). “Hearing involves paying attention to what the speaker is saying and being sure it is heard” (Urquhart, 2004). The message will be encoded and understood by showing out the feedback and interpretation. On the way, the feedback will support speaker find out and correct any misunderstanding.
The listener may be able to ask the question until the listener is sure that message is encoded and understood accurately. Finally, listener will decide what to do with the information given by the speaker. During a meeting, there is a good chance that two or more members of the group will disagree. That is also to let us to see the matter as others aspects. The disagreement may result in conflict. An effective communicator should know how to deal with conflict. There are five steps to help organizations deal with conflict in a constructive way as follows: 1.
Recognizing that the conflict exists. 2. Finding common ground by putting the conflict in the context of the larger goal of the team and the organization. 3. Understanding all the perspectives of the issue, this means that everyone is not required to agree with the opposing views. 4. Attacking the issue and not the members of the team. 5. Developing an action plan that describes how each member of the team will solve the problem or issue. By following above mentioned steps during a meeting, the conflicts will be able to deal with in a opened-mind, cooperative manner.
To require an understanding the goal of a meeting or presentation the speaker should be able to understand of what the final outcome and what is trying to reach. By the way to make a successful meeting, presenter should have a worst result of what meeting will be as misunderstanding or responded disagreement. In order to establish that the goals of the meeting have been met, the audience is not only taking an active part but also the presenter must make the audience interested in the topic along with meeting significance of the topic.
There are two important questions to support presenter clarifying the goal or objective. First, what do I want my audience to know or do as a result of my speech? Second, how will I know if I am successful? Being clear those questions is the audience’s feedback. Feedback is recognized by immediate behavior change from the audience and asking question to audience also on the way to get feedback. The follow up actions to the presentation or meeting consist of any actions that are to be determined at a later time.
Minute and any decisions made at the meeting must be noted and distributed to all parties involved. Delegations of assignments are to be noted and follow up must be carried out. Besides, additional meetings might be necessary if the final outcome is not clear or decisions are not probably made. In conclusion, an effective meeting is determined to conduct by several strategies. Meetings are productive and efficient when we incorporate all of above-mentioned ideal. Careful planning and clear goal or objectives are the key factor as well as choosing the suitable time and right location for the meeting.
Being prepared presentation for the meeting is also very important, there is irresponsible if anyone going to a meeting and not being prepared, it may send the wrong message to the others in the meeting. The meeting is unsuccessful if any key factor is missing. Visualizing how the meeting will unfold if the meeting is held in the noise location. Besides, an active listening communication strategy as giving feedback and asking question will help ensure a successful meeting. Getting the audience involved in the meeting will create a more productive meeting.
Also, by asking the audience to evaluate and respond to the information provided will allow them to participate in the discussion and make suggestions on ways to find a solution. On the way, focusing goals and working on solutions during the meeting can influence others being interested in the meeting and being more involved. We all know that the anxiety will appear by various points of view when speaking in front of a large group or even a small group and it will reduce when we make confidence by ourselves experiences, communication skills and also well prepared.
Communication skills and experience are only cumulative by taking more serious. If you appear nervous or unsure; the audience may lose interest in the topic. The speaker should always be prepared, analyze the audience, and focus on the subject matter. Other strategies that can ensure for an effective meeting are clarifying the topic, confirming that the audience understands the information given, and summarize all the information at the end of the meeting. We have also learned that conflict is part of business meeting to help attendees have a several looking for one matter and by the way supporting to make decisions.
Keep in mind, not everyone will agree with what you are saying, therefore; we should try to have an open mind and try to find common ground. Do not attack the other members of the team, because they may not agree with you, simply attack the issue at hand. Conflict isn’t actually good or bad, the way is how we deal with it. Developing an action plan as a team may allow the other members to feel that the problem can be worked out in a respectful, professional manner. Conducting effective business meetings will definitely help to improve productivity at the workplace.
Almost meeting will be stressful, but by the way to make everyone involved interestingly that the meetings are well planned, organized, and allow the attendees to discuss possible solutions to solve the problems what they arise. Productive meetings are not only making a unity between groups but also teaching us essential communication skills, cumulate costly experience and how to manage conflict. Finally, during these meetings we practice problem solving, idea sharing and incorporate creativity that will eventually lead to a successful business environment.