The tech workshop was an opportunity for the participants to reflect on their meeting situation

On Wednesday May 29, Dan Li, who works at Chalmers University of Technology with research about more flexible and effective ways of working in the future production system, led a tech workshop in Halmstad that was aimed at small and medium-sized companies on the theme of how to improve meetings and communication.

– The workshop was an opportunity for the participants to reflect on the meetings they have in their company and how they communicate internally. It was noticeable that several participants really started thinking about and questioning how they were conducting meetings, says organizer Urban Thuresson at IUC Halland.

Urban believes that it is possible to work systematically in order to improve one’s meeting technique. One method is the MEET-model, which also was the tech workshop’s starting point. He believes that the MEET-model puts a meeting in a context and resembles it as a puzzle piece that contributes to a bigger picture.

– In short, the MEET-model involves thinking through which meetings you need and how you conduct these based on their purpose. It is about inventorying what needs you have for meetings and from that do neither more nor less. All companies have different unique needs and it is on that basis one should draw upon, explains Urban Thuresson.

A change that will be implemented, lack of commitment and unwillingness to share knowledge are often reasons why companies are interested in improving their meetings and communication, according to Urban Thuresson. The workshop also touched on ways of thinking about information and sharing of facts. For facts that can be shared digitally, one may not need to have that meeting? But quiet knowledge, on the other hand, is more important to spread and share through meetings.

Some questions to regard in order to improve your meetings;

• What needs does your company have for meetings?
• What is the purpose of the meeting (of which you think you need to have)?
• What kind of meeting should it be? For example, is it a decision meeting, reporting meeting, or other?
• Under what forms should discussions take place at the meeting?
• Who is the recipient of the outcome of the meeting?

If your company is interested in improving your meetings and communication, please contact IUC Halland who plans to offer Dan Li as a “meeting coach” in the future.

Example of what one of the participating companies thought about the workshop:
“It was a very thoughtful workshop with professional trainers. It made you realize that you sometimes have too many meetings and also with poor follow-up on what you have decided, which makes it ineffective. After the workshop I have anchored with the rest of the company that everyone should think twice before they invite people to meetings, so that it does not happen that people just participate without a clear purpose. It is also often the same people who attend the meetings, so it is important to try to involve others. The most important thing is to set a deadline to follow up on what has been decided in the meeting, in order to make sure it really gets followed-up. The workshop was an eye-opener, as well as it made me realize that this is the future. ”