Rules for Effective Meetings and Brain Storming Sessions

Abstract

Both in professional and personal lives, group discussions, meetings and friendly arguments are a part of our life. It can help us to effectively participate in any of such discussions if we are aware of the rules and etiquettes of such meetings and of our own roles and responsibilities as participants.

In this paper, we consider the following types of meetings and discussions:
1. Discussion for decision making and appropriate action
2. Communication meetings and knowledge sharing meetings
3. Group Discussions for Competitive exams like MBA
4. Discussions for discussion sake - just for fun

We look at some of the ground rules of the all the above discussions.

Rules of discussion are, of course, extremely important at work. At work, you generally have hierarchies and a senior person coordinates or conducts the meeting. The paper lists the roles and responsibilities of the coordinator and the participants of the meeting for meetings to me effective.

The article also discusses how we can be effective in competitive group discussions and impress the selectors. Even friendly discussions at times turn into heated discussions resulting into ill feelings unless we understand the ground rules. We shall see how we can actually enjoy academic discussions without creating ill feelings due to differences of opinions.

Keywords: Meetings, Meeting Rules, Effective Meetings, Decisive Meetings, Group Discussions, Brainstorming Rules, Discussion for Fun, Enjoying Discussions, Leadership, Management

JEL Classification: M10, M14, O35, D83, D81