Glossary of Meeting Terms

Accountability is the acknowledgment of responsibility for getting things done and then reporting back to the group about results. Leaders encourage accountability in meetings by:

Action items describe a discrete task that must be accomplished, usually by a single individual. Action items have a limited scope that can typically be accomplished in one to two weeks. The standard format for action items assigned during meetings documents Who, What, and When.

Activity modeling is a method used to illustrate how a system works. In an activity modeling workshop, the group works together to outline a sequence of steps and the component pieces involved in creating a behavior or result. Groups use activity models to visually represent the sequence of events that trigger a behavior. There are many types of activity models known by names specific to the type of process or system that they describe, such as Value Stream Maps, Architecture System Maps (...

An After-Action Review lays out a structured de-briefing process for analyzing an event. Participants discuss what happened, why it happened, and what can be done better in the future. After-Action Reviews were originally popularized by the military as a technique used to quickly learn from encounters and adapt to emerging situations. After-Action Reviews are now common in both the public and private sector as a way for teams to learn from the results of recently completed projects and...

Agile is a time boxed, iterative approach to work designed to deliver results incrementally from the start of the project, instead of trying to deliver everything all at once at the end. The agile methodology relies on a series of related meetings—called "ceremonies"—to keep the work coordinated and encourage continuous improvement.

Offering appreciations, or acknowledgments, is a popular and positive addition to the opening or close of a meeting. Leaders who introduce appreciations into their regular team meetings find these benefits.

Argument Mapping is a technique for graphically breaking down and showing the reasoning (or argument) behind a statement. In a meeting, groups can use Argument Mapping to explore the underlying assumptions behind a request and uncover other possible explanations for why they face the challenge before them.

Asynchronous communication happens when someone sends a message and then the recipients choose when to reply. There is usually (but not always) a time delay between the original message and any responses.

With synchronous (aka "real-time") communication, the expectations regarding turn-taking are shared across cultures and languages. One person asks a question, and then the next person answers it right away.

For asynchronous communication, there are no fixed...

Attendance is the act of being present (at a meeting or event, etc.). Attendance is often tracked and reported in meeting records. For some meetings, a predetermined percentage of participants (called a quorum) must be in attendance before the meeting can start. In some organizations, meeting attendance is required to qualify for additional privileges such as voting rights or the right to participate in special events.

What value do your meetings create?

When you improve the productivity of your meetings, you ensure your team can answer that question.

You can capture that value by asking for their BLUF: Bottom Line Up Front.

A BLUF is a short summary placed at the very beginning of a message, like a business-oriented version of TL;DR. The BLUF covers the most important information, then the full message includes the details. This way, busy people can quickly read the bit at the top...

A board portal is a secure software application or website designed explicitly for the purpose of facilitating communication between directors and the company. The current generation of board portals supports information exchange and captures the process both during meetings and between meetings.

Brainstorming is a group technique formalized by Alex Osborn in 1939 as a way to generate a lot of ideas quickly in response to a specific problem or question. Traditional brainstorming involves multiple people calling out as many ideas as they can think of within a set timeframe. Brainstorming emphasizes quantity over quality, disallowing critique or limitations during the brainstorming session; "There are no bad ideas."

Research on Brainstorming over the past few decades has...

Breakout groups are used as a large group discussion technique designed to increase participation. During a large meeting or workshop, the facilitator may assign the group to work in smaller teams to answer a question or tackle a specific challenge. Breakout groups may be assigned randomly (by counting off or by simply having people break into smaller groups) or they may be divided based on the interests represented.

For example, the Future Backwards exercise works best when the group...

The CAPPED Decision Framework is a set of stages and facilitative questions to help groups make decisions together, no matter what the scale, urgency, and complexity. Developed by Ben Crothers, this framework uses logic and progressive alignment to structure a discussion and reach a decision and alignment stage by stage, rather than trying to align on a decision right at the end.

The chair (also chairperson, chairwoman or chairman) is the highest elected officer of an organized group such as a board, a committee, or a deliberative assembly. In formal meetings, the chair is responsible for driving the meeting content. The chair leads preparation of the meeting agenda, opens the meeting, and works to keep the conversation focused, engaging, and balanced. The chair is also responsible for managing the formal business of the meeting, such as recognizing speakers and...

Challenging Assumptions is a sense-making technique designed to break apart a statement and discover where assumptions may be limiting your options. There are several ways of leading a group through an exercise designed to challenge assumptions.

In one approach, groups start by writing out the stated goal or problem, then underlining every word that implies an underlying assumption. For example:
We need to lay off 20 people this quarter.

Then, for every underlined word or...

A check-in is a technique used at the beginning of a meeting to give everyone an opportunity to speak, and during meeting transitions to survey the group's current status. The simplest check-in is simply to ask each person how they are. There are many more specific check-in techniques, each developed for a specific meeting context.

All check-ins work to:

Circles and Soup is an exercise teams use to the identify the parts of their work they can control directly, the factors they can influence, and those which are outside of their control. Once these factors are sorted, the team can then make better decisions about how to prioritize their efforts.

The technique, introduced by Diana Larsen and frequently used in action review meetings, works by drawing three large concentric circles on a whiteboard. The team then writes down the various...

A Clarifying Question is a question asked about something that is unclear or hard to understand. People ask clarifying questions to avoid any confusion or misunderstanding, rather than as a way to probe, challenge, or open up new avenues of discussion.

Example clarifying questions include:

Cognitive Biases are mental shortcuts we each make to help us make decisions in the face of ambiguity, overwhelming options, and limited time. Researchers believe cognitive biases have evolved so we can make mostly-correct decisions quickly, allowing us to survive, grow, and adapt to the most common challenges everyone encounters. These biases, though, often lead people in the complex modern world to jump to incorrect conclusions. Effective meeting designs will work to combat cognitive...

A committee consists of a named subgroup of people within an organization who come together to fill a predetermined function. A committee's work is described in its charter and is often conducted in a series of meetings. A committee may operate as a governing body, overseeing an organizational function for a prolonged period of time, or as a project team that gets disbanded once the original goal is accomplished. Depending on their function, committee meetings may work like team meetings,...

A Community of Practice Meeting is used by people with a shared interest in a topic for networking, learning, and mutual support.

You can find an introduction to Team Cadence Meetings in Chapter 32 of our book, Where the Action Is. You may also want to visit the Learn More link, below, for resources to help you plan, run, and troubleshoot the specific meetings your team needs.

Teams may use a compromise approach to making a decision when they can't agree on a single answer. The facilitator helps the team identify all points that they agree on to form the basis of the decision. Then, focusing only on the specific areas of disagreement, the team seeks an alternate approach, or compromise, that everyone can live with.

A conference call is an audio call in which multiple participants all join the same call at the same time. Most commonly, people join conference calls by dialing a shared conference number on their phones. In recent years, the term conference call has also been used to describe group calls held by computer using software like Skype, UberConference, and other computer-based audio technologies. A conference call that includes real-time video of participants is called a video conference, and...

Connectivity describes the ability of individuals to connect to the Internet using computers and mobile devices. Connectivity problems are more noticeable and have a greater negative impact on online meetings than on most other forms of Internet use. Connectivity issues are especially noticeable when using computer audio or video conferencing.

A consent agenda is a technique for addressing multiple topics in a single agenda item, such as committee reports, meeting minutes, and other items that don't require discussion. Boards and committees use a consent agenda to quickly manage all the items they are legally required to address during the meeting, but which should not take up any of the board's precious meeting time. Groups that use a consent agenda expect participants to have reviewed the items on the consent agenda prior to the...

A consulting decision-making meeting involves a group that provides information and advice to one or more designated decision makers. The appointed decision maker(s) then take responsibility for making the final decision. There are several ways to run a meeting that consults to the decision maker. In some cases, the group will meet to discuss the decision separately and then provide a written report to the decision maker. In other cases, the group discusses the decision in the decision maker...

A criteria matrix is a valuable decision-making tool that is used to assess and rank a list of options based on specific criteria. For example, the simplest criteria matrix will compare the Pros and Cons of each option.

More involved decisions benefit from establishing criteria or factors for evaluating each option in advance, such as cost, time to implement, expected impact, alignment with core values, etc. Each alternative is then rated on each criterion and compared to the others...

A decision log is, literally, a log of decisions that have been made. The purpose of a decision log is to make information available to people who were not present when the decision was made, and also to provide easy access to key information about past decisions when questions arise. (In particular, the question “Didn’t we already decide that?”)

The summary of a decision should include:

A decision tree is a decision-making aid that compares options by projecting what the expected outcome of each choice might be. Teams that use a decision tree often draft the tree together in a meeting on a whiteboard. First, they add a circle or box for each option under consideration. Then, they add "branches" from the first option that show the results they expect if they choose that option. Then, they add a matching set of branches coming from the next option with the results they...

Dialetical inquiry is a group decision-making technique that attempts to combat group think. The practice reportedly originated with Plato, who asked his students to consider both the thesis and antithesis to any idea. Groups using this technique divide into two camps: those advocating for an idea and those advocating against it. Both sides highlight the advantages of their assigned decision and outline the disadvantages of the opposing idea.

The classic structure for group decision-making meetings includes these phases: Diverge -> Emerge - > Converge.

Divergent Thinking describes thought processes and methods used to generate creative ideas by exploring a wide variety of ideas and perspectives. Many group meetings include activities designed to spur divergent thinking. The most famous example is brainstorming, where a group comes up with as many different ideas as possible.

Divergence can also refer to the...

A doom loop is a negative belief cycle, where a series of beliefs, actions, and reactions work to reinforce negative beliefs and unwanted behaviors.

Here's how a positive belief cycle works:

Environment scanning is a sense-making exercise teams use to uncover the outside trends that they should consider during the strategic planning process. Teams research and brainstorm the trends they see in their political environment, economic climate, community, and industry, then discuss how these changes in their operating environment create new risks and opportunities. Environmental scans can be completed in one or more meetings.

Facilitation is the work involved in designing and running a successful meeting. To facilitate literally means "to make the process easy." Facilitation skills include:

Facipulation is the application of facilitation techniques used in an attempt to manipulate a group towards a pre-determined outcome. Facipulation is basically tricking people into thinking they had a choice, when you were really cleverly steering the meeting to achieve a pre-determined outcome.

This is a common concern expressed by non-facilitators, who may worry that intentionally designing meetings to achieve desired outcomes will box participants into agreeing to something they...

A fishbone diagram is a visual technique that teams use to organize their thinking and identify causes for a problem. The diagram starts with a process or problem written at the right center of the board, with a long horizontal line and an arrow leading to it. Then, diagonal lines are drawn connecting to the horizontal line, or spine, of the diagram. Each diagonal line represents a possible cause of the problem, or a set of inputs into the process.

A flip chart consists of a series of large pieces of paper which are attached at the top and which are used to present information to an audience by turning over one piece of paper at a time. Flip charts are used during meetings to present the agenda and for visual note taking. In professionally facilitated meetings, there may be separate flip charts dedicated to capturing ideas, actions, parking lot items, and other content relevant to the meeting. Groups that meet electronically use...

Teams conduct a force field analysis when they need to make go/no-go decisions. Teams start by writing the proposed change down the center of the diagram. To the left, they list the forces driving change, with an arrow pointing to the proposed change. To the right, they draw the forces pushing back against the change. Then, they assign relative strengths to each force and add the totals on each side. This is a subjective yet helpful way for groups to think through the forces working for and...

The Go Around gives each person a brief turn to speak to the topic, without interruption. Everyone else listens. Also known as a Round Robin, Structured Go Around, or as going “Around the Horn”, this foundational meeting tool ensures that everyone can contribute their thoughts and comments.

For example, invitations at the beginning of meetings typically use a go around. The go around also works well to increase engagement in the middle of a meeting, and to create an opportunity for...

The Gradients of Agreement is a group decision support tool described in The Facilitator's Guide to Participatory Decision Making. It spells out an 8-point scale for expressing support for a decision.

Ground rules detail the code of conduct for a meeting, explaining the behavior that's expected of all meeting participants. Ideally, ground rules are created and agreed to by the people participating in the meeting, because groups more easily accept and abide by rules they've set themselves.

Workshop facilitators often establish ground rules at the beginning of the workshop. Established teams, boards, and committees may also adopt a set of standing ground rules that cover all of their...

An Idea Generation Meeting is used when a group needs to quickly create a lot of new ideas.

You can find an introduction to Idea Generation Meetings in Chapter 23 of our book, Where the Action Is. You may also want to visit the Learn More link, below, for resources to help you plan, run, and troubleshoot the specific meetings your team needs.

An integration is the practice of combining individually tested software and hardware components in a way that makes them easy to use together. Most meeting technology is integrated with other technologies, such as calendar systems, document repositories, project management systems, and more.

An Introduction is a formal presentation of one person to another, including the exchange of names. Meetings that involve people who don't know each other often start with introductions, which may be as simple as going around the room and sharing names. Alternatively, some meetings will start with an icebreaker activity that incorporates basic introductions. Ideally, the kind of introductions used in the meeting will be appropriate to the meeting's purpose.

An Issue is an area of concern or uncertainty that impacts a team's ability to make progress. Teams identify issues during meetings, then work to find solutions.

Project teams and leadership teams will often create an issues list that they review and update during regular meetings. When the team identifies a possible resolution to an issue, the issue is removed from the issues list and may be replaced by one or more action items defining the steps the team will take to address the...

Lean practices focus on those activities that continuously improve all functions and processes, and involve all employees in the effort to increase the efficiency with which the organization delivers value to customers. Lean practices originated in Japan at Toyota then gained widespread adoption in the manufacturing industry. Today, Lean methodologies are being adapted to improve operations in many other industries as well.

Lean practitioners use a series of specialized meetings to...

Live Cast is a term that describes the process of broadcasting real-time, live video footage or video feed to an audience accessing the video stream over the Internet.

The Lotus Blossom Technique is a structured brainstorming exercise used to expand on a central idea or problem. Teams place the original problem statement in the center box in a 3x3 matrix, then add related themes or elements of the problem in the 8 boxes surrounding it. After filling out this central box, 8 new grids are created with an idea from the first grid in the center. The process repeats, with the team adding 8 ideas for each of the 8 initial aspects from the first grid.

For...

A meeting is a defined real-time gathering of two or more people for the purpose of achieving a common goal through conversation and interaction. Meetings have three qualities which differentiate them from other kinds of conversations:

Meeting Costs are a calculation of the money and resources required to prepare for and run a meeting. Costs can be calculated by assessing software costs, organizational costs (people time), meeting productivity and efficiency, or a combination of all three. See our meeting cost calculators for more information.

A Meeting Flow Model is a form of process documentation that highlights the main meetings used to achieve a business result. A Meeting Flow Model works by describing the specific meetings used for each situation. Like all process documentation, these models reduce ambiguity and create a common language for getting work done that, when applied properly, speeds execution.

Meeting Flow Models are composed of one or more reference documents. Each model includes:

Meeting Metrics are data points, collected over time, that can show trends and patterns of efficiency or efficacy in your meetings. Common metrics include the number of meetings and participants, time spent in meetings, attendance, and meeting ratings.

A Meeting Operating System is the system used by a company or organization to ensure meetings are effective and strategically aligned to the needs of the business. A meeting operating system establishes the performance criteria, operating models, and support all employees require to achieve effective business meetings.

An organization's meeting operating system can be evaluated using the Meeting Performance...

There are two meeting technologies commonly referred to as meeting polls.

A meeting's structure describes how the meeting is planned and organized. Every meeting has a structure. When a meeting leader works to create the structure for the meeting, they consider:

Mind Mapping is a visual way to represent a central idea and related themes. The central idea is written in the center, and related ideas are placed surrounding the central idea with lines connecting them, like branches coming from a central trunk. Mind maps can be created on paper, a whiteboard, or by using mind mapping software. Mind maps have several uses in meetings.

A motion is a formal proposal put to a group for a decision by vote in a meeting. Meetings that use Robert's Rules of Order or another parliamentary process make official decisions using motions. The outcome of a motion gets recorded as an official decision in the meeting minutes. When a motion is proposed, participants will typically vote Yes, No, or Abstain. The rules for working with motions and counting votes depend on the group and will usually be documented in the group's operating...

Multivoting is a technique used to take a long list of possible solutions and either narrow it to a smaller list by priority or reduce it to a final selection. Each person in the group gets a set number of votes, and ranks the options they prefer in order from most preferred (the high) to least preferred (the low). When all votes are cast, the votes for each option are tallied and will either reveal a clear winner or provide information for further discussion.

Meeting norms are the standards of behavior expected from those in a team and during a meeting. Unlike a working team agreement, which covers the tools and processes a team will use when working together, norms primarily express the group's values. This includes topics such as how people take turns speaking, how to handle conflict, and expectations about meeting preparation. Meeting norms are also known as ground rules.

The one-phrase close is a technique used to end team meetings. Before the group leaves the meeting, each person takes a turn sharing one word or phrase about how they're feeling regarding the work completed during the meeting. Popularized by Verne Harnish, this technique is intended to give everyone a chance to express either frustration or appreciation and bring closure to the discussion. It also helps the team leader identify who might have unresolved issues that they should follow-up on...

Open Discussion is the term used to describe unstructured dialogue within a meeting. In an open discussion, anyone present can speak for as long as they like, and there are no rules governing turn-taking, topic adherence, or other constraints on the discussion.

Unless otherwise stated by the meeting leader, open discussion is the default approach assumed to be in use for most meetings. Open discussion allows for the greatest freedom in the conversation, which makes it also the...

A Pareto Analysis is a decision-making technique used to choose a limited number of actions to take that will result in a significant impact. The analysis uses the Pareto Principle (the 80/20 rule), which states for many events, roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes.

Parliamentary Procedure is the body of rules, ethics and customs governing meetings and other operations of clubs, organizations, legislative bodies and other deliberative assemblies. Roberts Rules of Order documents the most widely known parliamentary procedures.

The Peaks and Valleys exercise gives groups a simple visual way to share each person's unique view on the highs and lows of an experience. Groups use this exercise to help visualize events over time and see how each person's experience differs.

To use this technique, teams draw a timeline representing the event they're evaluating on a whiteboard. Then, individuals take turns drawing a line that charts their personal highpoints and low points during the event.

You can use this...

A PEST analysis is a sense-making technique used in strategic planning and situational analysis. Participants brainstorm and map out what's changing in their operating environment, then brainstorm the opportunities and threats they can now see may arise from these changes. PEST is an acronym for Political, Economic, Socio-Cultural, and Technological, the four types of change the team lists during this activity. There are several variations on this technique with similar acronyms.

A Plenary Session (or plenary) is the part of the meeting or conference that everyone attends. The term is used most often in meetings that also include time spent working in smaller groups.

For example, at a conference, the opening keynote may be considered a plenary session, since everyone is expected to attend as that's the only thing on the conference schedule at that time. During a smaller meeting or workshop, the leader may ask everyone to re-group "in plenary" following time...

Plus-Delta provides a quick way to gather feedback at the end of an exercise or meeting. The questions are designed to encourage candid feedback by using “improvement” language rather than language that might be considered too negative for some participants. People share the pluses from the event—what went well and should be continued or taken further going forward—and the deltas, or what they would recommend changing for future meetings.

Here's how it works.

A Powerful Starting Question is a question or set of questions that help a group visualize their answers. The questions fill a blank slate in each person’s mind with a detailed picture. The powerful starting question is a great example of the appropriate use of framing to increase meeting productivity.

A presentation is when a person communicates an idea to others. The term can be adapted to various speaking situations, such as talking to a group, addressing a meeting or briefing a team.

A PDPC is used to understand the steps related to reaching a goal then find ways to increase the chances that the plan will work as desired. During the meeting, the team reviews the project plan, looking specifically at the tasks required along the way. For each, they discuss things that could go wrong and develop countermeasures to prevent those problems from occurring.

Progressive questioning is a technique for fully exploring a topic by asking a series of related questions. There are several progressive questioning techniques designed to fit different situations.

The Rational Decision-Making Model describes the steps a group would take when making a logical decision. The steps are designed to reduce the impact of biases, logical fallacies, and knee-jerk reactions on the decision to increase decision quality. These steps include:

Many decision-making meetings use...

A virtual or remote team is comprised of team members who share responsibility for achieving defined objectives and who perform from a flexible mix of stationary, mobile and/or remote work environments. Remote teams do not meet in a conference room. Instead, they use technology to meet over the Internet.

Repeatability generally refers to the ease in which something can be done over and over. In a meeting context, implementing a similar process from meeting to meeting can increase the reliability of outcomes. Repeatability in achieving the desired meeting outcomes is one sign of meeting performance maturity.

Reverse Brainstorming is a technique that builds on our natural ability to more easily see problems than solutions. Instead of asking a group to brainstorm ideas that would work, the group brainstorms all the ways that they could cause a plan to fail. This technique is used because it can be easier to criticize and see gaps in a plan than to outline a strategy for success. Once the group has this list, they can look at these specific examples and come up with ways to achieve the opposite...

A risk is something that could happen to impact a plan, causing delays, the need to re-plan, or even project failure. Teams work to identify and list project risks during meetings, then develop ways to protect against, or mitigate, the chances that the risk will happen. The RAID technique for evaluating and tracking risks helps teams think more thoroughly through potential problems by capturing Risks, Assumptions, Issues and Dependencies.

Robert's Rules of Order is the most widely-used manual of parliamentary procedure in America. It governs the meetings of a diverse range of organizations—including church groups, county commissions, homeowners associations, nonprofit associations, professional societies, school boards, and trade unions—that have adopted it as their parliamentary authority.

Screen sharing occurs when one person on a computer device can see what another person is doing on their computer. The screen sharing can give the person watching the other computer the ability to view and control what occurs on the other computer through their own computer.

Self-portrait introductions are an icebreaker/opener technique used in workshops. This technique works for any workshop where the group will need to collaboratively engage, including workshops where all the participants regularly work together and "know" each other. The goal is to get everyone engaged in a safe, friendly way and establish a supportive environment for the work at hand.

You may recognize the sentence completion technique from market research studies and standardized academic tests. It works by providing the first part of a sentence, then asking people to complete the sentence in their own words. In a meeting, this technique can also be used as a sense-making or idea generation technique. After reflecting on the beginning phrase, each person would then take a moment to complete the sentence silently. Going around the room, the group would then take turns...

A silent brainstorm is a technique for generating ideas while everyone remains quiet. This allows participants to think without distractions or influence from other members of the group, and helps combat problems with groupthink and social loafing common to traditional brainstorming sessions.

The simple consensus workshop method includes four steps.

This technique works in many situations to help create a shared understanding of a space and build consensus around priorities. It is very similar to the KJ...

The SOAR analysis technique is used by teams as part of the planning process. SOAR stands for Strengths, Opportunities, Aspirations, and Results. SOAR was developed by Appreciative Inquiry practitioners looking for an alternative to the traditional SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats).

To run a SOAR analysis, ask teams to brainstorm ideas in each of the four categories. Responses are typically posted to a 2x2 matrix then discussed.

A speaker queue is an online tool that allows meeting attendees to request to speak by virtually “raising their hand" and get into a queue. They are each subsequently given the floor to speak or present without distraction from others.

A meeting where everyone stands up rather than sits down is called a standing meeting. Standing is meant to help keep the meeting short, as no one gets too comfortable. Daily Huddles are often conducted as standing meetings.

Agile practitioners hold a Stand-Up every day at the same time. The meeting purpose to bring everyone up to date on information that is necessary for coordination. Each team member gives an update on the work they've completed, what they plan to do next, and any...

Stop, Start, Continue is an exercise used to evaluate a group's activities and make decisions about which ones to prioritize going forward. Steps include:

A meeting storyboard is a document containing a multi-column table used by organizers and facilitators to design the content flow for a meeting. The left column lists the key messages. The right column includes the slides or other visuals to be shown for each message. Additional columns can be added to capture timing or other details.

The Strategic War Room, contributed by Krister Forsberg, provides a way for leadership teams to come to a common understanding of insights about the organization. When complete, leaders get a comprehensive view (both mentally and pictorially) of the organization's strategies, goals, key stakeholders and delivery milestones. The Strategic War Room is metaphorical; a virtual "room" built by the leadership team over the course of several facilitated strategic workshops. When complete, the...

A swim lane diagram is a type of flowchart. The diagram usually shows a process, and steps are divided into categories to distinguish which departments or employees are responsible for a certain set of actions. Swimlanes may be displayed either horizontally or vertically.

Team-building activities include group activities and exercises designed to help people get to know one another and build trust. Many longer workshops and multi-day planning sessions begin with short team-building activities.

An analogy is a comparison that points out the similarity between the like features of two different things. The Analogies and Metaphors technique in meetings helps participants clarify their understanding of an issue. This technique is especially helpful when information is difficult to understand.

During the meeting, the leader asks the group to think of several analogies for the current problem or situation. For example, if the group is trying to start an online community but they...

A timekeeper in a meeting is a person who takes on the role of measuring or recording the amount of time taken to do something. The timekeeper essentially helps the facilitator move the group through the agenda, reducing the amount of stress on the facilitator or leader who is managing the discussion.

A meeting timer is used to help monitor time spent vs. time planned for the overall meeting and each segment of the meeting. Timers may also be used in large community members to limit the amount of time each person can speak on a given topic before they must give another person a turn to speak.

A topic in a meeting is the subject currently under discussion by the group. Topics should be chosen wisely and be relevant to all attendees. Meeting topics may be set on the agenda in advance or determined during the meeting.

Video conferencing is a technology that allows users in different locations to hold face-to-face meetings. The technology is convenient for participants in different cities or countries because it saves the time and expense associated with business travel.

A virtual meeting is a real meeting held over the phone or the Internet involving one or more people who are not in the same location.

If a group makes a decision during a meeting and everyone says that they support the decision, but then when they leave the room they talk privately about how they think the decision is flawed, that decision is said to have failed “the water cooler test”.

Meeting facilitators work to help everyone get all their opinions and concerns out during the meeting. The group is asked to have the discussion in the room—not later “around the water cooler”—then leave the meeting committed to...

Web conferencing software makes it possible for people to hold meetings, training sessions, and webinars using the Internet. Web conferencing software features, such as those provided by Cisco WebEx, GoTo Meeting, and others, are designed to solve communication problems, making it possible for people to see each other using video conferencing, hear each other using audio conferencing, and share material such as presentations, computer screens, and chat messages. Web conferencing software...

A whiteboard is a flat wipeable surface that teams draw and post sticky notes on during meetings. Many face-to-face meeting activities assume the group will meet in a space with one or more whiteboards available. Many web conferencing tools include a virtual whiteboard feature that attempts to make it possible to conduct some of the same group activities online.

A workshop is a long interactive meeting or educational session designed to create a specialized result. Workshops are longer than the typical business meeting and require more preparation beforehand. Workshops typically involve a central trainer or facilitator who works with a set of sponsors to design the sequence of presentations, plan collaborative activities, and ensure the workshop will lead to the desired result. Workshops emphasize hands-on interaction. Strategic planning often...

World Cafe is a large group discussion technique designed to encourage the kind of intimate small group discussions one might have at a cafe on a selected topic. Participants sit at small tables with 5 or fewer other people. After a brief introduction, the group discusses a series of questions at their table. The discussion period for each question is timed, and people are encouraged to move to new tables between each discussion round. At the end of the small group discussion rounds,...