The Glossary of Meeting Terms describes terminology and acronyms related to meetings and all the activities we do in those meetings. We've gathered this information from far and wide, so enjoy! And hey — if you have corrections or additions, please don't hesitate to contact us!
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RAID stands for Risks, Assumptions, Issues, and Dependencies. Teams may conduct a RAID analysis as part of their project planning meeting, then produce a RAID board which they can review, update, and revisit during project status meetings.
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:
Identifying a problem or opportunity Gathering information Analyzing the situation Developing options Evaluating alternatives Selecting a preferred alternative Acting on the decisionMany decision-making meetings use...
read moreThe real-time agenda is a process for co-creating, prioritizing and discussing a list of topics in real time.
A real-time agenda isn’t a type of meeting. It’s a technique that you can use in many different types of meetings. We consider this one of the master techniques, because it’s useful, extremely adaptable, widely loved, and it pops up all the time. You’ll find variations of real-time agendas by many names: examples include Lean CoffeeTM, IDS, Open Space, and Unconference. You’...
read moreA 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.
Remote work is an arrangement in which employees do not commute or travel (e.g. by bus or car) to a central place of work, such as an office building, warehouse or store. Instead, they work from home or from another location outside the main office.
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.
A retrospective is a meeting that's held at the end of an iteration in Agile software development or at the completion of a project. During the retrospective, the team reflects on what happened in the iteration and identifies actions for improvement going forward.
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...
read moreRice at a Wedding is a term coined by Alison Davis to described a meeting where the topics haven't been curated or put into a sensible order in advance. This makes the meeting feel random and scattered, just like what you get when you throw rice at people.
This is not good practice, whether using real rice or metaphorical rice, unless you're literally at a wedding. Maybe not even then.
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.
Ritual dissent is a workshop technique designed to overcome taboos against publicly critiquing ideas. The goal is for the presenter to hear candid, useful feedback.
During a workshop, a presenter shares their idea with a group that listens silently throughout the presentation. Dialogue or questions are not allowed. Then, the presenter turns his or her back to the group, symbolizing having "left the room" and listens in while the group discusses either what they didn't like (ritual...
read moreRobert'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.
There are several roles different participants might have in a meeting. Some roles are officially appointed, some assigned on a per-meeting basis, and others simply assumed during the meeting without discussion.
Formal meetings, such as board meetings, may have people participating as: the Chair, the Secretary, Voting Members, Non-Voting Member participants, Guest Presenters, and Observers.
Structured meetings and workshops may have people assigned to...
read moreThe term Round Robin is used to refer to two distinct techniques.
For some, a "round robin" is just another name for a go around.
For others, a round robin is a specialized brainwriting technique in which everyone takes a turn generating and developing ideas in a group. The process relies on each team member building off previous contributions by adding clarifications, challenges, and improving upon the...
read moreAn RSVP is the confirmation of and response to an invitation. When team members respond to an invitation confirming they will attend, the organizer can better plan how they will run a meeting.
