Effective meetings

Since the late nineties some amazing communication systems have become part of our daily lives at work. Just imagine a day at work without consulting your email, using your mobile phone, or text chatting. The omnipresence of these new technologies has also coincided with an accelerated process towards globalisation. In the end this means we increasingly work with people from all over the world. Multicultural meetings – in person, or virtual – are simply a fact of life.

Many of the same rules still apply to holding an effective meeting, which we will quickly re-cap after this paragraph, but it is essential to take into account the new element of cultural diversity.

Imagine a scenario such as Company A in Spain merges with Company B in Germany. All of sudden, there are new team members that have different expectations. In Germany for example, it might be appropriate to hold a meeting at 2:30 in the afternoon, while in Spain said meeting might fall square in the middle of the average Spaniard’s lunch hour. Differences in behavior, meeting pace, and overall presentation are other things to keep in mind.

Multicultural or not, virtual or face-to-face, it’s still best to pay heed to our conventional knowledge about effective meetings. So when you organise a meeting it’s best to:

• Hold meetings only when they are necessary. Meetings for the sake of meetings are a sure way to induce sleep in even the most gung-ho workers.
• Make sure everybody attending the meeting is clear about the agenda, and keep the meeting focused.
• Consider if the people attending the meeting need to be there. While it may seem obvious, sometimes meetings become a matter of habit, and nothing is less effective than a room full of unengaged, non-participating people.
• Don’t give monologues. Keep the attendees of the meeting involved with questions and allow for feedback, as long as it does not stray too far from the agenda. Listen actively and question.
• Keep an eye on the clock. No matter what culture you’re in, starting the meeting on time, and ending it on time, will be appreciated by everybody.

For those attending meetings the same classic rule applies. Participate, participate, participate. It’s also helpful for everybody when questions are asked. If you don’t understand something, it’s likely that someone else doesn’t either.

Probably the single most important thing to remember when participating in or chairing a multicultural meeting is to have respect. Respect individual differences and each person’s level of participatory comfort.

More likely than not, today’s multicultural business meetings will be conducted in English. This likely means that a good percentage of those attending will not have English as their mother tongue. In order to be fair, simple, straightforward English ought to be used. And, just as importantly, use visual cues and ask people for feedback, where appropriate, on important meeting points. This helps engage people who may be uncomfortable because they are using English as a second language, or those who are normally more reserved. Speaking clearly is especially helpful in virtual meetings, where often we rely solely on our ears.

Just as important: for those non-native English speakers participating in a meeting it is important to realise that you are not alone. You shouldn’t feel bashful if you didn’t understand something. If something needs to be clarified, don’t hesitate to ask about it. Repeating something in a meeting is far preferable to dealing with confused team members further down the line.

We all have preconceived notions of what a successful meeting is. The multicultural soup of today’s globalised economy presents us new and exciting challenges. Joaquim Vaz, Training & Development Manager at Bakemark Ibérica / Purac Bioquímica, perhaps put it best when asked to give advice on chairing and attending multicultural meetings: ‘Find out about the other participants beforehand. Learn about their cultures. Do your homework.’