Management of meetings can improve a team’s ability to have upright, constructive and effective meetings, which is a prerequisite for the teamwork’s collaboration. By taking turns as chairperson, each member of the team is responsible for the outcome of a meeting.

The purpose of this exercise is to ensure effective meetings. The individual members train their ability to lead a meeting, to delegate tasks and ensure decision-making. It helps the team achieve its goals since the process of a meeting is strictly controlled. A chairperson makes sure that the team makes decisions collectively. The chairperson does not force through decisions.

The chairperson is responsible for convening the meeting with an agenda. If the chairperson makes a thorough agenda, there will be three columns for each content point in the agenda – see figure.

The chairperson starts the meeting on time even though some may arrive late. The chairperson is responsible for the team’s attention and gets the team to agree on the agenda. The chairperson should direct attention to the end time of the meeting and maybe appoint a secretary. The chairperson should ensure that the team deals with all items of business on the agenda and he or she should introduce the item properly. What is the aim of the specific item of business? Is it mainly meant for informing, for sharing experiences, or is it an item which requires a decision or maybe delegation of tasks?

Each item must have a timeframe so that it is visible how long time the team can dedicate to the item. The chairman needs to maintain focus and ensure that participants contribute with inputs needed. The chairperson’s responsibility is to direct attention to agreements, partial or full conclusions, and ensure that the designation of responsible persons follows the delegation of each task. The chairperson sums up the meeting with primary conclusions, decisions and action points and gives a friendly reminder to persons who investigate items of business for the next meeting. The next meeting is scheduled in case everyone is there. It is recommended to end the meeting at the agreed time or even 10 minutes before time.