Page 8 - Leadership Basics 10

Tied in with the different purposes are the different types of meetings. Any single school may have
council meetings, SLT meetings, daily, weekly or monthly staff meetings, curriculum meetings, CAS
meetings, advisory meetings and special project meetings, not to mention committees and, in some
schools, quality circles. The list is seemingly endless. Although different imperatives may exist, the
fundamental principles are similar.
It also has to be recognised that some meetings are more formal than others, involving rigid rules and
procedures. In this booklet, we focus meetings which are organised and led by you and which are
conducted in comparative informality, but many of the points we make may well relate to behaviour
possible in more formal sessions.

You should now consider your own experiences of good and bad meetings. You will probably know
intuitively if they have been of any use, but it will be helpful for you to analyse the factors which have
led to them being effective or a waste of time. By completing Activity One ‘Thinking about Meetings’,
you should reach some initial conclusions on the influencing factors, including the behaviours adopted
by participants. You should also find some consistency between what went on at the meeting and its
outcomes: generally, good meetings achieve things and poor ones do not. Complete Activity One now.

Having thought about several issues related to effective and ineffective meetings, ask yourself the
following questions:

 What are the factors most likely to make meetings successful?
 What are the factors most likely to make meetings a waste of teacher's time?

 What behaviour contributes to the success of meetings?
 What behaviour makes meetings ineffective?
We will look at the first and third questions a little later. First we examine some of the reasons for
teachers using expressions like 'a waste of time' and 'ineffective'.

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