IN THIS ISSUE...

Meeting Manners Quiz

Click here to check your answers.

1. It is appropriate to delay a meeting up to 10 minutes if there are latecomers.
   No. Meetings should start on time. Don’t reward latecomers by delaying the meeting; respect the people who arrive on time.

2. It is not necessary to debrief at the end of a meeting if you are taking minutes.
   You should debrief even if you are taking minutes. The meeting facilitator should repeat each decision and resolution as it is made.

3. "Roberts Rules of Order Newly Revised" notes that formality can hinder business in a meeting of fewer that a dozen attendees.
   True.

4. In a smaller informal meeting, the chair can make motions and vote on all questions.
   True.

5. You should determine the objectives of a meeting before hand, list topics by priority with time proportional to their value and put this on the agenda.
   True.

6. You should always set an agenda for a meeting.
   True. If you don’t set an agenda, participants could arrive at the meeting with their own hidden agenda; possibly ones you don’t like.

7. The moderator or chair of the meeting is in charge of keeping the meeting on track and preventing participants from interrupting one another or rambling on too long.
   True.

8. If someone is taking minutes of the meeting you don’t need to take notes.
   It is your choice. If you like to take notes, go ahead.

9. If you “have the floor,” it means you can speak for a reasonable amount of time about your point of view.
   True.

10. Avoid sitting at the head of the table in a meeting.
    True. Unless you are the host, chair or meeting moderator, or the guest of honour, avoid this seat.

Tip of the Month

Wear your name tag on the right shoulder area. When you shake hands your sight line is to the right hand side of the other person where their name tag should be placed. You can see their name and they see yours without breaking eye contact and engaging in an embarrassing search for their name mid chest level.

The Little Details:
Care and Comfort of Meeting Attendees

Have you ever attended a meeting where you have been so crammed into the room that you could barely move and when the meeting commenced you couldn’t concentrate because the room became overheated? Or the room was so large there was an echo when anyone spoke? Or the chairs were so uncomfortable everyone fidgeted in their seats counting the minutes until the break? If you are an experienced meeting planner you will understand the importance of considering the care and comfort of meeting participants when planning a meeting. Sometimes it’s these little details that can make the all the difference to the success of the meeting.

Here are a few tips to consider when planning a meeting:

• Is the meeting room large enough to seat all the attendees comfortably but not so large that they will seem lost and insignificant? Ensure that the meeting room is conveniently located, signage is posted, the room is clean, quiet and has a spot for coats if needed.
• Are there sufficient comfortable seats? The seating plan should suit the type and style of the meeting and allow for maximum efficiency.
• Is the lighting sufficient for the time the meeting is scheduled? Ensure that there are no harsh glares or dark spots and that sunlight won’t result in the room overheating.
• Are the acoustics such that everyone can hear from all parts of the room? If the room is large, an amplification system or microphone may be required. Always do a sound check and check systems before attendees arrive.
• Do you have all the supplies and equipment needed? If pens, note pads, or other equipment such as an easel, flip chart, podium, or projector are required, ensure they are in the room prior to the meeting.
• Are you offering refreshments or food? Decide in advance what you want to serve and how much. Be sure you have a variety of beverages including caffeine free choices and bottled water. Snack food should be healthy, easy to eat, and not messy. Pre order any food and be sure to consider attendees special dietary requirements.
• Is there wheelchair access or provisions for the handicapped? Ensure that there is easy access to washrooms and other areas and provisions for interpreters or hearing impaired if required.

Travel Smart

Travel has changed significantly since 9/11. Before you travel south of the border or abroad, be sure you have the required travel documents, passport, and/or visa. Allow extra time for check in and be prepared to remove your jacket, perhaps your shoes and to meet unexpected security requirements.

Travel can be frustrating, but exercising patience, courtesy and consideration will make your journey more enjoyable or a least tolerable.

The following tips and common sense will help you travel smart.

• Stay alert, be inconspicuous and unpredictable.
• Avoid the appearance of affluence, dress conservatively but not too casual and never grubby.
• Travel light so you can move easily and quickly without assistance.
• Use your company address rather than your home address on your luggage and use covered baggage tags.
• Try to book non stop flights if possible.
• Keep a low profile, don’t carry large amounts of cash and be watchful in crowds where pickpockets abound.
• Hire a car service and driver or use officially marked taxis even though so called black market or unofficial cars may be available and cheaper.

Ruder Than Rude

We have all encountered rudeness in everyday life. Sometimes, however, there are situations which are so bad they are almost unbelievable. Here is your chance to tell the world about your most outstanding experience with rudeness.

Cubie Etiquette:
10 Tips for Cubicle Dwellers

If you have a private office with walls to the ceiling and a door, you can be thankful because you are one of the lucky ones. Many offices today are open concept where cubicles or “cubies” divide the workspace and give some semblance of privacy. Once you hang a few family photos and place a plant on the shelf it begins to feel like your own private space, but really it is a mockery of privacy. You can hear all the comings and goings, phones ringing, conversations, smells, and all manner of other annoying sounds that can break your concentration and interfere with your productivity. Add to this a number of co workers who don’t follow good office etiquette, and you have the recipe for frustration and disaster.

Bad manners in the workplace can negatively impact on everyone. Here are a few tips to improve your office etiquette for those who call a “cubie” home away from home.

1. Keep it Simple. In decorating your “personal" space, limit it to a few tasteful items. Remember it is a professional work place and knick knack collections, rude posters, funny sayings, off colour cartoons and the like have no place at work in a professional environment. You should also ask about company policy regarding plants before bringing one to work. Because plants often provoke allergies, bring insects, leak and don’t always respond well to office environments, consider just a silk plant or forget it all together.
2. Limit personal calls to emergency calls only. If you have to make a call of a personal or sensitive nature, go elsewhere during your lunch hour or break to do it.
3. If you are discussing a confidential matter, do it in a meeting room or private space. Whispering is just as distracting, and is annoying and insulting to others around you. Sometimes people are more tempted to eavesdrop if they hear whispering. If you overhear a private conversation, keep it to yourself.
4. Don’t be a jack in the box. This is someone who sticks their head up over the cubicle wall and constantly interrupts you with things like, “Got any tape?”, “Want a coffee?”, “Have you had lunch?” Instead you should treat the cubicle as if the walls went all the way to the ceiling and walk around the corner to ask a question. Equally annoying is the person who just talks or asks out loud assuming you know he is talking to you.
5. Don’t barge into a co workers’ cubicle and take a seat without first asking if it is a convenient time. Knock on the cubicle wall first and say, “Excuse me”. If your co-worker invites you to enter but doesn’t suggest you take a seat, chances are you are interrupting and they want you to be brief.
6. Avoid eating at your desk. This may seem to you like a great opportunity to get caught up with your work, but studies have shown that taking time to eat your lunch away from your desk results in greater productivity. Also the smell of both hot and cold food wafting over the cubicle, rustling of lunch wrappers, crunching of apples and other crisp foods are all disturbing to others. The smell of microwave popcorn can be especially offensive and can invade a whole floor of offices. It should be avoided altogether.
7. Tone down your audio technology. Don’t use your speaker phone when retrieving voice mail; use headphones if listening to music; turn off the audio on your e-mail, your pager, or Blackberry and don’t leave your cell phone on when you’re away from your cubie.
8. Don’t cause a nose disturbance; respect others olfactories. Avoid heavy perfumes or aftershave; if you can smell it on yourself, you’ve over done it. Because of allergies many offices have a no scent policy. Smelly gym bags and old sneakers can be just as offensive.
9. Don’t hang around a co-workers cubicle chit chatting or waiting for them to get off the phone or finish a conversation with someone else. When you are on the phone it is very distracting to have someone looking over your shoulder or loitering within ear shot. If you have time to chit chat in the hallway, perhaps you don’t have enough work to do.
10. Don’t bring your germs to work. The first few days is when an illness is most contagious. If you are sick, stay home. No one appreciates your sniveling, coughing or sneezing and no one wants to catch what you have and take it home to their family. Ventilation systems in modern buildings recirculate air so it is quite possible that you could infect more than just your next door neighbour.

Meeting Etiquette:
More Tips for the Meeting Maven

In last months edition of Protocol Power we covered tips to help you make your meetings more successful.

Here are a few tips to help make you a savvy meeting participant.

1. Arrive several minutes ahead of time.
2. Introduce yourself to other participants and present your business card; especially if you are from outside the company.
3. Come prepared with assignments completed, a copy of the agenda and notations of any questions or discussion points you might want to raise.
4. If you are a visitor, ask where you should sit.
5. Be attentive and willing to participate.
6. If coffee, refreshments or lunch are served, be prepared to serve yourself if indicated and remember the purpose and focus of the meeting is not the food and drink; don’t over indulge.
7. Keep your comments and questions concise and relevant; don’t ramble on.
8. Pick up your personal items and papers after the meeting; leave your area just as you found it.
9. At the end of the meeting, shake hands with other meeting participants and thank the meeting chair or convener.
10. If you are from outside the company, write a hand written thank you note to the person who invited you to the meeting and a note to the chair.

Upcoming Events

Catch Louise this Friday, September 30th, 2005 live on television. Louise will be on the Rogers Cable program "Daytime" at 11:00 AM speaking about the Etiquette program at Georgian College.

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The next issue of Protocol Power will include tips on business entertaining and global perspectives.