Sidebar meetings - Good or Bad? Our most productive source of process improvement

[blainehilton]

It has recently come up that we are working with many people who have their own political views on everything and it is sometimes hard to get anything done, especially in meetings. This has caused us to start having meetings on the side with only select participants. When others find out that these meetings occur everyone gets mad at each other. However usually these impromptu sidebar meetings are our most productive sources of process improvement.

It seems to me that we need to resolve what is causing problems at the real meeting and not turn to these sidebars. With my thinking being that if the root cause were solved then the sidebars would go away as they would not be needed. Has anyone experienced anything like this and how did you resolve it? Should we ban all sidebar meetings immediately?

 

[qualeety]

a possible solution

It has recently come up that we are working with many people who have their own political views on everything and it is sometimes hard to get anything done, especially in meetings. This has caused us to start having meetings on the side with only select participants. When others find out that these meetings occur everyone gets mad at each other. However usually these impromptu sidebar meetings are our most productive sources of process improvement.

It seems to me that we need to resolve what is causing problems at the real meeting and not turn to these sidebars. With my thinking being that if the root cause were solved then the sidebars would go away as they would not be needed. Has anyone experienced anything like this and how did you resolve it? Should we ban all sidebar meetings immediately?

Ask this question....DO YOU NEED ALL THE PARTICIPANTS in the meeting or most are invited for political purposes? I hate to say this but....from my limited 20+yrs of experience, when you have more than 7 in the meeting, it usually becomes politics, especially if you have more than two departments involved....although i have experience very positive meetings with many participants but those meetings are very rare

Next time, when there is a meeting (if you can do it, that is), invite those who can contribute and can actively participate. If a project is too big, make it into smaller modules and reduce the number of participants.....if you do that, you can eliminate/reduce sidebar meetings

 

[David Hartman]

Let me embrace thee, sour adversity,
For wise men say it is the wisest course.
- William Shakespeare, King Henry the Sixth, Part III

Work to resolve the differences and make your team and company even stronger.

 

[blainehilton]

Very good point, however we usually only have 3-5 people and we still have problems.

 

[Cari Spears]

Very good point, however we usually only have 3-5 people and we still have problems.

Who's the big cheese of those 3-5 people?

 

[Jim Wynne]

It has recently come up that we are working with many people who have their own political views on everything and it is sometimes hard to get anything done, especially in meetings.

This is a result of a basic leadership failure. All groups will have disparate political views and personal agendas. It's up to leadership to control the climate, set the objectives and make sure things stay on track, and habitual whiners are decisively dealt with.

This has caused us to start having meetings on the side with only select participants. When others find out that these meetings occur everyone gets mad at each other.
However usually these impromptu sidebar meetings are our most productive sources of process improvement.

The secondary meetings are necessary either because of failure of the initial meetings or because they are necessary. Why hold another general meeting if a more focused meeting is what's needed? Again, there's a failure of leadership involved. It sounds like the primary meetings are ill-planned and ill-directed, and that the expected outcome isn't clear. Thus it becomes necessary for the people who can actually work on the issues to meet again.

It seems to me that we need to resolve what is causing problems at the real meeting and not turn to these sidebars. With my thinking being that if the root cause were solved then the sidebars would go away as they would not be needed. Has anyone experienced anything like this and how did you resolve it? Should we ban all sidebar meetings immediately?

If you arbitrarily stop the meetings where something is actually being accomplished, you haven't solved the problem. What makes you think that "real" meetings will magically become more productive? Someone needs to organize the "real" meetings by:

• Publishing an agenda that includes objectives for the meeting
• Making sure there is a person who directs the meeting and keeps to the agenda
• Inviting only the people who need to be there
• Making sure that actions are assigned and followup is scheduled
• publishing meeting minutes so that there's no question as to what took place and what's expected next.

There's nothing wrong per se with ad hoc or impromptu meetings, but if those meetings are used to subvert rather than uphold the premise of the initial meeting, then leadership needs to take place.

 

[qualeety]

Very good point, however we usually only have 3-5 people and we still have problems.

YIKES......now, you REALLY have a problem!!!!!!!

you have a sidebar meetings with 3?

how many attend a sidebar meeting?....surely, it cannot be 3 ...or can it?

well, do the search about "successful meeting" in the cove....there are many good suggestions...and if i was in your shoes (provided you are high in the food chain), I put my FEET DOWN and ban all sidebar meetings (no matter how fruitful they are) and hash out the differences in the meeting, even if it takes all day/night!!!!!!

 

[Marc]

I've gotten a lot from 'sidebar' meetings

However usually these impromptu sidebar meetings are our most productive sources of process improvement.

From my experience in the 'trenches'...

Not unusual and not a problem. I've met in hallways and in meeting rooms after the 'big' meeting to, for example, determine how we can meet goals management has set, solutions to customer / part specific problems and/or cmplaints, etc. Often I would go and talk with one specific person (or two) such as a tooling engineer and setup person to discuss specific issues.

I have rarely been in a 'big' meeting where all the details were addressed. More often the 'big' meetings left us 'lower life forms' with a lot of aspects to address which we did in smaller 'meetings'.

The big QUESTION is - Are the sidebar meetings you are having effective?