DeanWuBlog

Meetings

As a Dean, much of my time is spent chairing meetings, attending meetings, planning for meetings, and following up on them. Accordingly, I have made an effort to study meetings and I have prepared a set of goals for meetings. I share these in an effort to make our decision-making processes transparent, and because they may be of general interest. This memorandum discusses best practices for meetings such as administrative staff meetings. Meetings should be called with explicit goals and agendas prepared in advance. If there are not explicit goals and an agenda prepared in advance, at the outset of the meeting a set of explicit goals and an agenda will be identified. Specific topics for discussion will be numbered. Each topic for discussion should be identified, if possible, as: (a) informational only; (b) for discussion; (c) for decision; or (d) for planning of next actions. The time constraints, and the urgency of a decision, should be specified. All materials needed to make a conduct a discussion, make a decision, or plan next actions should be brought; in particular, the underlying data or documents should be available and preferred to oral summaries. For any issue to be addressed, potential resolutions should be identified in advance. For every decision that is made, the following should be memorialized: (a) the individuals with responsibility for managing the project as well as the individuals with responsibility for staffing it; (b) the budget; (c) the funding source; (d) the timeline; and (e) the strategic goals supported by the decision. Notes should be taken at all meetings. Thank you very much.