What role do you play in meetings?
Is everyone in your meetings clear about their role and how best to contribute to achieving the meeting goals?
Like unclear goals, a lack of clear roles leads to poor results, wasted time, and disengaged or frustrated colleagues.
So what are the roles in meetings?
Typical roles in meetings
I recommend that you clarify who will take each of these six roles in your meetings. You may have fewer than six people in your meetings and it’s fine for one person to have multiple roles.
Everyone should have at least one role though. If not, why are they there?
- Facilitator –Supports participants to achieve the meeting goals
- Note taker – Takes notes or minutes to help everyone remember what was agreed in the meeting (also known as the “scribe,” “recorder,” or “secretary”)
- Timekeeper – Helps everyone to use the meeting time efficiently and finish punctually
- Contributor – Brings information, ideas, or opinions to help achieve the meeting goals (usually everyone in the meeting has this as one of their roles)
- Decision maker – Makes decisions in the meeting
- Challenger – Offers questions or suggestions to help participants consider different perspectives and achieve the meeting goals (also known as the “devil’s advocate”)
Sometimes, the ultimate Decision maker isn’t in the meeting. You may need to make decisions as a group. In this case decision making is part of everyone’s role and this should be made clear at the beginning of the meeting to avoid potential misunderstandings or arguments.
Similarly, you may not have an individual Challenger, but encourage everyone to have a “challenger mindset” – to think from different perspectives to get the best results.
Are you keen to understand more about how to make the most of each role? Do you read Japanese? If so, have a look at my book Eigo no Shigoto-jutsu (英語の仕事術), published by Shogakukan and available on Kindle, where I devote a whole chapter to facilitation skills and meeting roles.
