Chapter 11. Team Meeting Roles

Experts find that team meetings work best when roles are well-defined. The Team Meeting Roles chart below explains how to separate responsibilities for meeting participants. The Discussion Moderator or traffic cop and the Recorder or public note-taker are neutral. All team members should contribute as a Participant and a Presenter.

The most significant factor, the Authority Figure of the group, must relinquish roles to team members. If the authority figure doesn’t do this, contributors will hold back, edit what they say or challenge authority. An effective team meeting will produce an open climate, a free exchange and creative thinking without undue concern about the boss’s reaction. This is hard to achieve but defining roles will help.