Business Analysts in meetings

5/30/2016

Love it or not, the meetings are an important activity part for a Business Analyst. I will try in this post to give you a few suggestions in order to improve the meetings quality and probability of being finished with a win-win situation.

As often, people are the most important factor in our lives. So this is why I will attempt to focus on this matter; so no tool, no technology, no methodology to discuss here.

As Business Analysts represent a special factor in a meeting, knowing that they may represent the interest of a few parties involved, I will focus on a few suggestions to maximize the meeting goal:

have a positive attitude; forget all the "trouble" you have, no matter that it is related with your professional life or personal life; keep in mind that NOW, in this very moment, there are people on Earth with tougher lives;
be a shiny presence, for all the participants, no matter their position with you or the organization you represent;
try (aka strive) to speak and present things in a detached manner, like you are not an insider;
avoid to use sentences like "You are right, John!" or "You are wrong, John!"; replace them with "I/we agree with you, John!", or "This is actually a great find/idea, John! Congrats for this suggestion!" and "I'm not sure this is the best possible path we should follow, John!";
remember that people are present in the meeting because they need to solve something; express them your will to help them, to a win-win situation;
be prepared with courses in advanced people management, communication skills, negotiation skills and strong professional knowledge;
be an active and honest presence of the meeting, help people to understand your value, intentions and determination to a successful end of the meeting;
give everybody time to express their thoughts and analyze them within the group, in the same meeting; this doesn't mean that there will be no discussions after the meeting, but this is not the point here;
don't try to "always be a winner", because this is really a huge trap, from a long-term success perspective; instead, help people to win, especially if they have a clear and accepted goal for/by everybody;

I hope these thoughts of mine will help you to think more at what you think, say and do before and during a meeting. Good luck!

7 Comments

Tom Hussey link

6/1/2016 09:48:54 am

"don't try to "always be a winner" - so true, I have to confess that I've sometimes lost the plot in meetings and been too keen to prove that I was right rather than listen.I think the key is to focus on helping other people to express their opinions, especially the quiet ones, and not to voice your own!

Cristian-Stefan Turcu link

6/1/2016 10:37:55 am

I agree with you, Tom."Empower people!" is the new entry for this millennium.
Quiet people have sometimes to say incredible things. But we prefer to categorize them in a wrong way, even as "autistic guy".
Did you know that, according to our present rules, Einstein was an autistic guy?

Phil Rigby

6/2/2016 12:50:32 am

Good points, Tom.

Without care, meetings can become expensive delay points within programmes, and even impede progress. How often do we hear, "Oh, we can't do activity X, until the Y meeting has discussed it."

Some aspects I'd add from my experience would be:

i. BEFORE the meeting, the meeting convener should decide WHAT outcomes are required, and configure the meeting to achieve those outcomes. That includes information, facilities, timescales, and ensuring that participants have the authority to make decisions, attend.

ii. The purpose of the meeting should be to make decisions, or establish and confirm consensus, NOT learn new information; that should be done offline, by appropriate meeting preparation. To that end, meeting conveners should ensure that participants are adequately prepared and briefed, BEFORE attending the meeting.

iii. The meeting should be firmly scoped, against a published agenda, to align expectations, including timescale.

iv. An individual participant should be made responsible for maintaining meeting momentum, to maintain focus and relevance.

v. The key decisions of the meeting should be recorded, then reviewed, to confirm understanding and consensus and then published, to both implement the decisions made and enable audit.

Thanks for opportunity to discuss it.

Phil

6/2/2016 12:54:37 am

My apologies: my ramblings above were intended for Cristian, not Tom - sorry to all!

6/2/2016 02:10:33 am

Very good points, Phil.
It's ok, no need for apologies; anyway, I appreciate it.

steve blais link

1/22/2017 04:52:02 am

Phil, you suggest that meetings are only for decisions. What about a meeting to gather information about a problem or problem domain? What about a meeting to demonstrate a product or progress with no decision about the result? What about a status meeting with all issues postponed to problem solving meetings? It seems there may be other types of meetings which have other types of "rules" or "guidelines", no?
Christian, are you addressing the business analyst moderating the meeting, the business analyst facilitating the meeting or the business analyst participating in the meeting?

Cristian Turcu link

1/22/2017 08:27:31 am

Welcome back, Steve, with all your valuable points! Happy to feel again your huge experience!
To answer your question... I think these advises can be applied actually by all the participants in a meeting, not only BAs.

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