Running the room

How to run a peer group meeting that matters

Most peer group meetings do not fail in the room. They fail in the week before, when nobody decided what the meeting was for. The leader who walks in with a clear purpose, a prepared presenter and a plan for the clock will run a better meeting than a more gifted facilitator who is improvising.

Decide what the meeting is for

Every meeting needs one main event. Usually that is a member bringing a real decision or a real problem in enough depth for the group to work on it. Updates, guests and social time all matter, but they are there to support the main event, not to replace it. If you cannot say in one sentence what this month's meeting is for, the members will not be able to either.

Prepare the presenter, not just the agenda

The quality of a presentation is set before anyone sits down. Talk with the presenter a week or two ahead. Ask what decision they are facing, what they have already tried, and what they are not saying. The most useful question is often the simplest one: what would you like the group to help you with? A presenter who can answer that clearly gives the room something to work on. A presenter who cannot will give a status report.

Ask for any background material early enough that members can read it. Then make sure they do.

Protect the time

Updates expand to fill whatever time you give them. Set a limit, hold it kindly and firmly, and save the bulk of the meeting for the presentation. When an update turns out to be the real issue, note it and come back to it, or offer it the main slot next month. Members notice when the leader protects the time, and they start to prepare for it.

Questions before advice

The best groups spend most of their time asking questions and very little giving advice. Questions help the presenter see the problem more clearly. Advice usually tells them what the person giving it would do, which is a different thing. Hold the room in questions longer than feels natural. When the group does move to responses, ask members to share their own experience with a similar situation rather than tell the presenter what to do.

Close the loop

End the presentation by asking the presenter what they are taking away and what they will do next. Write it down. At the next meeting, ask how it went. That small habit tells every member that what happens in the room leads somewhere. It is also the clearest signal a new member will get that this group is worth the time.

After the meeting

Send a short note within a day or two: what was decided, who is presenting next, and anything members agreed to do. Keep it free of anything confidential. Then call anyone who seemed off, missed the meeting or went quiet. Five minutes on the phone between meetings does more for a group than an extra hour in the room.

From Leading the Room, a book in progress by Gerry Morton on how great peer groups are led, drawn from twenty-two years in Vistage, EO, YPO and TIGER 21.