Aviv Shahar has a good piece on his blog about the effectiveness (or lack thereof) of team meetings. He stresses two points that I entirely agree with: the importance of framing the conversation, and the requirement of connecting the different conversations that take place as "work."

The issue here is which conversation are we having? Are we addressing what went wrong last week, or are we assessing what should our strategy be in the middle market for the next year? Aviv gives the example of five highly intelligent managers meeting to collaborate, but somehow their collective IQ goes way down rather than being multiplied.

As consultants and managers, we are familiar with the dysfunctions that occur in such a situation. Not listening, making assumptions and inferences, personal agendas, rat holes. One key to results in collaborating is to clearly frame the context and the purpose of the discussion. And then to break that work into several parts, and not conflate them. Aviv talks about effectively differentiating between diagnostic, prescriptive and explorative conversations.

In our work, what helps this is having a clear focal question (or series of these) worked out ahead of time. Focus the collective power in the room toward a specific and relevant issue. If there are several, take them one at a time; then stop and let the team reflect and digest, making sure that the various key points are appreciated (rather than being attacked.) Get the ideas to play out against each other, not the players.

There is a rhythm to this work that can be "surfed" by the facilitator. Gather diverging ideas, then converge on the key issues. Amplify the consequences and dependencies if certain paths would be followed. Once several possibilities are prioritized, clarify the trade-offs involved, from different perspectives (market, organizational capability, customer reaction, etc.) Get other points of view and integrate these into your  deliberations. Define your steps, and check that you have agreement as you go along.

Conversations can be difficult; and they can be connected; and they can be productive.