Avoiding Death by Meeting: An Interactive Workshop for Academic Faculty Highlighting Strategies to Facilitate Effective Team Meetings

Abstract

Introduction Effective meetings are a key marker of team function and are critical for task management. While important, the skill set for running an effective meeting is poorly understood. Methods We developed an interactive curriculum that provided physician leaders in academic medicine with generalizable knowledge and skills to effectively plan and lead various types of team meetings, leverage engagement, and troubleshoot challenging personalities. This workshop (either 60 or 90 minutes) included a video-based demonstration, interactive and facilitated small- and large-group discussion, and a brief didactic to teach best practices in leading meetings. Participants included academic physicians across a spectrum of rank, specialty, and leadership experience. Knowledge, attitudes, and anticipated behavior changes were evaluated using postsurveys including 5-point Likert-type scale questions (1 = poor, 5 = outstanding) and free-text responses. Results Fifty-seven participants rated the workshop highly with regard to content (M = 4.8), audiovisual materials (M = 4.7), and overall (M = 4.8). Most participants (82%) indicated a plan to change future design or utilization of an agenda as a result of this workshop. Feedback highlighted the need to incorporate practice opportunities in future iterations of the workshop. Discussion Our results demonstrated that this standalone, interactive workshop focused on skills to effectively lead team meetings was well received and improved knowledge and attitudes of participants across a spectrum of rank, specialty, and leadership experience. The curriculum was time-efficient, widely generalizable, and can be easily adapted for use within academic medical centers to improve meeting effectiveness.

Keywords

• Facilitation
• Leadership
• Effective Meeting
• Professional Development
• Faculty Development