Mark Lorion gives a view on how meetings can now be made more productive.

How many times have you sat in an internal meeting, or an external customer meeting where you are perhaps trying to close a deal, when somebody has posed a question or suggested a new scenario that you can’t respond to there and then? The answer for most people would be “I’ve lost count” if we’re honest, though we probably made a guestimate to the answer. These situations occur regularly and are not necessarily due to a lack or preparation, you just can’t prepare for every question.

We’ve grown used to having instant access to information through the internet, or the applications we use for our day to day jobs, but often when it comes to meetings many of these ideas are left at the door, and we revert to old-school ways of running meetings. Often this leads to the situation described above where it is not possible to make a decision about a project, point of process or contract because some of the information required by the group is missing.

So what is different about collaborative meetings, surely they are collaborative by definition, with a group of people sitting in a room making decisions? But there is usually more than one element in any meeting that is static and doesn’t adapt to the discussion. Whether it is a presentation, spreadsheet or printout being used to share key data used by the group, it is more often than not, fixed - unable to change with the discussion or provide insight that had not been predicted ahead of the meeting. This leads to delayed decisions and reduces the speed with which an organisation can react to the challenges in front of it.

Recently progressive companies have begun to conduct their business reviews, strategy meetings and planning sessions in a much more productive way - using dynamic data visualisations to facilitate collaboration among participants and yield actionable results signed onto by all stakeholders. So how does it work in practice?

The collaborative meeting

Whether you're facilitating a budget meeting, sales planning workshop, or executive session, using data visualisations as the core presentation platform greatly changes the dynamic -- and outcome -- of a meeting. Using the right in-memory tools offers flexibility so you can "play" with different scenarios, regardless of data constraints, as the meeting demands it. Compare as many as you want, to view the impact immediately and better assess the value of each scenario. Because these tools produce visualizations as multi-dimensional representations, it's easy to point out trends and outliers.

Maximum meeting interaction is almost a given. Questions are encouraged and no one leaves the meeting having heard one too many "I'll have to get back to you on that." Data tables with created columns can be exported on the spot, for a direct implementation of your work. Decisions are made in the room, with a true sense of consensus. No delays, immediate and actionable decisions.

So, if you are thinking about trying a collaborative approach to your meetings, where even the data is a participant, here are some do’s and don’ts to get you off on the right foot.

Do

• Prepare - this is key. Scope the issue and define the basic question(s) to be resolved. More time spent preparing the data and the flow of the visualisations will help make the workshop or meeting dynamic, interactive and focused

• Develop basic visualisations and organise filters for those visualisations. Use tagging to determine "in" and "out" points, maybe with multiple scenarios

• Define shared success of the session (what is the desired outcome?)

• Define meeting functions. Our customers indicate that defining roles of attendees helps the meeting flow and end on schedule. Roles could include: meeting facilitator to manage time and make sure decisions are made, experienced visualisation "driver", note taker and subject matter experts.

• Agree on what to do with discoveries made during the meeting that are not related to the pre-identified issue

• Use easy to understand charts. Not all participants will be data experts

• Make wrap up of conclusions and define next steps

Don't

• Skimp on preparation. The success of the meeting depends on defining the basic question(s) to be resolved so that expectations are aligned

• Be unprepared for data to be challenged

• Let participants put their own agendas ahead of best overall result

• Include analysts in executive sessions. It’s better to have dedicated sessions for each group as they have different focuses

• Let the session go on too long. Shorter, more frequent sessions are more productive

• Let the meeting digress into analysis only, without a decision being reached. Especially in the executive meeting – the focus should be on quick decision-making!

By meeting collaboratively using an interactive visualization platform, the time is more productively spent and the process of getting to business answers is accelerated. All of the organisations we speak with agree that collaborative meetings yield better and more informed decisions more quickly than with typical PowerPoint presentation-based sessions. By taking the collaborative approach it's easier to find common ground and reach consensus among all stakeholders. The net outcome of the dynamic meeting is that you’ll gain an information advantage, as well as a competitive one.

Mark Lorion is VP of marketing, Spotfire Products TIBCO Spotfire Inc.