Review How Your Group Functions

Taking time for members to honestly reflect and feedback to each other about their experience of meetings and identify improvements, is a vital part of working well in groups.

Some form of General Review of how your LAF is working is strongly recommended, especially:

• If it has never been done before
• There are major problems with meeting
• There are lots of new members

Build in regular (perhaps annual/biannual) reviews thereafter.  There may also be a need for quick Problem Review during the course of a meeting.

General Review

• First, discuss and agree clear objectives for the review.   Examples of these might be to find ways of making our meetings more effective or to see how we’re getting on in adopting a new practice
• Then allocate sufficient time on an agenda to carry it out, and consider inviting an independent facilitator to help
• One way of organising a review is like this:
  •  set one or two key questions (see below) based on your objective(s)
  • split the meeting into small groups of 3-5 to answer them; each group has a recorder who writes all responses onto flipchart paper
  • back in the large group, sheets can be displayed, common themes highlighted by a facilitator and the possible improvements prioritised
• 3 useful questions for general reviews are: ‘What is working well?’ & ‘What’s not working so well?’ & ‘What would help improve things?’

Problem Review

Take time out from general business if there is a recurring problem that is getting in the way of meetings being effective:

• Agree your objective. Examples of ‘problem’ objectives might be to explore how we can improve attendance at meetings or how to avoid finishing so late so often.
• 3 useful questions to pose people for specific issues are: ‘What contributes to this problem?’ ‘What is the impact on me personally?’ ‘What would help improve things?’
• When trying to make a change to how you run your meetings, you might also have a very quick review at the end of each meeting – just check in how it has been for people
• Consider using an external, independent facilitator for a review, particularly if there are major difficulties or contentious issues over the running of meetings