Wendy: Welcome to the session on Running Better Meetings.
This is the first session of two sessions on effective meeting facilitation, managing conflict, and running safe meetings.
I am your facilitator, Wendy, one of the chairs of the Positive Work Environments community group, and I will be running this meeting and training today. On the agenda, first we are going to talk about logistics and how this training will work, effective meetings facilitation, and managing conflicts and running safe meetings.
To do a bit of a deeper dive into the topics that we will be covering today, for Effective Meeting Facilitation, we will be talking about setting the stage for a new working group, general overview of tools and practices in W3C, establishing group behavior, and fostering debate and discussion.
In the section on managing conflict and running safe meetings we will be talking about the CEPC or code of conduct, defining the role of the chair, how to handle incidents and understanding cultural differences and approaching situations with empathy.
In terms of logistics, this session is pre-recorded and should be viewed before attending a live chairs training session. Live chairs training sessions will cover any questions related to this session as well as sessions on tools and handling difficult situations.
These live sessions will not be recorded due to the nature of some of the topics being discussed but we encourage people to join in on the live sessions to learn a little bit more about chairing meetings.
And on the topic of who's a chair, this training is meant for chairs, task force leads, meeting facilitators, or people interested in taking on one of those roles in the future. We hope that this training will help people either who are actively chairing or planning to in the future, understand the role and take action on how to become an even better chair in the future. We'll be using chair as a shorthand throughout this meeting but know that we are referring to anyone leading a meeting, including taskforce leads or meeting facilitators.
Let's dive right in and talk about effective meeting facilitation.
When we're talking about effective meeting facilitation, what do we mean by effectiveness? Is a group having constructive conversations about the work with a variety of participants, is there a diversity of membership and opinions being expressed? And do participants feel welcome, heard, and supported as members of the group.
When you are setting the stage for a new group, or a newly rechartered group, this is an opportunity to establish patterns, work modes, and procedures. This can be done in a number of ways, and experimentation may be required to find is going to work for your group. Especially for a new group stuff you decide at the, at the top of the group, may not be the thing that works for you in the end. And if you're a group that has been running for a long time, it's always good to reexplore your procedures and work modes to see if they're still working for you.
Regardless of whether you're starting a new group, or a rechartered group, it's important to get off on the on the right foot. Ensuring that every participant has a chance to introduce themselves to the group regardless of when they join is a good first step. This can happen over email, or in a meeting, whatever people prefer. New participants should be greeted by the chairs. A welcome email is a good way to ensure the new members have the information that they need. New members should know the key details of the group, the call schedule, connection details, what repositories you use; any of your procedures or work modes.
It helps them feel more welcome and it's a good opportunity for you to get to know them as well. You can offer a call or just exchange emails back and forth before the first meeting.
As you set up a group or if you're working on a group that has been around for a while, it's important to define goals and while your high-level goals should be based on your Charter document, you'll also want to work on smaller-scale goals to get you to your deliverables. Groups can track goals in any way they prefer, but it can be helpful to have a shareable goal or project tracker to keep the chairs on top of schedules as well as the participants. This can also be a good way for new members who have joined the group to understand what's being worked on currently, especially if they're joining part way through a group's charter.
When you're starting a group from scratch or brand new, be it a working or community group, you're going to want to establish some procedures, you're going to have to decide how often will the group meet and when, how will the group meet when they're online or in-person, what modes of communication will that group use, and how will you manage scribing, queue management, or documentation?
When determining how often a group should meet and when you should look at a couple of different factors, the timezone distribution of the participants in your group, the time commitment for participants, and work items. Remember that meeting cadence can always change or be amended, if any of these factors change. For instance, when the group starts, you might have a lot of members in North America and Europe, but partway through the group's time, suddenly a bunch of people join from Australia or Taiwan. You're going to want to adjust your meeting schedule to accommodate those people being able to participate comfortably in meetings. There might be lulls in the work, things slow down, maybe you are in a publication cycle, and most of the work is editorial or you're in the middle of a very meaty issue and you need to discuss things every week. You can adjust your time accordingly, but with the agreement of the group.
In terms of location, most of our meetings will be virtual or hybrid. The W3C uses Zoom as its meeting software. There are alternatives, and it's important to pick what will work best for your group. Zoom most often works best, but there could be exceptions to this rule. For in-person meetings outside of TPAC you want to choose a location that works for everyone and that can be a challenge and it's important to consider the travel needs or abilities of the participants of your group.
When you're planning a face-to-face meeting, it's a great opportunity to get your group together to work on tasks and get to know one another. When planning them, you'll want to consider a few things. The location: do members of your group require visas or other documents to travel there. Are there any travel restrictions? The accessibility of the location. And that includes not only the venue where you plan to hold the meeting but also any hotels or public transit that you might be using. Just imagine your office might be wheelchair accessible but if the nearest subway station is not, that might be a bit of a problem. The safety, and this is a tricky one. But where you're planning to hold the meeting. Is it a country, state, or province that has laws that might infringe on human rights that would impact your participants? If there are highly restrictive laws on anything relating to the human experience, you know, laws dictating the behavior of LGBTQ+ individuals, gender, laws that discriminate based on disability. You might not want to hold a meeting there, it might not be safe for all of your participants.
When you're in a group, there are a variety of ways that you can communicate. There are many different tools and platforms that you can use. For the most part, W3C uses IRC (internet relay chat) and email for most of our communication. But there are alternatives. You want to choose the option that is going to work best for your group, but you need to balance that with the importance of working in the open and having accessible tools and records. One of the reasons we continue to use IRC is because it is very good at working in the open because we have built up tools around it and it can be accessible for people. Things like Discord or Slack can also be very accessible for people but they may make working in the open a little bit harder. So you're going to want to consider that when you're choosing tools for the group.
Much of the role of being a chair is meeting management. Ensuring that everyone is participating equally, that the flow of conversation and the positive work environment is being maintained. That's all part of chairing. You're going to have to do things like establish scribing responsibilities, queue management, and who's going to handle documentation? Agendas and minutes. This can be something you can decide as a group or amongst a group of chairs. Either way, what you want to achieve is consistency. You want to make sure that people know what to expect from you, and that you are delivering on those expectations.
Here are a couple of resources for you to use and refer to for the ins-and-outs of the technical side of chairing and that includes the W3C Chair's Guide, the Process for Busy People or if you are not busy, the whole Process.
The next thing we're going to talk about is establishing group behavior.
One of the key parts of work in W3C is openness. Anyone could see what we're doing. They can participate, and they can give feedback. Openness can be really delicate and it's important to ensure that the group is fostering open communication in its practices and behaviors.
The code of conduct, which was formerly known, as the code of ethics and professional conduct (CEPC) was drafted by the positive work environment community group, as a guide to participant behavior within W3C. Chairs should introduce their groups to the Code of Conduct as early and often as possible. And ensure that they'e familiar with the document. The important thing to remember with the code of conduct is that it governs everything we do, this includes your behavior in meetings, in mailing lists, on GitHub, and even as far as social media. If you're talking about your working group, compatriots on social media, that is part of the code of conduct and you should be mindful of it.
The W3C is also committed to making the organization an inclusive and diverse space. Diversity will only strengthen the work we do and inclusion will ensure a welcoming and supportive environment for people of all backgrounds. Chairs should be conscious of ensuring the group is welcoming and supportive to all participants. This can include things like meeting times. How we speak to one another and setting up good group behaviors.
The positive work environments community group is working on documents that will outline how chairs and other leaders within W3C should handle incidents. It can also be helpful within a group to share that information or set ground rules of your own, having a consensus on how the group may handle incidents can help prevent them. Establishing a baseline of behavior and being very clear about how things will be handled can also help a group follow these standards.
It's also important to foster debate and discussion when serving as a chair.
Discussion and debate is part of the standard process and many people, both participants and observers will have ideas and thoughts that they want to share. We are a group of very opinionated people. As a chair, your role is to create space and ensure ideas are shared discussed and handled appropriately. Your role is to help determine the appropriateness of a topic, whether your group can take it on as a task, but not whether the idea has merit or not. This can be really challenging as a chair. Speaking as a chair myself, it can be very difficult to take your opinion out of things. And it is okay as a chair to have opinions. What's important is that you make sure that every idea gets a fair hearing as long as it's appropriate for the group and that you are following procedures, like the Process when deciding whether to take something on or not. It is okay to disagree with something, but you shouldn't block it just because you disagree with it. But if the group comes to a consensus then you can proceed.
Everyone who has joined a group, and the group that you are working on, has an interest in that topic or problem, but the group is working on. Their experience or familiarity with the topic can range from being an expert to newly interested, some people may consider themselves more or less technical than others. As a chair, your role is to encourage and facilitate participation from everyone. This can happen in a number of ways and the goal is to ensure everyone walks away feeling that they've had a stake in the work that you're doing.
Inevitably, there will be people in the group who are more vocal than others. This could be the person that speaks up the most in the meetings. Another person can write the most comments or log the most issues. Participants like this can make chairing easier. Often times because then you know you always have someone to rely on who's going to have a comment or an opinion on the topic you're discussing. However, it's important not to let those who are more vocal crowd out those who need more space. Some participants may need time to think about a topic before commenting or feel discouraged because they're not as confident in their reply as the person who speaks up every time. Your role is to balance these voices, facilitate their participation and make everyone feel heard.
It's helpful to create alternative ways for people to participate in group activities for multiple reasons. It might be due to someone not feeling comfortable speaking up in their non-native language, it could be that someone has a recurring work meeting that always overlaps working group meetings and they can never attend. You want to explore work modes that encourage asynchronous participation. Like making comments in GitHub, participating in email threads, joining subgroups, or simply asking participants what they would like to do. Finding systems that work for your group is the best way that you're going to get full participation.
And let's talk about one of the hardest parts about being a chair, which is managing conflict and running safe meetings.
Code of conduct is a resource for all W3C participants to help understand what is expected of us and what we can expect from our fellow participants. When someone breaks those expectations, the code of conduct also provides guidance on what to do and how to approach these incidents. Code of conduct applies to all participants equally but some roles hold more responsibility than others.
In a code of conduct, the role of the chair is dressed in section 4, in regards to reporting violations. The chair or team contact is often the best first contact in case of an incident. Chairs are empowered to take action in case of an incident as long as that action is in order to stop the harm, and is proportionate to the action.
In most cases, a code of conduct incident will take place within the context of group work like a meeting or in communications like IRC or email. In those situations when the chair is not the one committing the action, the chair or team contact is the first point of contact for someone to report the action, if you have not already noticed it. As a chair part of your role, is to make it clear that you are open and receptive to incident reporting and will handle it appropriately.
If a complaint is raised against you as a chair or involves you as a witness or participant, you need to step back from handling it. Depending on the situation, this can be handled by one of your co-chairs or your team contact, or an ombudsperson.
I also want to make sure that it's emphasized that being a chair does have a level of responsibility, especially over the care and well-being of your group, but your well-being matters as well. If a situation comes up where handling it would also endanger you in any way, be that physically, mentally, or emotionally. It's important to protect yourself. Hand the issue off to another chair, a team contact, or an ombudsperson, call for help, do whatever you need to do to protect yourself as well as your participants.
Your team contact is there to also support you with any issues that might arise and can connect you or people involved with support within W3C. In addition to the team contacts W3C has ombudspeople responsible for advising and handling disciplinary issues, the ombuds can assist in any way needed, including taking on a case and overseeing its resolution.
How you handle incidents, depends on the severity and complexity of the situation. Factors to consider are the type of issue, how it has impacted the victim or group, if there's any immediate danger, the severity of the action, the frequency and where it took place. Your safety, and the safety of your participant is paramount.
Let's say for example, someone makes a rude comment towards another participant in a meeting. To assess the issue you want to look at factors such as does this participant have a habit of making these comments, is the comment a personal attack or is the comment a threat of some kind. As a chair, you have to rely on your judgment but also ensure that you were getting feedback from the people involved. If the person who made the comment is good friends with the person it's directed at and they perceive it as a joke instead of an insult, you may want to handle the issue as a warning to both that it can make meetings uncomfortable for other people. If the person who the comment was directed at it hurt or offended, you need to see if it's possible that the two involved can reconcile or reach a neutral outcome. If it's more serious like a threat you may need to take more drastic actions like contacting an ombudsperson or removing that person from the meeting. It can be really hard to make these assessments but the end of the day, it is up to you.
In the code of conduct we outline both expected behaviors and unacceptable ones. But in some cases behavior can fall into a gray area between the two. This is really where factors like frequency, impact, and judgment come into play. A behavior or action that is an annoyance in isolation can become bullying, intimidation, or offensive when done repeatedly.
Whenever an incident occurs documenting it will help with understanding the factors. It can help you keep track of information and facts which will, aid in whatever steps are required. Documentation should be private with the privacy of the people involved preserved. The documentation may be needed in case of any escalation or if an investigation is required. W3C communication is generally done in the open, we use mailing lists that are published to archives, when handling documentation of issues like this, it might be prudent to avoid using the mailing lists, or at least using any public facing ones. You do not want to accidentally expose private information, especially if it's sensitive. If you have an issue or multiple issues that require documentation, but are not sure how to safely do it, speak with an ombudsperson or team member to find out the best path to documentation.
And depending on the issue, there will be multiple ways to escalate it. For most issues resolution can be performed within the group either in person or online or through email. Most of the time it will be a matter of talking about the issue with the people involved and getting an apology or an agreement on how to proceed. For more complex issues processes like mediation or investigation may be required. In the most severe cases, disciplinary action or even law enforcement may be required. In these situations it is important to contact an ombudsperson to help you manage the process.
Incidents with the lowest severity or complexity can likely be handled when they occur handling issues quickly and calmly can be the best way to steer and demonstrate good group behavior. In cases where an issue is raised later or occurs outside of a situation you've observed, handle it factually, and with the considerations of all parties in mind. This can be done over email or in any way the parties feel comfortable with.
Let's say, for example, that during a meeting a participant makes a rude, offhand, unqueued comment about someone else's idea. The meeting is taking place over Zoom and everyone has their cameras off. So you're unsure if the person whose idea was just commented on has heard or reacted to it. You remind the participant who made the comment that comments like that are not welcome in the group, and if they have any feedback to please add themselves to the queue in order to make the comment. Through email you reach out to the person who the comment was directed at to check in on them. Based on their reply, you can decide how to proceed. It's important, especially when you're not the one at the receiving end of an incident that you check in with the person who is, they may brush it off and say that it doesn't matter. They may take great offense and want something done about it or they may not have even heard the comment in the first place. It's important to make sure that you are checking in with people, especially in cases where you might be worried for their safety.
Use the resources that you have around you as a chair, including your fellow co-chairs, facilitators, or team contacts. As a team it might be beneficial to discuss in advance how you might handle certain scenarios. It's better to be prepared for something that does not happen than to be caught off-guard by something that does.
For more complex issues or where other steps have failed mediation might be the option. Mediation can be conducted by a chair or a professional mediator to bring parties together to come to a resolution. As a chair you may be able to handle basic mediation for some situations and your relationship and context with the participants might actually be helpful to the situation. This can be best for things where maybe there was a misunderstanding or someone said something off-color that needs to be apologized for and resolved. However, if you feel an incident may require professional mediation or is beyond your abilities, it's time to contact an ombudsperson who will help you with what's required. Especially if it's an incident that is ongoing and you're hoping that it can be resolved.
If an incident is high in severity, frequency, or complexity an investigation, may be required, like with mediation an investigation would be performed by a professional. An ombudsperson should be involved to help with handling anything required, any documentation you have in relation to the incident will be needed.
Just to give an example of a situation that might require investigation, you just returned from a face-to-face meeting in another country when you receive an email from one of your participants, A. During the meeting, after one of the group dinners, A was in a cab with another participant because they were staying at the same hotel. During the cab ride, the other participant made unwanted advances towards A, including touching them and several inappropriate comments about their appearance. Thankfully the cab ride was short and A was able to quickly get away from the other person once they arrived at the hotel. But A is shaken, and concerned that the other participant may do this again. You ask if it is okay that you document the facts of the situation and take the case to an ombudsperson and with A's permission, you do. You can also ask A if there's anything else you can do to ensure their comfort and safety. This is a case for investigation, it's important that you, with the permission of the person involved, document everything appropriately, and factually and take it to an ombudsperson.
The reason for this being an investigation is that this could be a pattern of behavior. This could be something that needs to be discussed with the people involved, but it's beyond your scope as a chair and you should just make sure that everyone's safety and comfort is preserved. As a chair, you might also want to discuss with the person involved, you know, what the next steps might be. This could be ensuring that these two people are never left alone together or finding ways around participation.
If there is ever an incident that constitutes an emergency, contact local services, this information will be made available to you for TPAC, and if you are preparing for a face-to-face meeting, you should be also be preparing contact information for local services as a chair for the face-to-face meeting. This includes getting emergency phone numbers like police, fire, ambulance, or any local services that might be needed. The important thing to do is to ensure the safety and well-being of your participants. You need to take whatever immediate action required to do that. As soon as possible, contact an ombudsperson or a member of W3C staff. What's really important here is ensuring that everyone is safe. This might mean taking drastic action quickly and reporting after, this could mean calling the police. It really depends on the situation, but you must act with your best judgement in mind and the safety of everyone involved.
When an incident does occur, emotions are often high. Be it a poorly worded comment or an act of violence. Empathy is important in handling those emotions with care. Remember that you may not understand why someone is hurt or impacted by the words or actions of another person. It is not your role to explain or find the reason, but it might be your role to find a solution or common ground between the people. Remember that the impact of a statement or action always outweighs the intent even if you are sure that the person who said something meant well or, you know them really well and they wouldn't ever have meant to hurt someone. If the person who received it feels hurt, their hurt is valid and that hurt should be acknowledged. So address it with empathy and be understanding.
Remember that part of what makes W3C participation exciting is the opportunity to work with people from all over the world who share the same interests as us. Communicating and understanding one another is really important, and we have to be careful about communicating and understanding cultural differences.
The primary language of communication within W3C is English. However, that is not the native language of most of our participants. Understand that for some communicating their ideas in a language that is not their native one can be a challenge. They may choose not to speak until they are confident in making their point or they may offer other forms of communication like a GitHub comment or email.
Everybody communicates differently and everybody has different communication styles, preferences, and needs. Some people thrive on in-person engagement and others prefer a Zoom call. Others still may need time and space to communicate their ideas. Be that in an email or a GitHub thread. Ensure that you're giving your participants options and space to communicate. Do not make assumptions on someone's opinion in the absence of one, and most importantly, silence does not mean consent. Make sure that you are listening to everyone and respecting different communication styles. Even if you know someone really well check in with them before you make any assumptions on their behalf.
That wraps up this first part of meeting facilitation training, thank you for participating. Being a chair or meeting facilitator is a key role in W3C and we appreciate your participation in this training. We have provided additional links to resources on this page and if you have any questions, please reach out to the Positive Work Environments community group. The next session of training will be held live. Thank you again for participating.