In the chair

Chairing Meetings, Boards and Committees.

A half day on the whole craft of chairing: purpose, preparation, reaching decisions, group dynamics, standing orders and reviewing your own practice.

Level: Explore
Learning time: 5 hours 30 minutes
Where: Chairing Meetings, Boards and Committees
Price: £129

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About this course

Overview and Outcomes.

Who It's For

New and experienced chairs of boards, committees and public meetings

Overview

Chairing well is one of the most consequential and least developed skills in public governance. This programme covers the whole craft over a half day, from what chairing is for and the chair and chief executive partnership, through preparation, agenda design and the live work of reaching decisions, to the people and procedure that make a room fair. It draws on Rogelberg, Lencioni, Kaner, Kline, Bion, Janis and Edmondson, sets out the rules for councils, NHS bodies and charities in Wales and England, and finishes with Handforth, HBOS and Attlee's Cabinet as tests of everything that has gone before.

Aims

This programme aims to develop chairs who can carry a meeting from purpose to record: preparing well, reading and holding the room, applying the rules fairly and reviewing their own practice. It is for new and experienced chairs of boards, committees and public meetings who want decisions that are sound, open and owned by the whole room.

In summary, you will be able to:

Explain the purpose and responsibilities of the chair, including the chair and chief executive relationship, and decide what each meeting and agenda item is for.
Lead a meeting from preparation to decision, using agenda design, structured discussion, group dynamics and standing orders to keep the room fair and productive.
Assess chairing practice in real cases and in your own meetings, using minutes, actions and evaluation to improve the quality of collective decisions.

What you'll develop

Across this Explore, you will develop the ability to:

Explain why chairing is a craft rather than a seat, and describe the chair's responsibilities using purpose, process, people and product.
Identify which of Lencioni's four meeting types fits a conversation and recognise the common signs of a mismatch.
Plan a meeting opening and run each agenda item using the five moves of frame, clarify, debate, test and record.
Identify where the rules for your meeting come from and check that it is quorate, including when members leave part way through.
Distinguish how the chairing of audit, scrutiny, planning, remuneration and stakeholder committees should differ according to their purpose.
Explain how unclear authority and process conflict caused the Handforth meeting to break down, and identify how settling who presides helps prevent this.

What is inside

Built from 4 parts.

5 hours 30 minutes of learning.

01The chair's true purposeRole of the chair and good governanceBitesize2 modules
02From agenda to decisionMeeting agendas, papers and decision makingBitesize2 modules
03Holding the whole roomStanding orders, quorum and interestsBitesize2 modules
04Committees in the public eyeChairing committees, scrutiny and minutesBitesize3 modules

Where it fits

Keep going.

Part of the Chairing Meetings, Boards and Committees topic.

How credit works

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You are hereExplore, 5 hours 30 minutes, £129

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