I am spending January travelling around the country running process workshops. This means lots of travel and time to ponder on the dynamics of the meetings.…….

Cross-functional Teams
A group of people with different functional expertise who work toward a common goal, it may include people from finance, marketing, operations, research, engineering, and human resources departments

Problem with cross-functional teams is you get competing agendas, teams taking the time and some teams asking awkward questions on points you don’t really want to cover. Best bet is to divide and rule. Identify the tricky teams and don’t invite them to the main session in the first place but invite to side-meetings to get issues sorted-out behind the scenes.

Ice-breakers
An exercise, presented as a game, to help people get familiar with each other in new situations and environments.

Ice-breakers are very useful when you haven’t had the time to prepare for the meeting. They let you burn time so avoiding covering the true meeting agenda. If you really desperate try Hide & Seek. In a big office people can completely disappear so avoiding the whole meeting in the first place.

Uninvited Guests
One who attends a meeting without prior invitation or appointment by the meeting organiser

Joker in the pack?! Going to disrupt the session? You could follow the manual on how to handle people in meetings or you could just follow the James Bond approach. You will need a tank of sharks, specially modified seats and a white cat. Just sit back and let the meeting happen.