Share a time when ground rules were not established, and the meeting did not go well. Likewise, share a time when the group participation expectations were clear, and the group was able to deal with difficult issues and come to some resolution successfully.
In the future, as a teacher leader, how will you implement ground rules into the culture of your meetings?
REPLY TO MY CLASSMATE’S POST. EXPLAINING WHY YOU AGREE WITH HIS POST TO THE ABOVE DISCUSSION (A MINIMUM OF 150 WORDS)
CLASSMATE’S POST
I think ground rules are important especially in my culture. This is because we are free spirited individuals and if rules are not set then there will be chaos. When rules are established, it helps with the smooth flow of meetings and participants will respect each other’s time and be mindful of what is expected of them.
When the pandemic had just started, I had my first online meeting where no ground rules were established. The meeting was set to meet with teacher to discuss the way forward of online classes and how to support their students as best as possible. Participants were unfamiliar with the platform and as such no one muted their microphones or turned off their cameras. There was a lot of background noise, persons were walking around naked, and the participants refused to listen to the chair of the meeting. If the organizer attempted to mute or turn off their cameras, they would turn it back on. Everyone wanted to speak at the same time, and which led to disorderly conduct. The time of the meeting was not respected based on the start time as many participants were late. Because the meeting was so poorly conducted, the agenda items were dismissed, and the meeting was postponed.
Using that same meeting, there were emails sent a day before the meeting stating all the ground rules and how participants should conduct themselves during an online meeting. The email outlined all the steps of how to mute and how to raise hands if a question needs to be asked. This really helped the meeting to go smoothly and more productive. The expectation of the participants was to be respectful of other when speaking and that respect will be returned.
In future, I plan to implement ground rules into the meeting by ensure that once I have an online meeting, an email will be sent with all the ground rules to all the participants. This will help the process to be smoother and help participants understand what is expected of and what the nature of the meeting will be about. On the day of the meeting a brief run through of the ground rules will be done as a reminder to all participants.
