A few words about
MEETINGS
—by Tom Roberts, January, 2011
How are the meeting seats arranged?
Although seemingly a trivial question, how the seats are arranged in the meeting has a great impact on member participation during the meeting. Getting most of the membership to add their ideas, make motions, and participate in discussions is usually considered desirable but often somewhat difficult. It is therefore useful to use a seating arrangement that encourages participation, rather than discourages it.
The audience-and-presenter arrangement is typical of many meetings. The chair and perhaps other officers are seated at the front of the meeting facing the membership and everyone else is seated in chairs arranged in rows facing front. This is a good arrangement if the purpose of the meeting is indeed simply a presentation, such as when a speaker is invited to talk to the group. However, in a meeting whose purpose is to involve the membership in discussions as participants (rather than as only listeners), it is a poor arrangement, since most of the members are looking at the back of other members’ heads. The attention of the membership is directed toward the front instead of toward each other. It is impossible to tell what other people are thinking by their facial expressions. Such an arrangement re-enforces hierarchical relationships of rulers and subjects rather than facilitating participation among equals.
The round table approach. There was a reason that King Arthur used a round table—it was to assure that everyone seated felt equal, since there is no favored position in a circle. Using a round table at the time was a bold political statement, for it said the king was but a knight among knights. Similarly, when meeting seats are arranged in a circle, or around a few tables pushed together with everyone sitting around the edges, everybody can see everyone else’s face. When presenting an opinion during a meeting, being able to see the faces and body language of the listeners, and having them see yours, is an important part of the communication. When you are talking to someone, you want to be able to look them in the eye; as they listen, they want to do the same.
To start a meeting with seating arranged to encourage participation, it is often necessary for the first people who arrive to take a few minutes to rearrange the chairs and/or tables. When others arrive they will be able to take their seats without having to have everyone get up for the rearrangement to be made. Thus with four tables, the best arrangement is to have them set up two tables long and two tables wide, or in a square with an open space in the middle.
Sometimes, due to the physical layout of the room being used, it is necessary to have the tables and/or chairs be set up in a long narrow arrangement. Even though not ideal, this is still far better than the audience-and-presenter arrangement if one of your goals is to have more folks add their thoughts to the discussion.
