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The Glossary of Meeting Terms describes terminology and acronyms related to meetings and all the activities we do in those meetings. We've gathered this information from far and wide, so enjoy! And hey — if you have corrections or additions, please don't hesitate to contact us!

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An observer is a meeting role granted by some organizations to non-members to allow them to monitor or participate in the organization's activities. Most commonly, observers rights in the meeting are restricted to observing; they can attend the meeting and listen to the conversation, but they are not expected to actively participate in the discussion and cannot vote or otherwise officially take part in decision making.

The one-phrase close is a technique used to end team meetings. Before the group leaves the meeting, each person takes a turn sharing one word or phrase about how they're feeling regarding the work completed during the meeting. Popularized by Verne Harnish, this technique is intended to give everyone a chance to express either frustration or appreciation and bring closure to the discussion. It also helps the team leader identify who might have unresolved issues that they should follow-up on...

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A One-on-One Meeting is used to offer support, develop relationships, and ensure mutual accountability between two people.

You can find an introduction to One-on-One Meetings in Chapter 19 of our book, Where the Action Is. You may also want to visit the Learn More link, below, for resources to help you plan, run, and troubleshoot the specific meetings your team needs.

Examples The Manager/Employee One-on-One... read more

Open Discussion is the term used to describe unstructured dialogue within a meeting. In an open discussion, anyone present can speak for as long as they like, and there are no rules governing turn-taking, topic adherence, or other constraints on the discussion.

Unless otherwise stated by the meeting leader, open discussion is the default approach assumed to be in use for most meetings. Open discussion allows for the greatest freedom in the conversation, which makes it also the...

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ORID is an acronym describing the 4 stages of questions that facilitators can use to focus a conversation towards a useful result. ORID stands for:

Objective: questions about facts, about what is. Reflective: questions about how people react to and feel about the facts. Interpretive: questions to figure our what it means, and the implications. Decisional: questions to figure out what to do and what happens next.

ORID is a foundation of the Institute of Cultural Affairs (ICA)...

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