Question

Answer 2 below questions with a minimum of 3-4 sentences. Your answer should be typed with a complete sentence for each discussion. Please answer in your own complete thoughts, not copy and paste

Define the terms monitoring and control.

What actions can you take to help avoid the common problems associated with meetings?

Answer 1

Monitoring - Monitoring means to observe or record certain activities or processes for efficient outcome. It is done to examine the quality or progress of an activity or process. Monitoring can be done both over a short period of time and a long period of time. For example, A manager may monitor an employee by keeping a track on the employee's performance and analyse how he is working on a daily/monthly/yearly basis.

Controlling - Controlling is a measure that helps in preventing erroneous execution of activities or processes. Through controlling, a manager can ensure that the activities are being done in line with the plans. Controlling helps in better utilisation of resources to achieve targets. For example, A manager may ask one of his team members to change his or her approach for a particular activity of a project so as to complete the project in the defined timeline.

The actions that can be taken to help avoid the common problems associated with meetings are as follows:

• All meetings should have a clearly defined agenda so that unnecessary discussions do not happen.
• The agenda should be shared with all participants so that each one of them is adequately prepared for the meeting. This will help to avoid any wastage of time in the meeting.
• The meeting schedule should be communicated to all participants well in advance so that none of them fails to attend the meeting. If timely communication is not done, it may lead to a situation where a particular participant is unaware of the meeting and does not turn up.
• Meetings should be kept as short as possible. Very long meeting durations may end up in vague discussions resulting in loss of productive time.
• Meetings should be conversational in nature, where every participant gets a chance to put his or her point forward. Meetings in which only one person or very few persons speak may not achieve the required outcomes. Such meetings could turn into a training session, which was not the initial purpose.