Troy Flanagan attended his first green committee meeting at 28 years old as a superintendent at Round Hill Country Club, surrounded by members twice his age, yet confident about the course.
“I went in thinking that meeting was going to be a piece of cake and, man, it was digs left and right,” Flanagan says. “‘We don’t like this, we don’t like that. Why is this happening to that?’ I was just totally caught off guard. I was on my heels. I’m defensive the whole time.” Afterward, he realized he needed to be prepared for “the worst every time.”
Flanagan has worked as the director of golf course maintenance at The Olympic Club in San Francisco for 11 years, spending more time in discussions than on the club’s two 18-hole courses and 9-hole short course. He attends annual board meetings, monthly member meetings, monthly green committee meetings, biweekly executive team meetings and hosts weekly manager meetings.
Superintendents and directors like Flanagan spend plenty of time in meetings, making their discussions important to maintaining a course.
Steven Rogelberg, author and organizational psychologist, became motivated to research meetings because, “We just assume that bad meetings are the cost of doing business,” he says.
The purpose of having a meeting is to not only spread information, but also to encourage people to interact and engage with that information, Rogelberg adds.
I’ll pencil you in
Rogelberg says creating a meeting agenda helps determine attendees and decide if a meeting is the best way to keep people informed or if there are other options.
“Thinking about the agenda really allows you to be much more intentional with your choices and not just meet out of habit,” he says, “and not just take over someone’s calendar and throw them on your invite list.”
To make green committee meetings informative and effective, Flanagan asks members to prepare questions for the agenda, allowing him to research an answer beforehand.
Having these questions ensures the correct topics will be addressed and that they stay within their timeframe. The Olympic Club aims to keep green committee meetings to around an hour.
To create an agenda, Flanagan writes down some notes while anticipating what concerns the committee will have. These concerns become the first items on the agenda. Keeping the committee and what they hope to accomplish in mind shows both preparation and care.
“They understand I’m anticipating what they want and that I know what they want,” Flanagan says. “We’re trying to achieve what they want and what we’re doing to achieve that.”
Former superintendent Owen Coulson sees the big picture of golf course and people management in his role as owner of Grassmentor, a consulting service for superintendents offering guidance to managing their courses. Coulson’s time on the course and helping peers gives him perspective on how to prepare for meetings.
Before meetings, he jots down a few notes on topics to discuss. He then researches others to prepare for questions that might arise during the meeting.
By preparing questions, superintendents and directors can frame their agenda like a set of questions that need to be answered, rather than a list of topics.
“Now you have to really stop and think about why you’re having the meeting is to answer these questions,” says Rogelberg, whose books include “Glad We Met,” a look at the art and science of meetings. “By framing your agenda items as questions, you create an engaging challenge for folks. You also know if the meeting has been successful because the questions will have been answered.”
If you lack questions, a meeting may not be necessary, Rogelberg adds.
Time to start the meeting
Following the creation of the agenda, it’s key to guarantee attendees are interacting with each other and the host.
Whether in meetings or around the course, Coulson emphasizes that how people are treated determines the success of the course. If he were to approach an employee demanding they fix a flag on the course, criticizing them for not being smart enough to already do so, the odds of them looking for a new job and disliking their work increase. If he were to compliment the work they have already accomplished and then ask them to fix the flag, he would never have to ask again.
“There’s no superintendent in the entire world that can maintain a golf course without a crew,” Coulson says. “If you treat a crew like trash, if you met with them in very harmful, strong and bad ways, guess what, they’re looking at their phones and trying to find another place to go to.”
It can be difficult to remain calm during meetings — especially when you’re, say, 28 years old and receiving criticism. Looking back, Flanagan recommends people take a step back when they become frustrated.
“What you can also do is, ‘I don’t know the answer to that, or, you know what, you’re saying that x, y and z is not good, the fairway at No. 5 or the greens are too soft. I didn’t know that. Let me go out, take a look and I’ll get back to you,’” Flanagan says. “That kind of gives you the chance to remove yourself from that situation.”
Giving others the time to share their thoughts and opinions is crucial to preventing leader blind spot, which can occur when the meeting’s leader leaves thinking it was successful, while everyone else thinks the opposite. This occurs because the leader spent most of the time talking.
“That blind spot’s problematic,” Rogelberg says, “because it often results in them not stepping back and reflecting on, ‘Was that truly a good use of time? Did they truly do a good job? And where can they do better next time?’”
There are many ways to avoid the blind spot, like starting meetings with icebreaker questions and delegating tasks to others.
Coulson learned from Sunday school classes to open with a simple question like, “What’s your favorite food to eat at a Mexican restaurant?”
“So, we kind of go around the room, it gets everybody to at least start by saying something quick,” Coulson says. “That means that the rest of the time people are more comfortable just to go ahead and speak up.”
Flanagan noticed that assistant superintendents don’t often talk during meetings, so he encourages superintendents to let their assistants discuss tournaments, applications and other topics.
There are a few topics Flanagan can’t let others lead discussions on because he wants to assure these issues are addressed properly. He will approach these topics as teaching moments and share stories to keep everyone’s attention.
A quick follow-up
After a meeting concludes, it’s time to start preparing for the next one.
To avoid harmful practices of allocating too much time for the meeting, not facilitating the conversation or failing to take an active role in resolving conflicts, reflecting on the meeting’s success can be used as a preventive measure. Hosts can then determine what steps to take next in addressing problems.
“Ultimately, it’s about awareness, collecting feedback on how well you’re doing as a meeting leader,” Rogelberg says. “It’s about doing experiments to try new things to see if you can position yourself as the solver of the meeting problem rather than contributing to the meeting problem.”
As Flanagan continues to attend and host meetings, he remembers what occurred during his first one and often prepares for “the worst.”
“I’m going to try to answer those questions before they ask me,” he says. “When you do that, you control the narrative.”
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