This workshop provides practical tools and skills for planning, leading, and participating in a meeting. Workshop participants will gain insight into how to craft a sound agenda, tap into the collective wisdom of the group to gather data, make decisions, and develop effective action plans to make the decisions reached in the meeting a reality. This is a practical, hands-on workshop that participants can put to immediate use. As a direct result of this training, participants will have the tools they need to make their future meetings more effective and their organizations more successful.
Course Overview
Course Outcomes
- Successfully plan a meeting
- Design a practical agenda
- Keep the meeting on track
- Be a more effective meeting participant
- Increase group participation
- Make better decisions as a team
Business Need
The cost of ineffective meetings is staggering, not only in terms of wasted time but also in terms of lost opportunities, employee frustration, and poor morale. Most managers say the meetings they attend generally take too long, cover too little or too much, and end without specific plans, objectives, decisions, outcomes, or results. Meetings are an important business function in that they get people together to share information, ideas, problems, activities, solutions, and feelings. However, poor meetings often have a negative impact and can make whatever problem they're supposed to address worse.
Course Topics
Cost of Poor Meetings
- Lost productivity
- Disengaged employees
Addressing People Issues
- Task vs. maintenance behaviors
- Dealing with emotions
- Feelings/facts/solutions
Communication Models
- Ladder of Inference
- Skillful discussion- Multi-voting
– Nominal Group Technique
– Pairwise ranking
Information Gathering Tools
- Brainstorming
- The Whys”
- Contingency Diagram
- Pareto analysis
The Meeting as a Process
- Crafting an effective agenda
- Planning the meeting
- Opening the meeting
- The heart of the meeting
- Closing the meeting/action planningDecision Making Tools
Decision Making Tools
- Multi-voting
- Nominal Group Technique
- Pairwise ranking
Course Schedule
Typical Course Duration
Virtual: 4 hours
In-person: 8 hours
Our typical syllabus for this course is one-day in length, but we offer an expanded two-day version of this course for those seeking a longer and more in-depth learning experience.
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Delivery Methods
Number of participants
- in-person: 30
- virtual: 30
Course Details
Course Level:
- Beginner to Intermediate
Learning Methods:
- Case Study
- Discussion
- Lecture
- Personal Reflection
Equipment:
- easel/markers
- LCD projector and screen