Managing effective meetings
Introduction
Do your meetings tend to go in circles? Are the meeting objectives unclear for many of your attendees? Are decisions taken but rarely acted upon? Are you left with the feeling that these meetings are not productive — that you are wasting precious time? You are not alone in feeling this way. Studies have shown that 80% of meetings fail to generate meaningful results and that costs to the organization are astronomical in terms of lost time, frustration and reduced work-incentives. This situation arises when the intent of the meeting is not clear and when it is not firmly understood what is required to get the desired results. No organization can function efficiently without "decision-maker" meetings; however, for them to be successful rules with rigor must be applied. This workshop will allow you to acquire a keen sense to how to develop and conduct efficient meetings.
What You Will Learn
This workshop will equip you to:
- Decide if a meeting is necessary given your objectives.
- Clearly define key results depending on the type of meeting - whether it's an information, brainstorming, evaluation or decision-making session.
- Identify who should participate.
- Develop appropriate agendas and expectations in terms of documents and reports expected of meeting participants.
- Conduct the meeting in line with its intent – e.g. information-sharing, decision-making.
- Assign tasks to be carried out.
- Prepare a meeting report or minutes, identifying and setting out the results, chronologically and thematically.
- Identify the means of follow up on and monitor the decisions taken.
- Master the techniques required to conduct meetings so that the group gets to the crux of the matter quickly and reaches consensus on the actions to be taken by participants.
The workshop will use interactive and experimental techniques in line with the approaches being suggested.