Effective Meetings

Training open courses in London, Manchester, Avon, Gloucestershire, Swansea, Maidstone

Meetings are expensive, so they must be productive. To be productive, they must be organised, planned, accurately recorded and well chaired.

This effective meetings course gives you the skills to make your meetings brief, productive and valuable.

Here is the outline:

The high cost of meetings

The cost of the meeting is very high
Therefore the value of the meeting must be even higher.
Don’t hold a 2K meeting for a 1K decision.
What are the three practical alternatives to meetings? 

Five qualities of productive effective meetings.

1 Clear purpose
There must be a purpose to the meeting
Too many meetings drift on without purpose

2 Accurate language
The language must be focused and accurate. Not too much digression or vagueness. 

3 Planned approach
The meeting should have an agenda, a definite structure. 

4 Rational conflict and decision methods
The meeting may create disagreements and conflicts that must be aired rationally, not emotionally. 

5 Positive atmosphere
To be most valuable, the meeting must be help in the spirit of cooperation: not antagonism. 

The role of the chairperson
The chair person is a member of a meeting who directs and co ordinates the activities of the delegates. 

The agenda
The agenda is a written document that states the purpose of the meting
It gives the meeting a structure.

The minutes / notes.
The minutes f the meeting are the written (or recordings) of the main essentials of the meeting

The delegates
Are those who attend the meeting; they come in various types: 

The railroader.
The railroader is the person who tries to dominate the meeting by pushing his ideas on the others without proper thought.

The joker.
The joker misuses humour and detracts rather than adds value to the meeting

The digresser
The digresser is the person who cannot keep his mind on the issue at hand and talks for too long about non related or trivial issues.

The cynic
The person who criticises all ideas without having any positive or practical ideas of his own to offer in their place.

The broken record
The delegate with a bee in his bonnet who keeps talking about one thing .

Make the decision

The need to make a decision
Don’t put is off until you have PERFECT knowledge.

After the meeting

Make up your notes
Make up your actions
Keep the notes safe

Meeting skills Practice Exercise.

Discussion and questions.
Effective meetings summary and action plan

The training method follows this general pattern:

1. The trainer gives a clear explanation of the point in question.
2. The trainer then demonstrates the principle and gives specific examples.
3. Then, the delegates practice by doing an exercise with each other.
4. The delegates practice by doing exercise with the trainer.
5. All points are supported with full written notes to take away.
6. Delegates are asked to write down an associated action, for each point made.
7. (At the end of the day, we have about twenty such actions, from which the delegates choose six which are the most personally meaningful).

Note: we do not believe in placing people in any situation of embarrassment by demanding that they 'perform' in front of the whole group. So you can relax: come on this course and be at ease; ready to learn new skills!

Please call The Corporate Coach Training Group today on 01452 856091

For all your training enquiries please call: 01452 856091

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