Conducting Effective Meetings

Course:  EFFMTG
Duration:  1 Day
Level:  I
Course Summary

This workshop presents a pragmatic approach to running and managing meetings. We will discuss how to hold meetings, what the pre-meeting and post-meetings deliverables are. We will also discuss special meetings, such as project retrospectives and brainstorming meetings. In addition, we will focus on the roles of the meeting owner and participants.

This one-day workshop will equip you with the knowledge to plan, prepare for, participate in, and chair productive meetings. You will also learn how to utilize meeting time more effectively. In addition, the workshop will expose participants to the nature of emerging technologies in meeting management, such as teleconferencing, videoconferencing, and network based (LAN, Intranet, Internet) meetings.

Tools for ensuring the effectiveness of meetings including templates for agendas, action reports and minutes of meetings will be shared with participants.

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Topics Covered In This Course

Background Information

  • Understand why meetings should be conducted.
  • Learn the difference between formal and informal meetings.
  • Recognize common misconceptions about meetings.
  • Discussion on how to hold meetings, and what the pre-meeting and post-meetings deliverables are. We will also discuss special meetings, such as project retrospectives and brainstorming meetings.
  • Differentiate between different types of meetings.
  • Working Meetings: One-on-one meetings, Group Meetings, Project Meetings. We will also focus on the roles of the meeting owner and participants.

Roles and Responsibilities

  • How to become an effective meeting leader
  • Which type of meeting suits your needs?
  • Your key responsibilities as a participant

Clarity in Meeting Preparation

  • Creating meeting objectives that are clear and specific
  • Setting an agenda
  • Structuring the agenda - where to place the least and most important items
  • How to lobby for support
  • Collecting appropriate data from interested parties
  • Briefing minute takers and guest speakers

Lead an Effective Meeting

  • Personal qualities of meeting leaders
  • Creating an atmosphere where all participants will be able to contribute
  • Keep focused on the agenda and prevent the introduction of irrelevant issues
  • Controlling time wasting and disruptive influences
  • Forging an environment for open discussion
  • Formulating agreement from a variety of views
  • Guidelines for running short meetings

Communicate with Authority

  • Learning the fundamentals of non-verbal communication

Deal with Disruptive Influences

  • Ensuring all participants have a say
  • How to make interventions that will curtail irrelevant discussions
  • Employing techniques to keep control

Emerging technologies in meeting management

  • Teleconferencing, videoconferencing, and network based (LAN, Intranet, Internet) meetings.

Virtual Meetings

  • Participants will learn the four types of virtual team meetings and what to include in the agenda for a virtual team-orientation session. In addition, participants will learn factors that influence a virtual meeting's effectiveness and four methods virtual teams use to make decisions.
  • Define a virtual team.
  • Identify the types of meetings conducted in a virtual setting.
  • Differentiate among the types of work completed by virtual team members.

Action Points and Endings

  • Tips for making clear decisions
  • The two prime times for summarizing key points
  • Gaining commitment through the delegation of action points
  • How to prevent the meeting drifting on
  • Learning to end with a focus on the future

Personal Development

  • Creating a personal action plan to enhance your future development
What You Can Expect

Setting up and running successful, productive meetings is a skill many managers, supervisors and employees need, yet for which they receive no formal training. This program is designed to teach meeting leaders the fundamentals and skills required to set up and run productive meetings. Participants will be shown a meeting model that addresses the "task and people sides of meetings".

Participants will have the opportunity to prepare a meeting agenda, structure the opening of a meeting, establish group norms, select a record-keeping system, decide on the most effective format to accomplish the meeting's objectives, get commitments, gather feedback and set action plans. In addition, several decision-making and meeting management strategies are covered—for those tougher situations that meeting leaders face.

  • Define and communicate the purpose, objective, setting, and agenda for a meeting.
  • Learn how to prepare for a meeting so that participants are clear about their role and what is to be achieved.
  • Acquire a range of interpersonal skills to keep control of the meeting and disarm disruptive participants.
  • Ensure that each agenda item is introduced and dealt with effectively.
  • Develop a meeting purpose and objectives, decide who will attend and develop a meeting agenda.
  • Ensure that best practices are followed for meeting procedures, such as taking minutes, keeping discussions focused, and summarizing accomplishments and action items.
  • Identify a meeting format and number of participants required for meeting.
  • Open a meeting by introducing the agenda, establishing norms and roles that support the meeting process.
  • Use the nominal group process for getting participation.
  • Use a method for reaching consensus and getting commitment.
  • Identify options for evaluating meetings and the purpose of evaluation.
  • Structure discussions to build group consensus and gain a clear decision on each specific agenda item.
  • Identify what can go wrong in meetings and know what action to take to ensure participants keep focused on the task.
  • Encourage appropriate participation and eliminate time wasting.
  • Objectively evaluate a meeting's effectiveness.
Who Should Take This Course

Managers and employees who want to improve their ability to manage a meeting. Anyone who organizes and runs meetings. Anyone who has suffered through a long, pointless meeting will appreciate this course!

Recommended Prerequisites

Attendees should have experienced some form of technical leadership or administrative/management experience, with a need to bring people together to work on problems.

Training Style

Instructor led, group-paced, classroom-delivery learning model with group discussion and structured hands-on activities.

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Every student attending a Verhoef Training class will receive a certificate good for $100 toward their next public class taken within a year.

You can also buy "Verhoef Vouchers" to get a discounted rate for a single student in any of our public or web-based classes. Contact your account manager or our sales office for details.

Schedule For This Course
There are currently no public sessions scheduled for this course. We can schedule a private class for your organization just a couple of weeks from now. Or we can let you know the next time we do schedule a public session.
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