Quicker Better Meetings Course

Course Contents

We tailor all our courses to reflect the needs of the delegates on the day.

We will include many of the exercises listed below, and any additional material that the trainers feel is relevant.

Introduction

You'll get a chance to say why you have come and what would you like out of the day.

How Groups Work

People come together in groups for all sorts of reasons and so there is no right way to be part of a group.

Every single group, no matter what its purpose, will have a personality all of its own.

They don't have to agree on everything, but groups work best when their purpose is clear and there are agreed working practices.

For groups to work each person has to be treated as valuable in their own right.

Here we will ask for participants experience and history of working in groups.

• What do you know that you do well in meetings?
• What do you bring to a group?
• What is your contribution to the Whole?

Meeting Dynamics

Meetings can have a life of their own and Meeting dynamics and Group dynamics are similar but not exactly alike.

Here we look at what can happen during a meeting that will impact on your communication.

In most environments, people will come in with their own agendas. These agendas are neither right nor wrong, but they will impact on how the meetings go.

Meetings Cycle

Here we look at a simple structure to help you plan your meetings from preparation through follow-up.

Games People Play

Either consciously or sometimes deliberately people will play games at meetings.

Once these games are identified they can be defused and dis-empowered by the simple technique of letting everyone know that they are being played.

Here we work with a technique called levelling, which is more or less guaranteed to move things on.

Working to an Agenda

Even if you don't keep meetings to the exact timings, it does help to set a specific amount of time for each agenda item.

When you see yourself running over time, the timekeeper (another good role!) can mention it and set another amount of time for continued discussion.

It is far better to spend more time on an issue than try to get through everything just for the sake of getting through everything on the meeting's agenda.

Building on Ideas

In this set of exercises, you'll learn to effectively facilitate ideas that are put up for discussion.

In particular, you will work on the skill of passing the responsibility for action to the most appropriate person at the meeting, even if that person is resistant to taking it on.

Practice

In the final session, we'll ask you to work on a current meetings issue.

We set up each issue to be replayed, we recreate the exact difficulty you've experienced, and then work to get a more satisfactory outcome for each situation.

Within the constraints of a one-day workshop, there may not be time for all participants to play out their individual issues; we, therefore, look for the most useful issues to play out first.

Support Plan

An individual Plan of Action identifying your personal take-outs, what you will practise and areas for development.

You will identify what will stop you putting this into practice and what support you need going forward.

We will give out Impact Factory documents to support the course.

You'll get copies relevant hand-outs to remind you of the coursework.

Ongoing Support

Two weeks after the course one of your trainers will call to see how you are getting on.

You will have email and telephone access to both of your trainers.

You'll also have access to a course web page containing

• Handouts used during the course
• New supportive material
• Impact Factory PDF documents
• Recommended reading
• Links to our favourite videos

Quicker Better Meetings Course