Meeting Management - Facilitation

Managing Meetings

Most people, including high powered business executives and managers, do not run good meetings.  Skills are often assumed, rather than established and attitudes and processes are often too casual to be truly effective.

Inefficient internal meetings waste time and damage organisations by reducing staff commitment and respect for the organisation, its leaders and managers.

Inefficient external meetings damage organisations by reducing credibility and adversely affecting commercial and other relationships.

We boost meeting performance and outcomes by mandating and modeling a structured and professional approach comprising:

Effective Preparation:

• Focus - identify and understand the issues and plan for success in order to promote and achieve essential objectives.
• Foundation issues / context - obtain and consider relevant, detailed, background information to provide a solid basis on which to work.
• Agenda setting – “who owns the agenda controls the meeting”.  Setting and controlling a good agenda provides a constant reinforcement of credibility and authority to the person who is supposed to be in control.
• Environment dynamics – the success of many meetings depends, to a surprising degree, on selection and arrangement of location, facilities and logistics.
• Upskilling - training and motivating personnel to adopt specific roles to help them participate more effectively in the business of the organisation.

Chairing and facilitating meetings, including:

• Guidance through the agenda.
• Presentation of materials.
• Note and minute taking, re-framing and scribing.
• Maintaining discipline and momentum.
• Management of personal interactions.

Training, personal coaching and skills transfer - communication, problem solving and negotiation skills.

Post-meeting analyses and de-briefs - independent monitoring and follow up of commitments and implementation plans.