Leading Effective Meetings

Meetings are an integral part of the everyday business of successful companies. However, meetings have a notoriously unpopular reputation amongst managers and employees for being inefficient, boring and full of conflict.

The cost of inefficient meetings is reflected both financially and in staff morale.

Statistics unearthed by the 3M Company while researching its “meetings efficiency calculator” show that Chief executives spend 69% of their time in meetings, and 35% – 70% of the typical professional’s time is spent in meetings – half of which is said to be wasted time.”*

Leaders spend 50% of their day in formal meetings and another 20% in informal interactions and are consistently complaining about not having enough hours in the day to achieve results. Thousands of salary dollars are tied up in meetings each year. (Conservative estimates indicate three quarters of a million dollars are spent for every 100 employees).

Imagine everything your business can do with an extra $750,000 every year.

It seems extraordinary that for so many companies the process of meetings can be so unproductive when the meeting is such a frequent part of business life. This is because, like many other soft skills, the necessary patterns of behaviour and communication for effective meetings, need to be identified, learned, developed and applied until they are automated in the conduct and participation of meetings.

About the Program

This one-day program is the first of its kind to bring a systematic, sophisticated and dynamic framework to this important business function. It represents a means of achieving significant financial savings and improving the communication and culture of the organisation simultaneously.

Content is designed to transfer the patterns of organising, running and participating in effective meetings (the dynamics of effective meetings) to all participants.

After completing the program ‘Leading Effective Meetings’ your business will experience:

• Increased levels of staff morale
• Increased productivity
• Increased synergy and team collaboration – Improved resource allocation

Benefits / Outcomes

• Developing your skills at Pre-meeting administration means that you and the meeting participants are organised and ready therefore you are more likely to have a productive and efficient meeting
• Identifying, notifying and confirming essential contributor participants of your meeting means that you will have only the relevant people congruent for the outcomes and intentions for the meeting therefore saving time and increasing effectiveness of the meeting
• Through setting meeting time and duration, date, location and agenda in advance means that all relevant participants have time to prepare themselves and agenda relevant information for the meeting therefore you are likely to have a more productive meeting
• You will explore the benefits of Pre-meeting relationship building which means greater rapport with participants therefore meeting participants are more likely to be motivated and engaged during the meeting
• You will learn the art of Framing which means that you will be able to set the boundary conditions for the meeting therefore the discussions are more likely to be relevant to the specific agenda items
• You will learn how to get agreement to the frames the you set which means a smoother running meeting therefore saving time and money
• You will learn how to present the important boundary conditions for the agenda (time, money, personal constraints) which means greater efficiency and therefore a rigorous time cost effective meeting
• You will learn the art of marking out agenda items (using non-verbal/non-language cues) which means greater efficiency and therefore a better run meeting
• You will learn how to deconstruct a complex agenda into sub-parts which means a clearer presentation of the key information therefore the meeting is more likely to meet the intentions for having the meeting
• learn how to frame and marking out each part of the agenda which means greater clarity and efficiency therefore a cleaner faster meeting
• You will learn how to challenge for relevancy to keep on topic or uncover the hidden relevance in an off topic discussion which means the meeting stays focused on the outcomes and intentions for that meeting therefore a more cost effective outcome focused meeting
• You will develop skills with a process to ask questions to get high grade information even if you do not have the depth of situational expertise or technical knowledge which means an increased likelihood of uncovering information therefore a meeting that is more effective in achieving the outcome and intentions for the meeting
• You will learn how to use frames to confirm understanding, agreement and buy-in to follow-up action which means greater efficiency, rapport and post meeting engagement
• You will explore how to deal with special issues in the meeting which means dealing with problems early and effectively therefore getting the most out of a meeting
• Learn a simple process and frame to overcome Impasses which means problems and conflicts are dealt with early therefore saving time and money in future
• You will learn how to use the “devils advocate” constructively which means utilisation of differing views or critical feedback therefore having potentially useful information

About the Trainer

Chris is a leader in training in applied cognitive psychology. He and the consultants in his company specialise in cultural, corporate and personal change. He has over twenty years experience in coaching, consulting and leading seminars in Australia and the US.

He holds a Diploma in Training and Assessment Systems, a Degree in Psychology, a Graduate Certificate in Neuro- Linguistic Programming (NLP) and a Masters degree in Applied Science Social Ecology. Chris specialises in one to one work with people, course design, accreditation and training, and the training of corporate consultants, trainers and executive coaches.

Chris is the managing director of Inspiritive Pty Ltd, a registered training organization (RTO) which he has been running with his partner since 1992.