"This was an outstanding experience. The coach's comments were directed and constructive. I found it the most worthwhile day of the training sessions."

Arthur D. Little, Inc.

Making Meetings Work

Objective: To teach you a flexible way to run a meeting to achieve desired results. Essential skills include understanding the different agendas in every meeting and the use of power.

Program Outline:

Learn A Successful Presenter's Mindset
• Define your role as an expert
• Understand the presenter-audience partnership
• Develop a motivational mindset

How To's Of Every Successful Meeting
• Building on the theory of group behavior
• Setting goal(s) and problem solving
• Choosing process(es): brainstorming to BPR
• Producing agendas: selecting and ordering items
• Setting attendance: seating formats

Understanding Power And Its Role In Leadership
• Interpersonal dynamics of groups
• Use of overt versus covert structure
• Sources of your power and how its locus shifts
• What is said vs. what is meant
• recognizing when to move forward

Developing Leadership Tools to:
• Engage people and gain immediate participation
• Keep the meeting on track
• Stay with a group's emotional pulse
• Draw out quiet people
• Work with different levels of hierarchy
• Wield authority: stand or sit.
• Eliminate time wasters

Dealing With Derailleurs
• Late-comers, disrupters, interrupters, doomsayers
• Long-winded, aimless speakers
• Those who float in and out

Building Cooperation: Group Communications
• Star-centered and cluster groups
• Choice of language to aid understanding
• Analyzing group and individual behavior
• Visual and non-verbal cues

Handling Resistance To Reach Consensus
• Listening actively to understand
• Dealing with controversial, divisive issues
• Negotiating between two opposite viewpoints
• Defusing hostile, angry, or upset people
• Gaining agreement and closure

Follow Up
• Record keeping and reports
• Learning from experience- both positive and negative
• Ensuring commitments are met
• Creating an action plan to build on your gains