Effective Meetings in 7 simple steps电子书

Contents

Step 1

ORGANISE PEOPLE, PLACES AND TIMES

Five ways to succeed

Five ways to fail

Limit the number of meetings

Types of meetings

Tribal gatherings

Weekly or monthly updates

Performance reviews

Brainstorms

General meetings

Shorter meetings

Other meetings

Office or elsewhere?

Meeting room organisation and layout

Boardroom

Circle

Horseshoe

Cabaret

Theatre

Facing rows

Meeting room layouts

How does this apply to you?

Key take-aways

Step 2

PREPARE USEFUL DOCUMENTS

Five ways to succeed

Five ways to fail

The invitation

Sounding pro: Meeting invitations

Requesting items for inclusion

Types of meeting

Agendas – what to include

Details of meeting, date, time, location

Participants

Apologies for absence

Minutes of last meeting

Agenda items

AOB (Any Other Business)

Date of the next meeting

Sounding pro: Agendas

Management Meeting

Present

Apologies

AGENDA

Date of next meeting

Organising discussion documents

Preparing discussion documents

Sounding pro: Executive summary

New business opportunities

Who should take the minutes?

How to take the minutes

Sounding pro: Minutes

Finalising the minutes

Who circulates the minutes?

Key take-aways

Step 3

PARTICIPATE WITH IMPACT

Five ways to succeed

Five ways to fail

Tone of voice

Feelings

Body language

The words

The Mehrabian experiment

Checking information

Presenting an agenda item

Contributing to a discussion

Creating space

How to interrupt

Interrupting with respect

How to catch the meeting leader’s eye

Asking a question

Adding a new point

Exchanging some information

Disagreeing

How to avoid making enemies

Separate the person from the problem

Keep calm

Put yourself in their shoes

Make personal contact after the meeting

If necessary, apologise

How to follow up a meeting

Say ‘Thank you’

Sounding pro

Key take-aways

Step 4

HOST VIRTUAL MEETINGS

Five ways to succeed

Five ways to fail

Via telephone

Via video

Variations in technology

Successful virtual meetings

Before the conference call

Check your equipment

Lobby

During the conference call

Open microphone

Dead air

Background noise

Heavy breathing

Video-conferencing

Online meetings

Video-conference room

Telepresence room

The future

Virtual meetings via video

Sounding pro: Post-meeting follow-up

Sounding pro

Key take-aways

Step 5

USE INFORMAL MEETINGS WISELY

Five ways to succeed

Five ways to fail

Canvass opinion

Test the water

Lobby support

Ask for and give advice

CEO coffee

Check-in

Just a quiet word …

Drop-in meetings

Receiving feedback in an informal meeting

Strategies for responding to informal feedback

Do I need a record?

Sounding pro: Follow-up email to check action agreed

How to give informal advice

Recovering from a ‘car crash’ meeting

Informal meetings audit – assess your performance

Sounding pro

Key take-aways

Step 6

ADAPT TO MEETING DYNAMICS

Five ways to succeed

Five ways to fail

The three meeting leader styles

The good leader

The advantages and disadvantages of each style

Moderating one’s role

Assess the dynamics

Time

Topic

Temperament

Starting the meeting

Guiding the meeting

Keeping to time

Summarising key action points

Checking the minutes are taken

Avoiding or dealing with disagreement effectively

Dealing with unscheduled events

Transitions

How to summarise a discussion

Assess and clarify what is agreed

Confirm what has been agreed and minute accurately

Controlling the procedure

Controlling the discussion

The seven stages of control

Dealing with talkative participants

The tender tactic: interrupt, thank, continue

The tough tactic: interrupt, stop, continue

Encouraging quiet participants to contribute

Facilities

Participants

Sounding pro

Key take-aways

Step 7

RUN EFFICIENT, EFFECTIVE MEETINGS

Five ways to succeed

Five ways to fail

Exchange of information

Survey of opinions

Action to be taken

Responsibilities to be taken

The pre-meeting

1 Call to order

2 Welcome and greet participants

3 Apologies for absence

4 Nominate someone to take the minutes

5 Check any agenda changes

6 Check minutes received and matters arising

7 Sign the minutes

8 Today’s agenda

Today’s agenda

1 Agenda items

2 Final summing up

3 AOB (Any Other Business)

4 Date of next meeting

A word about tradition

Sounding pro

The pre-meeting

Today’s agenda

The follow-up stages

Stage 1: Finalising the minutes

Stage 2: Circulating the minutes

Chasing up the action points

Creating the virtuous circle

The meeting leader

The participants

Why failure to norm matters

How to control the process

Key take-aways

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