Effective Meetings Training Course

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What is Effective Meetings Training?

In order that meetings can to be seen as being positive and productive, they need to be effective. Badly planned meetings will be seen as a waste of time by attendees. The high cost of meetings is often another cause for concern and should be taken into account when organising meetings.

This Effective Meetings training course examines the common mistakes which are made and how to avoid them. We will show how to make your meetings more purposeful, as well as developing your skills to keep meetings on-track. We discuss the importance and roles of the chairperson and minute taker. Learn how to gain co-operation from attendees, manage any conflict, or attendees who are disruptive or cynical; together with how to make logical decisions and action planning.

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Customer Reviews

4.9/5 Our Effective Meetings Course is rated based on 461 reviews. More Customer Reviews >

Very interesting and inspiring. I found understanding how to identify cynic and critic and how to transform conversations and how to keep self positive, most beneficial. The course was very beneficial and will stick in my mind. The trainer was ... [Read More] Jacqui Gooch
Victory Housing Trust

I found the course very informative. It helped me recap on management degree. Highly recommend course. The trainer was very knowledgeable on the subject area. Great pace of training and gave opportunities to raise or discuss areas we wanted too.... [Read More] Kim McCready
Taurus Healthcare

Course Overview - Effective Meetings Training

The course divides the subject of meetings into parts, and we tackle them one at a time.

Meetings are costly. And some meetings are a waste of time. We need meetings to be cost effective. All cost-effective meetings share a set of common attributes. What are they? They are well chaired, well organised, well prepared, well attended, well recorded and productive, (in the sense that they achieve the purpose for which they were originally called).

The above list suggests the content for the course: We investigate the role of the Chair; how to organise an effective meeting, by means of a good agenda. How to manage the attendees, some of whom do not always behave well; how to keep accurate records of the meeting, how to ensure the meeting achieves its purpose: The purpose of a meeting may be to exchange information, to solve a problem, or make a decision, or any combination of the three.

We will solve all these problems and finish the course with a full understanding of how to create a highly productive meeting.

Learning Outcomes:

Learn the skills for super effective meetings
Meetings need to be purposeful - goal focused conversations
Plan the meeting by agreeing an agenda
Communicate clearly, using specific language
Quickly manage conflict and distracting behaviour
Manage the railroader, the cynic, clown and broken record
Have the courage to make a logical decision

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Course Details - Effective Meetings Training

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Morning Session

Introduction

The purpose of this course is to answer the following question.

"How can we have more productive meetings that are Goal focused, well designed, well managed, well prepared and held in the correct frame of mind?"

The high cost of meetings

If you are going to have a meeting, then make sure that the value derived from the meeting outweighs the cost of the meeting.

This course sets out the method by which you may avoid the pitfalls of bad meetings and reap the benefits of good meetings.

The cost of the meeting is very high. Therefore, the value of the meeting must be even higher.
Don't hold a 2k meeting for a 1k decision
What are the three practical alternatives to having a face to face meeting?
What are the benefits to having a face to face meeting?

The five qualities of productive meetings

In order for your meetings to be more productive, they should conform to the following five key principles:

Clear Purpose
There must be a definite purpose to the meeting - Too many meetings drift on without purpose.
Accurate Language
The language must be focused and accurate. Not too much ambiguity, vagueness, repetition or digression.
Planned Approach
The meeting should have an agenda, a definite structure.
Rational conflict management and decision methods.
The meeting will often be held in order to make some kind of decision, or to analyse a difficult situation, therefore, the meeting may create disagreements and some conflicts. Such Decisions, analysis and conflicts need to be discussed and aired rationally, not emotionally: With logic, not with upset or anger.
Positive atmosphere
To be most valuable, the meeting must be held in the spirit of cooperation: not antagonism.

The role of the chairperson

The chair person is a member of the meeting who directs and coordinates the activities of the delegates.
Notes on the chairing the meeting skills.

The agenda

The agenda is a written document that states the purpose of the meeting. It gives the meeting a structure.

The minutes / notes

The minutes of the meeting are the written notes (or recordings) of the main essentials of the meeting. Notes on note taking skills.

Afternoon Session

The Delegates

The delegates are those people who attend the meeting. They come in various types:

The railroader
The railroader is the person who tries to dominate the meeting by pushing his ideas on the others without proper thought.
The joker
The joker misuses humour and detracts rather than adds value to the meeting.
The digresser
The digresser is the person who cannot keep his mind on the issue at hand and talks for too long about non-related or trivial issues.
The cynic
The cynic is the person who criticises all ideas without having any positive or practical ideas of his own to offer in their place.
The 'broken record'
The person who is obsessive over one issue: The delegate who cannot stop from thinking and talking about only one thing.

Most meetings are about making decisions

Don't procrastinate unnecessarily on making the decisions.
Don't be tempted to endlessly delay making the decision on the grounds that you do not yet have perfect knowledge.
You need to decide even in the face of incomplete and uncertain knowledge.

Decision matrix methods

There are six types of decision:

Yes or No? Decisions. (Should we or should we not.)
Which one, What kind? Decisions
What is the priority order? Decisions
What is the correct logical sequence? Decisions.
Problem cause solution. Decisions.
Problem implication and countermeasure. Decisions.

Three skills of proper analysis

Analyse the MEANING of key words and phrases. Agree a SINGLE meaning of your key terms.
Analysis: Analysis is the act of breaking complex concepts into their constituent parts.
Analysis of problem cause and solution. Assume that all problems have multiple causes, each of which suggest potential solutions.

The importance of taking good notes

In the meeting take good written notes.
Mental notes. (Memory training).
Make up your written notes.
Make up your action plans.
Review your notes. Don't ignore them.

Meeting skills. A Practice Exercise.

Let us hold a meeting in order to come to definite conclusions.
Let us see how well you do.
Discussion and questions.

Summary and Action Plan

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FAQs

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How do I join a Corporate Coach Group course?

To join a Corporate Coach Course, the first thing to do is simply to decide to come.

The second step is to select the date, and the venue that are most convenient.

The final step is to click this link and reserve your place, or if you prefer, phone us, on 01452 856091.

Is this course offered in-house?

Yes. If you want to present this course to your colleagues in-house, then we are happy to come to you.

We can tailor the course content to meet the specific needs of your team. Click here for details.

What makes for an effective meeting?

To be effective, the meeting should have the following characteristics:

Purposeful. Meetings should NOT be for their own sake. Everything we do should be for a definite purpose. That purpose is usually to impart information, solve a problem or to make a decision.

Well structured. Meetings should not be chaotic. Meetings should have a written agenda, with the items logically ordered and given sufficient time.

Well prepared. The delegates at the meeting, should ensure they have the relevant information, they need to make meaningful contributions to the conversation.

Cooperative spirit. To achieve the meetings purpose, the delegates should work in a spirit of cooperation. NOT fractious, aggressive, emotional. If the meeting is to resolve a conflict, it should be done in an objective, factual manner. Think of a court of law, and you will have the right image.

Well documented. The meetings need to be recorded; audio or written records should be kept. We need to record, what information was imparted, what problems were solved, what decisions were made and especially, what actions were agreed?

How do you control a meeting?

There are two aspects of controlling a meeting: The agenda. The behaviour.

Every meeting should have an agenda. An agenda is the planned content of the meeting. Unplanned, poorly structured meetings dissolve into chaos. The agenda should be structured, so that there is a logical narrative.

The behaviour of the attendees needs to be controlled. The controllers are the chairperson, and the minute writer. The chairperson should keep the delegates “On Track” and moderate their use of time and if necessary, moderate their use of language.

The minute writer should moderate their speed, and the clarity of their language, so that their exact meaning can be accurately be recorded in the minute notes. The key question for the minute writer is, “How do you want me to minute that?”.

What is the course training method? Is it interactive?

Yes. We have designed the training style to be highly interactive. Throughout the day, we vary the training style.

Sometimes you will be working alone, preparing your own opinions, (for example, when you are scoring your own performance), then later you are working with your next-door neighbour.

Then later we will work as a whole class.

There is always lots of interaction.

So, at no point in the training will you feel bored, (no “death by PowerPoint”). From beginning to end, you will be fully engaged and involved.

Our delegates tell us that “the time flew-by”, which we take to be a good sign.

You will see that the course content is well designed, easy to understand and apply in practice.

The training is applied to real-life situations; it is beneficial and packed with useful knowledge. We are confident you will find the course interesting, well structured, practical, and fun.

Are daily meetings effective?

The effectiveness of daily meetings depends upon two things: the context and the content.

Context

In some contexts, daily meetings are a necessity. For example, in an environment where the situation is changing by the hour, it is necessary to have a meeting at the beginning of every shift.
Example: In a busy police station, at changeover, there is always a “briefing”, where the new shift is informed of the current events and things to watch out for.

In other contexts, where the situation is more static, a daily meeting would be superfluous.
Don’t have meetings, for their own sake.

Content

Whether the meeting is effective is also dependent on its content. If the meeting is filled with poor content, then the meeting is rendered useless or even counterproductive. The meeting should contain only relevant, important, and accurate information. It should also be strictly limited, in scope. Poor meetings go on for too long and are full of irrelevant, trivial, inaccurate information.

In relation to meetings, there are four concepts to remember: Relevant, important, accurate, Limited.

What kinds of people attend this Effective Meetings course?

The people that attend this course, are likely to come from organisations that are going through a lot of change.

The other delegates who come to this training, all need to know how to get the best performance from themselves and others.

Although the delegates who attend the course are all different, they all share a common goal, to learn and apply new skills.

Companies We've Trained

In-House Training Course Pricing and Proposal

This course is available from just £1,950 +VAT per day as a bespoke in-house group training course in the UK and worldwide.

It has been designed to provide a similar experience to our open courses, however we can tailor the content to fit your specific needs. In-House Group training costs from just £1,950 +VAT per day (international training price varies). Plus, hotel accommodation for trainer if necessary. (Premier Inn type: not the Hilton!)

This price includes:

Quality training delivered by an experienced trainer
Full days training
Full colour course handbook
Preparation work
Travel costs and time
Written action plan to take away
Access to our post course portal
Access to our on-line leadership and management decision matrix templates and tools
Plus three months FREE telephone coaching to answer any on-going questions

Contact Us Today

Please call us on +44 (0)20 3856 3037 to discuss your requirements for the in-house training course.

If you want to know more about any other Management Training Courses, or their suitability for you or a colleague, call us on +44 (0)20 3856 3037.

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Effective Meetings Training Course - 1 Day

Live Online Interactive Learning via Webinars

What is Effective Meetings Training?

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