Corporate E-Learning

Welcome to the Meeting Management workshop. You are on your first project and you have to organize and manage the project kick-off meeting. What do you do first? Do you create the agenda or the invitation list? How do you run a meeting? What preparation do you need? All of these are valid and real questions you, as the meeting manager, must address. There is no doubt about it. Meetings require skill and technique in order for the meeting to achieve its purpose. Disorganized and poorly managed meetings waste time and hurt your credibility as a meeting manager. Consistently leaving a poor impression with the attendees will haunt you if left unchecked. This training course is designed to give you the basic tools you need to initiate and manage your meetings. You will learn planning and leading techniques that will give you the confidence to run a meeting that will engage your attendees and leave a positive and lasting impression. This is a hands-on workshop and your participation will help make it a valuable experience. Use this time to begin the process of developing your skills along with other participants who share the same desire to improve their meeting management skills. Before we begin, let’s get to know each other better. Since we will be spending most of today working with each other, it is worth the time to share some things about ourselves now, making it easier to engage in the course.

The first step in making your meeting effective begins with your planning and preparation activity. Determining the purpose of your meeting, the people who should attend, and the place of the meeting will form the foundation on which you will build your agenda, decide what materials you need, and identify the roles each attendee hold in the meeting. In addition, planning and preparing for your meeting helps to reduce the stress that may result from managing a meeting, because you will avoid unexpected incidents and issues that could derail your meeting. This module is part one of your planning session, which focuses on important factors that could affect the success of your meeting. These factors are the people, place, and purpose of the meeting. Let us take a closer look to see how we can organize this to your success.

The last module dealt with the participant planning aspect of your meeting. In this module, you will learn how to gather the things you need to help facilitate the meeting more effectively. In addition, you will learn how to structure your invitation so you can communicate your meeting in a way that is consistent and sets expectations. Finally, you will understand the importance of making the logistical arrangements in advance, avoiding any last minute mishaps.

You are now ready to set up the meeting space. There are many things to consider that will determine what needs to be included in your set up. In the last module, you planned for the things you need. In this module, you are going to put it all together. Although this may seem like a trivial step, you should not take it for granted. The difference from an okay meeting to a remarkable meeting could be the small details.

Advancements in technology have made meetings more effective by providing ways of communicating and storing meeting information. Although many new tools are available to help give your meeting that cutting-edge-feel, there are many things to consider when determining electronic options. It is not always imperative to use new technology at your meetings, but having an understanding in advance helps to expand your choices. In this module, you will learn about the latest meeting tools available to you, things to consider and reaching a decision.

Establishing clear roles and responsibilities in your meeting helps to manage the meeting effectively. When roles are established, the participants have a clear understanding of what is taking place because the person in a specific role has a job to fulfill. Assigning roles also alleviates the task you have to manage. This way you can focus on the role you are to manage within the meeting time. Remember that you do not have to do it all. Get others involved. In this module, you will learn the role of the Chairperson, Minute Taker, and the Attendees. Finally, you will learn how to vary the roles for large and small meetings.

Chairing the meeting is a leadership role. You must be ready and able to stand up and kick off the meeting without sounding nervous or uncomfortable. Your ability to communicate early in the meeting sets the tone of the meeting. Chairing a meeting effectively takes time to develop and requires practice. This module is part one of two modules that teaches how to effectively chair a meeting. The first part, will teach how to start your meeting on the right foot. Next, we will discuss the role of the agenda and finally, we will discuss how to use the parking lot. All these techniques are designed to make you a more effective chairperson. In fact, you will get an opportunity to practice commencing a meeting. Do not worry. This is a safe learning environment where you will not be forced to do something you are not comfortable doing. However, remember to use your action plan if you need more practice chairing a meeting.

In the last module, we focused on starting the meeting on the right foot. Chairing the meeting for the remainder of the time requires diligence and discipline. It is almost like being a referee. You will have to make calls and manage the game and watch for violations. However, unlike a game, the meeting room presents many challenges, because the rules tend to change from meeting to meeting. At least this is from the attendees’ perspective. Your goal is to break that trend by chairing your meeting with purpose and a goal in mind. In this module, you will learn techniques on how to keep your meeting on track, deal with overtime and holding participants accountable. Doing all this requires focus and a sense of doing what is right for the sake of all your attendees. Neglecting this could affect the meeting experience for many who will sit there and silently criticize your meeting management skills. Worse yet, they may get up and walk out, because they feel they are wasting their time.

Disruptions in the meeting are bound to happen. Personal technology keeps participants constantly connected to the outside world. Frequent disruptions could impede the effectiveness of your meeting and become distracting to those who are focused on the meeting. Furthermore, poorly managing disruptions will reflect on the chairperson or meeting organizer. The key to mitigating disruptions is to plan for them and setting expectations. In this module, you will learn how to deal with participants constantly running in and out of your meeting, cell phones, off topic discussions and conflicts. The goal is to reduce the affect. It is very difficult to avoid these distractions. It is human nature.

Earlier in this course, we discussed the important of the minute taker. In this module, you are going to learn the details of how to take meeting minutes. First, we are going to discuss the purpose of the meeting minutes. Second, we are going to discuss what to record throughout the meeting and finally, we are going to review a template that will help facilitate the minute taking process.

Many times, meetings can be seen as boring events that people have to attend. That does not have to be the case. You can incorporate various elements into your meeting, which could make your meetings more interesting. Making the most of your meeting does not have to involve a lot of preparation. It just requires creativity and imagination. Let us learn some ways we can make our meetings fun.

Although this workshop is ending, we hope that your journey to improve your Meeting Management Skills is just beginning. Please take a moment to review and update your action plan. This will be a key tool to guide your progress in the days, weeks, months, and years to come. We wish you the best of luck on the rest of your travels!