About this Course

It’s estimated more than 25 million meetings are held every day in the United States, but very few meetings actually produce the effective results attendees had hoped for. Many “effective meetings” seminars offer insight into general meeting management; attendees of this seminar will identify specific actions to take and tools to use to help meetings stay within assigned schedules, produce tangible outcomes…and avoid scheduling too many meetings in the first place. Attendees will participate in multiple interactive exercises to practice using the step-by-step “meetings checklist” introduced and discussed in the seminar.

Audience Profile

This course is appropriate for employees at all levels within an organization, whether they are responsible for scheduling and leading format meetings or not. While not required, groups of employees who frequently work together may find it helpful to attend the course together. 

At Course Completion

At the end of this course, students will be able to: 

• Identify characteristics associated with well-run and productive meetings.
• Know process steps for planning, conducting, and concluding meetings consistently.
• Define and give examples of appropriate “ground rules” for meetings management. 
• Describe meeting roles and the benefits of assigning roles. 
• Describe and use specific techniques to produce meeting results.
• Identify sources of meetings conflict and techniques for resolving it. 
• Distinguish characteristics of productive kickoff meetings and status meetings. 
• Summarize action items and process steps with a “Good Meetings Checklist.”

Prerequisites

There are no prerequisites for this course

Course Outline

I. Introduction

• A. Session Overview
• B. Personal Introductions 

II. “Good Meetings” Management

• A. Is There Such a Thing as a “Good” Meeting?
• B. What Do “Good” Meetings Have in Common? 

III. A Structured Meetings Process: Before, During and After 

• A. Beforehand: Meeting Planning
• B. During: Beginning, Conducting, and Closing
• C. After: Following Up and the Next Meeting 

IV. Meeting Participation and Ground Rules

• A. Why Don’t People Participate in Meetings?
• B. Creating Conditions for Group Participation
• C. Good Group Ground Rules 

V. Meeting Roles

• A. The Chair
• B. The MinutesTaker
• C. The Timekeeper
• D. The Scribe  

VI. Meeting Techniques

• A. Brainstorming
• B. Root Cause Analysis

VII.   Facilitating Conflict

• A. Why Do We Disagree?
• B. Real Conflict Resolution  

VIII. Specific Meeting Situations and Solutions

• A. Scoping Kickoff Meetings
• B. Status Meetings and Status Reporting  

IX. Summing Up: the “Good Meetings” Checklist