Course Outcomes

This meeting management course will:

  • Reduce meeting dysfunction.
  • Provide suggestions for using agendas effectively.
  • Give tips for asking good questions.
  • Offer strategies for balancing discussion, staying on track, and managing participants.

Course Overview

Some studies estimate that office workers spend between 33% to 50% of their time in meetings. Yet many people regard them as too long, frustrating, and wasteful.

This hands-on and interactive meeting-management course teaches participants what to do before, during, and after meetings in order to get results instead of more meetings.

Program Objectives

At this program’s conclusion, participants should be able to:

  • Explain the value of meetings as a management tool.
  • Craft a solid agenda.
  • Recognize the critical planning step that makes meeting time more effective.
  • Lead robust and inclusive discussions.
  • Use tools to focus on the right information.
  • Practice techniques for handling counterproductive behavior.

The following outline highlights some of the course’s key learning points. As part of your training program, we will modify content as needed to meet your business objectives. Upon request, we will provide you with a copy of the participant materials prior to the session(s).

Workshop Outline

Clear Skies Versus Rough Winds: The Best and the Worst of Meetings

In this opening activity, participants will work in small groups to identify the characteristics of well-run meetings and poorly led meetings. During this segment, the group will also explore six different types of meetings and what it takes to make each kind successful.

Preparing for Flight: The Basics for Effective Meetings

In the next program segment, participants will receive a checklist that will give them a framework for planning an effective meeting. They will evaluate the usability of the list within their organizations and modify it as needed.  Next, they will discuss the true cost of meetings, who should attend meetings, and alternatives to holding meetings.

The Flight Plan: Setting the Stage for Success

During this segment of the course, participants will discuss meeting goals, the decision process, background materials, and creating agendas that move meetings forward. They will also consider 14 elements many successful meetings have and rank in order their importance within the context of the desired outcomes of the specific meetings they attend. 

This Is Your Captain Speaking: Actions Effective Facilitators Use

Good facilitation can correct a meeting that has gone off course. During this part of the program, participants will identify the three roles a facilitator fills, tactics for choosing a facilitator (The boss is rarely the best choice.), and 11 actions facilitators can take to move a meeting toward a successful conclusion.

Sit Back, Relax, and Enjoy the Ride: Process and Content

To ensure the best information possible is generated and shared in each meeting they attend, participants will examine basic tools for considering and evaluating ideas.  

Unruly Passengers: How to Control a Meeting

This final segment discusses the importance of managing group dynamics and how to navigate difficult situations.  Participants will consider a variety of common workplace problems and design solutions to each.

By the end of this workshop, participants should understand the cost of a meeting, when to hold a meeting, such elements as agendas and when to include or eliminate them from a meeting, tools for considering different points of view, and tactics for handling common problems related to meetings that occur in most workplaces.