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Facilitation
Corporate
Training Partners can help you maximize your time investment in
meetings. Whether it’s a senior management planning meeting or an
open-space dialogue with hundreds of employees, we will partner
with you to create and apply the best process to get results.
Typical Problems
with Meetings
The Full Cost of Meetings
Apply the Meeting
Cycle to Get Results
Facilitation
With an Edge – An Attitude of Action, Involvement and Results
Contact us today to begin planning
your meeting!
Typical
Problems with Meetings
Which of these problems haunt your
meetings?
þ Wandering discussions that are
interesting, fun….and unproductive!
þ Lack of clear responsibility
for follow up action items, including deadlines for completion
þ Domination of the discussion
by a few individuals
þ Vague decision making procedure
How many problems can you add to this
short list? Even more importantly: have you decided to just live
with these problems? Or are you ready to address the issues and
make sure your NEXT meeting avoids these obstacles to your productivity?
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The
Full Cost of Meetings
Assume you will hold a two-day, offsite
meeting with eight members of your leadership team. How much is
this really costing you?
But here’s the big question: What’s
the OPPORTUNITY you wish to seize as a result of the action in this
meeting? For example:
- What is the revenue potential from
developing a new product? From developing a new market?
- How much can you increase your customer
retention through a dramatic improvement in service or product
quality?
- What is the expense savings available
from a breakthrough increase in productivity?
In other words, what is the Opportunity
Cost of your meeting?
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Apply
the Meeting Cycle to Get Results
Meeting success begins well before
you walk into the room. Corporate Training Partners will work with
you to apply the Meeting Cycle to your unique situation.
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Preparation
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Pre-work pays huge dividends
during your meeting. A well-developed plan allows your group
to get the most from their valuable time together. Questions
to address during your preparation include:
- What is the purpose of the
meeting?
- Who should attend the meeting?
Who should not attend?
- What is the agenda?
- What should be read and studied
by the participants so that you can hold an informed discussion
prior to making decisions?
- What information can ONLY
be given by a presentation at the meeting?
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Meet
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Put a well-developed plan into
action to get the results you need. Typical outcomes during
a meeting include:
A clear, shared understanding
of a formerly vague issue.
Decisions about strategy and
tactics, policies and procedures.
Action items to follow up on
after the meeting, assigned to specific individuals with clearly
defined deliverables and time frames.
Documentation of the meeting
in the form of minutes or a report.
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Follow-Up
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A meeting ONLY works when used
in the context of ongoing work. Commitments made in a meeting
must be checked on and communicated.
Groups that meet on a regular
basis, such as project teams, use the Follow-Up phase to feed
the Preparation phase of the Meeting Cycle.
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Facilitation
With an Edge – An Attitude of Action, Involvement and Results
Task vs. Process
Many problems with meetings are the
result of lack of addressing a simple fact: There are TWO types
of actions occurring in your meetings.
First, there are actions associated
with the TASK being addressed by the meeting participants. The task
is the work of the group – a new product, a new service, a new computer
system – whatever is the reason for the meeting!
Secondly, there is the PROCESS within
the meeting. This is the often overlooked, or unspoken element to
your meeting. Does everyone get a chance to speak their opinions?
Are differing viewpoints valued, or put down? How does the group
make a decision? Does the power of the group leader overwhelm all
other input to the meeting? These are just a few process questions
that must be addressed to get fully realize the OPPORTUNITY you
wish to realize from your meeting.
Corporate Training Partners brings
a complete awareness of both types of actions to your meetings.
We appreciate your tasks and will work to fully understand the issues
with which your team is grappling. We also embrace the responsibility
of designing and implementing a process that will keep your group
moving towards results.
"There’s nothing like
results to help a team develop."
Peter Sprague
President,
Corporate Training Partners
Your group needs a facilitator that
will keep up with the speed of thought, talk and action in your
meeting. Quick thinking, combined with keen insight and a commitment
to moving your group forward, is a hallmark of our facilitation
process.
We believe that effective facilitation
is often the result of consistently, almost ruthlessly, asking these
questions during your meeting:
- Can someone summarize the conclusion
we seem to have reached?
- Who has the responsibility for getting
this task done?
- When will you complete that task
by? How will you keep the rest of the group informed?
Combine these questions with a commitment
to staying on the agenda and redirecting participants back to the
ONE TOPIC being discussed….ask yourself, how would this help our
meeting?
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Contact
us today to begin planning your meeting!
Call Peter Sprague today at 727.321.5077
to discuss your next meeting. Professional facilitation can help
you fully realize the opportunities that surround you…allow us to
partner with you to make your next meeting achieve fabulous results!
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