Introducing

LEADING GREAT MEETINGS

A practical workshop to give meeting facilitators the tools to share information, solve problems, make decisions and develop plans quickly and effectively.

Learn how to:

• Keep on time and on topic
• Use the talents of the entire team
• Intervene to correct behavioural problems
• Design agendas that differentiate process from content
• Prepare effectively
• Promote creativity
• Reduce meeting time dramatically, without compromising quality
• Deal with dysfunctional behaviour
• Solve problems quickly
• Make decisions by consensus
• Ensure that action items are attended to

BACKGROUND

Organizations are calling on their teams – temporary and permanent - to provide better, faster and lower cost services. Yet in spite of all the hoopla about teams, most fall far short of expectations. Reasons for the shortfall in performance are numerous, as are the solutions. But nothing will make a greater impact to the success of a team than an effective facilitator.

This intensive workshop will give leaders from any part or level of the organization the skills to bring a divergent group of people together and mold them – during meetings - into a high performance team, capable of making decisions and solving problems quickly and effectively.

WORKSHOP OBJECTIVES

At the end of the workshop participants will:

• understand the role of facilitator
• successfully influence the process of team meetings
• reduce the meeting times by at least 50%
• plan for meetings
• develop effective agendas, including appropriate processes for each item on the agenda
• get key commitments and establish ground rules at the start of the meeting
• guide the group through a step-by-step problem solving and decision making process
• ensure full participation throughout
• handle a variety of dysfunctional behaviours inside and outside the meeting
• wrap up meetings in such a way that everyone is crystal clear about what was accomplished and what is expected of them
• manage conflict effectively
• work together effectively
• intervene in a variety of situations in which the team finds itself in difficulty

LEARNING PROCESS

The training will be customized. It will incorporate state-of-the-art adult education techniques to ensure that people learn and transfer their skills into their daily work.

Participants will benefit from ongoing feedback from their peers and the trainer. They will participate in an informal learning environment, which will encourage active participation, fun and openness.

The dynamic workshop will simulate a variety of meetings, each with a different purpose and human dynamics. The learning will be powerful since each new concept will be demonstrated and then given to the participants to try. The teams will prepare each meeting, conduct it and then analyze the result afterwards.

We will challenge participants to use the skills right away. They will have the ability to call on us informally, at any time, for help regarding the use of any tools that they learned in the workshop.

LENGTH OF PROGRAM

1-2 days depending on the needs of the participants.

PROGRAM OUTLINE

ORGANIZATIONS, TEAMWORK & MEETINGS

• The purpose of organizations.
• The importance of teamwork in the quest for exceptional customer/patient service.

TEAMWORK & MEETINGS

• The role of meetings in high performance teams.
• The 5 types of meetings.
• The difference between process and content.
• The 4 key roles in meetings: what they are, what they do and why they are important.
• The props that will enhance the effectiveness of your meeting.
• The difference between running and facilitating a meeting.
• Why facilitation is partly a science and partly an art.
• The 2 golden lessons for successful facilitators.
• A checklist to plan and evaluate all meetings.
• The 4 key agreements that will start your meeting off on the right track.
• How to end a meeting to ensure clarity and action.

THE FACILITATION PROCESS

• Who should facilitate?
• The difficulties of facilitating problems you are familiar with.
• The 2 golden rules of facilitation.
• The principle of intervention.
• Designing an agenda that will allow you to estimate the time of each item accurately.
• Learning to distinguish between process and content.
• Knowing which issues to intervene in, when and how to do it.

TEAM DECISION MAKING

• Four alternative ways of making decisions: when to use each.
• The value of consensus.
• An 8-step process that will dramatically reduce the time it takes to reach a consensus.

PROBLEM SOLVING MEETINGS

• Why people struggle to solve problems together.
• The importance of a road map.
• The five steps to problem resolution.
• Why we often forget about finding the cause.
• Some simple tools to use in problem solving meetings, including Brainstorming, Cause & Effect Diagrams and the Pareto Principle.
• How to encourage creativity.
• Developing an action plan to make sure that decisions made are followed through.

GROUP DYNAMICS

• The 3 most challenging dysfunctional behaviours.
• What, where, how and when to intervene.
• Using the group to intervene.
• Dealing with negativism.

CONFLICT RESOLUTION

• The difference between good and bad conflict.
• Five strategies to deal with conflict.
• Picking the one that works best under the circumstances.
• How to be proactive and avoid conflict.
• The 10 golden rules of how to give feedback assertively.

COMMENTS FROM A RECENT TRAINING SESSION

"Extremely enjoyable session."

"Very well done. Made potentially dry day very interesting. Look forward to using the techniques."

"Excellent practical experience & application of theory."

"Good day. Kept to agenda & was very clear."

"Really energizing day."

"More useful than I expected."

"Just a note to say: I had a 'great meeting'!

My first meeting as chair went extremely well; it was the first meeting of the business year, the agenda was as full as I dared to make it (the staff wanted to load it up but I resisted!) and we had almost 100% attendance.

The meeting lasted as long as past meetings, an acceptable amount of time.

Most important and gratifying for all of us was full participation and full agreement on all items.

The keys to success? I believe it was in imploring everyone to speak their minds (encouraged participation), requesting participants to be clear about their positions, repeating and summarizing decisions.

I remembered to watch, listen, ask questions, get agreement and summarize.

I got to the meeting first, picked a (new) chairman's location to sit (midway along the table, the clock behind me on the wall); I started on time (luckily I had a quorum!).

End result? We took action on every item, (some decisions were not what I anticipated (good)) and I received compliments after the meeting from at least half the participants; yep, that's the reward!

Cy, last week I walked away from the workshop thinking 'I enjoyed that but I'm not sure what I learned to do about meetings'. Now I know - 'ask questions, get agreement, summarize'. Everyone spoke, everyone was involved and consequently, we made good decisions.

Many thanks for your guidance and advice.

Jim Kirk,

Trustee and Chairman of Strategic Management Committee, York Central Hospital Board"