Sunday, August 18, 2013

How To Run A Meeting And Make Progress

By Dom Richards


Organisation and coordination of meetings is difficult and can be daunting, difficulty decreases with time and experience. Why schedule a meeting. Sorting something out is a big motivator for calling a meeting. Why would someone need to sort something out. Its all about job satisfaction and we all want to do well and know we tried are hardest and we rely on others to make a lot of decisions in the workplace..

Duration of the meeting depends on your agenda, depends on how well you know the people and the materials you have to discuss. Getting the right people in the room is of utmost importance, without the right mix of responsibility and input the meeting will be a failure.

What everyone needs to bring to the meeting: Any details for discussion, ideas and an open mind. How to get action - Create an action list, write up the minutes for the meeting and distribute with realistic due dates. Follow up the action list with an email first then a call if you have no luck. Don't discount the guilt that someone feels when you see them and they know that they promised you something i.e. a report by a certain date

Follow the agenda and create some visual aids or handouts where required. It is always important and required to discuss the agenda and stakeholders and how they fit together - essentially why you are taking these peoples time and what you want from them. Your position -Discuss your ideas for solution, and listen to the feedback from others. Action items - Capture all concerns and risks and rank them if possible, its handy to know what the major roadblocks and risks are for any project.

Management presentations can be nerve racking and preparation is the key to minimising the risk of embarrassment, failure or more work. With a positive spin, it is all about selling your great work and gaining support from those who can allow additional resources or steer the project towards where it needs to go. What does management generally want. To reward those doing a good job, remove risk from the project, allow changes ;to priorities and report on the successes up the management chain. What do you want from management. In general the project needs to be finished and you want support to continue on as you have done, in fact you are there in the first place on most occasions because you have done a good job and management want to share your success.

Organisational behaviour is the study of why people do the things they do, how and its effects upon business efficiency. Trust and respect are key elements of organisational behaviour as they can shape outcomes and give those in pivotal positions the support they require to excel and exceed expectations.

Presenting to management advice

It is often handy to start with time lines, the time line shows where you started, where you are now and what you have to go. You can then explain deviations from plan as you go, current status and future work.

This is the standard model for leaving lasting positive impressions, don't finish you presentation on a negative

The flow of the presentation should include the challenges early on and then focus on the positive fixes and conclusions. If you focus on the negative then so will the audience and this will leave a negative impression.

Graphics and pictures are great but also remember that we all learn in different ways. In general men prefer pictures and women are more linguistic.

Keep presentation of complex ideas to a minimum and keep it simple for a lasting effect.

We all want to do a good job. Relationships at work are pivotal, show your worth!




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