Posted by: Claudia Raab in Make Meetings Fun on
Jan 13, 2009
Many of us are back at work by now with our brand new diaries filling up quickly with appointments for meetings - external ones with clients or internal ones with colleagues or the board. As we all know, some meetings can be rather difficult: Never ending, too many contributions that aren't relevant resulting in no tangible outcome and frustrated participants. In a nutshell: a pure waste of time and money. Whether you are chairing a meeting or taking part in it, to guarantee a productive meeting and at the same time earning valuable bonus points from your boss and improve your professional image, make sure you consider before the meeting:
- its purpose and
- how you can make valuable contributions to it.
Organising productive meetings is easy if you follow some simple steps:
As a chairperson:
- Work out a clear and specific purpose for your meeting and clearly expect an outcome. Set up a written agenda with time slots for each topic and have a copy sent to each participant.
- Be in control of the meeting
- Set up and inform participants about ground rules for the meetings.
- Cut contributions short that aren't relevant to the meetings in an appropriate but firm way. Encourage contributions and win-win outcomes.
- Appreciate contributions and summarise. Keep the time.
As a participant:
- Know the specific purpose and expected outcome of meeting and contact chairperson if this is not clear enough.
- Taylor your contributions to your audience and make them relevant for participants and meeting's purpose.
- Keep to your allocated time slot and the agenda once it is approved.
Easy to do! Charing and participating in meetings is a great way to improve your professional image and get positive attention. Seize the chance and learn to contribute at least once in every meeting! This is most important for your personal and professional success! Call us if you need further information on how to chair or participate in a meeting. We are here to help you! Simply call 0425 785 143 or email celine.dubois@raabconsulting.com now!
Posted by: Claudia Raab in Make Meetings Fun on
Jul 18, 2008
I was quite amused to read the following results of a Healthy Meetings Study undertaken by Hilton Sydney: According to the survey 6.3 million working Australians think people fall asleep in meetings.
97 per cent of people interviewed revealed they would start drifting off to "LaLa Land" because they were boxed inside four walls without natural light. 88 per cent blamed the fact that they were sitting in one spot for too long.
Unfortunately, you can't always choose the environment in which a meeting you are supposed to chair will take place and sometimes simply have to put up with a windowless room and artificial light.
However, you can choose the way you chair a meeting and cater for the fact that people quickly loose focus and attention because they hate to sit in one place for too long.
How? Easy!
- Schedule short 1-2 minute breaks e.g. after you ticked two items on your agenda.
- Ask people during these breaks to get up and get drinks from jugs that a placed on a trolley rather than on the table or have fruits placed on a seperate table they need to get.
- Encourage them to change seats after the breaks. Tha's also a great excersise to change literally change perspectives when dealing with a problem.
- Make sure you retain eye contact with everybody. This will people force to stay focused on you.
- Lead by example: Be energised and dynamic! From time to time stand up when you speak and move around.
Think this will cost you too much time?
On the contrary! You'll find that whenever you move it will speed up your blood flow which is responsible for the oxygen transport to your brain resulting in speeding up the creative thinking process! Problems are solved faster! New ideas generated quicker!
And of course: Make sure everyone who has to present does it skillfully in an an interesting, engaging way. That's the best way to prevent everyone form falling asleep, saving time and money!
We're happy to provide training for those who aren't naturally talented in presenting and would love to share our secrets that guarantee your meetings are highly productive and fun. Call Claudia on 0425 785 143 to find out more or send an email to info@raabconsulting.com. Make Meetings Fun!
