Mastering Meetings – 2 Day Workshop

Recent studies have shown that on the average, business professionals attend a total of 61.8 hours of meetings per month and over 50 percent of this meeting time is wasted. How can your organization minimize profit loss due to communication inefficiency? How can you overcome cultural boundaries of group business communication? This two day intensive workshop will guide senior managers and new staff alike to be better prepared, make meaningful participation, and come away with winning results from every meeting.

Course Outline

DAY 1 OVERVIEW

THE PROBLEMS AND GOALS OF COMMUNICTAION

Challenges to effective meetings
Communication Process
Division of responsibilities of chairman and participants
40-20-40 Rule for success

PREPARING FOR MEETING AS PARTICIPANT

Identifying the purpose and type of meeting
Difference between informative and decision making meeting
Using the agenda to prepare for the meeting
Cultural Approaches to meetings

PARTICIPATING IN A MEETING PART ONE

Active listening and passive listening
Tips for active listening
Question types and how to use them to master meetings
The importance of giving and supporting opinions

PARTICIPATING IN A MEETING PART TWO

Making persuasive proposals
Degrees of agreement
Diplomatic disagreement
Interrupting and countering Interruptions

Review of all language needed to participate in a meeting

EVALUATING YOUR PERFORMACE

Questions to ponder after the meeting to improve your next meeting performance
Push Pull method to evaluate persuasiveness
Measuring and Increasing Persuasiveness during meetings
Standard language for participating in a meeting

ROLE PLAY AND FEEDBACK

DAY 2 OVERVIEW

THE PROBLEMS AND GOALS OF CHAIRING A MEETING

Evaluating current abilities as chairperson
Review of the communication process and responsibilities of the chairperson
40-20-40 Rule for success

PREPARING FOR MEETING AS PARTICIPANT

Gaining insight before the meeting
Deciding whether a meeting is the best way to handle the issue
Identifying the purpose and type of meeting and clarifying the objectives
Making an agenda and sending it to participants
Considering Diff the logistics of a meeting and choosing an appropriate time date and venue

INVOLVING ALL PARTICIPANTS

Opening a meeting and drawing attention to meeting purpose
Managing the meeting, using questions
Signposting language to guide the participants
Closing the meeting and ensuring follow up action

DEALING WITH PERSONALITIES

Analysis of personality types
Challenges of personality types and potential negative impact on meeting efficiency
Tips on how to involve and manage all personality types

ADDING IMPACT WITH VOICE AND BODY

Introduction of how to effectively apply key voice techniques such as stress, intonation, articulation
Using Body Language to add impact to your message
Reading others body language and knowing what to do with that information

ROLE PLAY AND FEEDBACK