Overview

The premise for this Eagle Learning Center group learning process is,

"We know how we want our meetings to work-we just need to get better at making them work."

Participants in this session will consider two key strategies: (1) How to treat each other in meetings to encourage participation; and (2) How to structure and implement meetings to insure that key goals are agreed upon and accomplished.

Depending on what works best for your organization, Meetings of Consequence can be delivered as a 3 ½ hour workshop or a series of shorter sessions. The workshop format is interactive utilizing lecture, group discussion, role play, and experiential exercises.

Objectives

• Mutually determine the types of meetings routinely experienced by participants. 
• Understand how our assumptions about other meeting participants affect our behavior. 
• Understand and practice Purpose/Procedure/Payoff technique for starting an effective meeting. 
• Understand and practice skills for encouraging participation. 
• Understand when brainstorming is effective and techniques for brainstorming. 
• Understand both leader and participant techniques for keeping the team on task.

Outline

• Modeling Purpose/Procedure/Payoff technique. 
• Group diagnosis: What types of meetings are most common and how successful are they? 
• The people who make up your teams: checking your assumptions about people. 
• Behaviors that discourage participation. 
• Behaviors that encourage participation. 
• Convergent and Divergent thinking. Benefits and pitfalls of each. 
• When and how to brainstorm: the Let's Link Ludicrous Lots technique. 
• A process to bring brainstorming to closure. 
• Meetings that wander. Whose responsibility is it? 
• Planning your next meeting: putting the skills to work