Personal Efficiency and Managing Meetings

Audience

Managers, Team Leaders and staff members who feel that:

• They are attending too many meetings
• Their time is being “stolen” by other people
• They cannot get to the bottom of their day’s work because of a lack of planning, foresight or prioritisation

Format of the course

The course will be a highly-interactive combination of:

• Facilitated Discussions
• Slide Presentations
• Exercises and Case Studies

By the end of the course, delegates will be able to:

• Appreciate the need to manage meetings effectively – respecting the time pressures of those whom they invite to meetings
• Follow the standard processes for calling, managing and preparing the output of meetings
• Appreciate more widely some of the ways of managing themselves and their time more efficiently: to work smarter not harder…

Understanding Ourselves and Others

• Understanding that when we ask others to attend a meeting we are imposing upon them our list of priorities
• What makes us behave the way we do?
• Are we aware how our behaviour affects others: do they always respond in the way we want them to and in the way that they should? If not, why not…?

The Process for Managing Meetings

• Why is a meeting necessary; what are the alternatives; are any of the alternatives preferable?
• The process for calling, managing and preparing for meetings:
  • Creating a meaningful agenda covering the objectives for the meeting, the subject(s) to be covered and suggested timings
  • Inviting only the right people – and nobody else
  • Managing the meeting: allowing only relevant contributions (but being careful to differentiate between relevant and irrelevant); keeping to the agenda; keeping to time
  • Creating outputs: not necessarily detailed minutes but, at least, actions points
  • Arranging follow-up meeting(s)

Attending Meetings

• Do I need to attend all the meetings to which I am invited?
• How do I decide whether (or not) to attend meetings?
• What justifications do I have for declining to attend?
• What else am I allowed to do during a meeting related to attendees, subject matter being discussed and timings?

Other Personal Efficiency and Time Management Issues

• Setting Objectives – personal and professional – and keeping to them
• Work Prioritisation
  • How do I decide what needs to be done?
  • How do I prioritise these activities?
• Employee-Imposed Time: are my staff and colleagues working for me or am I working for them…?
• Time Bandits: what else steals time away from me and what can I do about it?
  • E-mails
  • Telephone calls
  • Unplanned interruptions
  • Displacement activities: procrastination…
  • Other things…
• Effective Delegation
• Assertiveness: seeking a compromise; learning to say “no” effectively