kieranfoley replied to the topic Agenda in the forum Commencing a meeting 7 months, 2 weeks ago
Interesting points, Ron
I was wondering if people have any thoughts on the subject of setting an Agenda?
My impression is that successful meetings seem to follow an agenda which is ‘chunked’ in a specific way. There are not more than 3-4 broad areas to be covered, and each area never has more than 3-4 subsections, if any. Personally I find…[Read more]
kieranfoley replied to the topic Introductions in the forum Commencing a meeting 2 years, 2 months ago
Introductions IMO tend to be in the middle of the organisations culture and the meeting cultures of the people attending. When attending a country with a different meeting culture, don’t expect them to adapt to yours. When they are in your country, maintain your own meeting culture but show sensitivity to things that might be deal breakers.
kieranfoley replied to the topic Invitations in the forum Meeting planning and preparation 2 years, 2 months ago
I’ll jump in on this
First: If you think the meeting truly needs the attendance of the senior person, ask Why? Find out the benefit for THEMÂ to attend and pitch it to them face to face in 10 seconds.
Secondly, dont frame it in terms of your own wants, frame it in terms of theirs. You could also just ask for a steer – you wondered whether this…[Read more]
kieranfoley replied to the topic Briefing Notes / Pre-Reading in the forum Meeting planning and preparation 2 years, 2 months ago
Interesting to have an approach that seems to be an exercise in collaborative writing as a team. I am curious how Amazon avoid getting into “Revision Hell”. I saw this happen when editing a Divisional newsletter in a large Corporate. Each layer of organisation would countermand the changes from the level underneath them!
kieranfoley joined the group Authors and Books 2 years, 2 months ago
kieranfoley joined the group Meeting Companies 2 years, 2 months ago
kieranfoley joined the group Meeting Technologies 2 years, 2 months ago
kieranfoley replied to the topic Venue in the forum Meeting planning and preparation 2 years, 2 months ago
The key rule seems to be “expect the unexpected”.
I was once doing logistics for a mindfullness seminar, held at a fairly large hotel in Bristol, England. As you can imagine, it needed a lot of peace and quiet, which it got…until half-way through, when we found that there was a long standing 1940s English singalong in the bar that was directly…[Read more]
kieranfoley replied to the topic Joining Instructions in the forum Meeting planning and preparation 2 years, 2 months ago
For me, this can come under what type of impression do you want to make with your attendees?
A lack of clarity about a simple aspect of a transaction like this may contribute to a bad first impression – and that could have very severe impacts for the individuals setting up the meeting, not to mention possible adverse business effects.
kieranfoley replied to the topic Signing formal documents in the forum Closing a meeting 3 years, 1 month ago
Small point, just to get the conversation started.
If you are going to sign documents that are translated from a foreign language, always ensure that you work with two independent translators to scrutinize both sets of documents – the ones you are signing and the one’s the other party are signing to ensure they are the same in both content and…[Read more]
kieranfoley replied to the topic Leaving before the end in the forum Closing a meeting 3 years, 1 month ago
If you need to leave before the end of a meeting and know this before the start – either let people know in advance or have be mentioned by the chair at the start of the meeting. If you are essential to some of the agenda items, advance warning can enable the order to be changed, so your contribution will make a difference.
It also helps to take…[Read more]
kieranfoley replied to the topic Summarising points of agreement in the forum Closing a meeting 3 years, 1 month ago
The best practice is to have the points of agreement written up on a flip-chart for all to see and added to as the meeting progresses. The summary at the end will just be a quick review (reading out) of the points. This is much better than the alternative, which is to have one person in the meeting keeping notes and then having a summary cobbled…[Read more]
kieranfoley replied to the topic Arranging the next meeting in the forum Closing a meeting 3 years, 1 month ago
Ideally do this within the meeting itself and have that be part of the Agenda for the meeting. Keep this really short and make sure that people who come to the meeting are informed that they will be expected to have their availability ready. Have this process occur before the distribution of the minutes for the meeting, which should be the last…[Read more]
kieranfoley replied to the topic Courtesy & Respect in the forum Meeting etiquette 3 years, 1 month ago
Courtesy reflects a person’s value to us. When we treat a person with courtesy – with kindness and empathy – it shows that they matter to us.
Courtesy has two components – our own state, and the impact that that state has on anther. In terms of our own state – we need to model behaviours such as listening, summarising accurately, and being…[Read more]
kieranfoley replied to the topic Spin-off meetings / projects in the forum Meeting feedback and follow-up 3 years, 1 month ago
A key aspects of dealing with spin-off meetings and projects is not to assume they will remain smaller in scope than the meeting and project you are involved in. For example a project to speed up the performance of a website could lead to a team testing a complete re-write of the site in another computer language. A key issue is that of risk…[Read more]
kieranfoley replied to the topic Commenting on minutes / notes in the forum Meeting feedback and follow-up 3 years, 1 month ago
The essence of this is timeliness.
By far the best approach is to have minutes produced in real-time and agreed and then issued BEFORE the meeting ends.
This creates a great deal of positive momentum and the experience for the participants that the meeting has already accomplished something.
With appropriate tech set-up beforehand, this is…[Read more]
kieranfoley replied to the topic Completing actions in the forum Meeting feedback and follow-up 3 years, 1 month ago
A really useful way to think about meetings is what I call the Bridge / Flocks metaphor.
Between two get-togethers (represented by the supports of a suspension bridge), there is a ‘flock’ of actions that need to be shepherded to completion on the other side of the bridge.
The most important part of the meeting is what occurs between the two…[Read more]
kieranfoley replied to the topic Asking for & giving feedback in the forum Meeting feedback and follow-up 3 years, 1 month ago
One of the quickest and simplest methods is to use the DeBono Thinking tool called PMI, which stands for Plus, Minus and Interesting.
It takes three minutes or less.
Plus
List what was positive and worked about the meeting
Minus
List what didn’t work about the meeting
Interesting
What were unexpected issues, ideas that came out of the…[Read more]
kieranfoley replied to the topic Briefing non-attendees in the forum Meeting feedback and follow-up 3 years, 1 month ago
A horses for curse approach is best. Factors involved will include the seniority of the non-attendee, the importance of their non-attendance and the type of the meeting.
If the meeting was virtual, then a quick catch-up on Zoom (or similar) will be the best approach because it will be the most personalised.
If it was face-to-face, then a brief…[Read more]
kieranfoley replied to the topic Breaks & interruptions in the forum Meeting etiquette 3 years, 1 month ago
Interruptions are a big issue within meetings. They are one of the major causes of meetings becoming aggressive train-wrecks. (To be continued)
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