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]

First: If you think the meeting truly needs the attendance of the senior person, ask Why? Find out the benefit for THEM  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]

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]

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.

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]

It also helps to take…[Read more]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

What are your goals for  networking?

Often people seem to set a goal of collecting business cards, that can end up forgotten in a desk drawer. Think about what you want to end up with. If it is an important person, do some research on them if possible before the meeting. Find out about their company / department and what is…[Read more]

Firstly, you have a high level of personal anxiety which isn’t related to what is going on in the meeting, perhaps due to money worries or family issues. There are two helpful things if you have to participate in a meeting when in a highly-stressed state.

The first is to get control of your breathing. Before entering the…[Read more]

If people are habituated to a meeting culture where destructive behaviours, such as interrupting and personal attacks, are allowed to go unchecked, a new chair will absolutely have to address these and it may take some time…[Read more]

People have different degrees of granularity regarding a facilitator capturing what they are saying – there isnt a “one size fits all ” approach.

Person A may say a paragraph’s worth of speech and be happy with you stripping out all the fluff and writing “Increase sales in Malaysia”

Person B may say virtually…[Read more]