ComputerHunter.org |
|
|
|||
|
 |
Running Successful Meetings - The Key Steps To Getting It Right
We all complain about meetings which are a waste of our time and the truth of the matter is that so many are exactly that. We've also seen the "corridor" meeting that takes place afterwards where it seems the real decisions are taken, or the agreed decisions are overturned. You'll get your chance at some point in your career to run your own meeting - is yours going to go the same way? or will you make sure it's effective and does the job it is supposed to? Well run meetings contribute to team building and high morale; badly run meetings are at best a waste of everyone's time and at worst potentially damaging to relationships and the business as a whole. Here's how you can get it right: All successful meetings depend upon a number of independent factors and if you approach each one methodically you'll find that your meetings are the ones that get action. Planning Preparation Information Structure & control Records & action Planning What is the meeting intended to achieve? what will the meeting actually achieve? what happens if you don't hold the meeting who needs to attend and why? is there a more effective way of communicating? Preparation prepare and circulate an agenda in advance; invite agenda items before the meeting; arrange agenda logically; consider the important - v - the urgent issue; arrange the timings and set limits; clarify objectives for each item. Information tell those involved what's expected of them; tell everyone time, date location etc; circulate any required pre-reading or information. Structure & Control Discuss each item in turn; seek contributions but keep people to the point; avoid going over old ground; be aware of thre needs of the group; prevent splinter discussion groups; summarise often to bring back to the point; commend contributions; confirm any conclusions; stress actions and who takes it. Records & Action record discussions, actions and responsibilities; produce clear simple minutes immediately. There are a number of points to learn about the effective handling of meetings: invite the right people; set an agenda that's do-able; control timings and people; encourage members to listen to each other; note actions; review and record So if you want to avoid the "let's all turn up and see what happens" approach it just means you need to take the time to think through to what you really want and need to achieve, and then get on with it. People will thank you for not wasting their, or your, time. Peter Fisher is a Director of Career Consulting Limited and provides pragmatic career advice at all levels from junior staff to executive directors. Visit http://www.your-career-change.com/index.html for help with career change issues from self-marketing to CV writing and Interview techniques.
Google News - Top Stories
|
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
5 Ways to Work More Effectively With Your Administrative Assistant Stop hiring new administrative support staff. And learn how to retain your existing administrative staff. Preparing For ISO 9001 2000 Registration The steps need to be taken to prepare an organization for ISO 9001 2000 registration: Empowering Others - Giving Them Some Control It's been a pretty good weekend around the place - not done a lot, but I have done what I've wanted to do - and that makes the difference. Ten Top Ways for Managers to Motivate Their People So to help start the ball rolling, here are ten top ways to get your people motivated. Ten small steps for you to start with. How to Use an HR Consultant Bringing an HR consultant into your organisation can often be the only way to get a particular objective achieved. It may be a project that needs to be delivered such as a recruitment campaign, a compensation & benefits review or the implementation of an HR information system. Another possibility may be the need to cover a maternity leave post. Whatever the company requirement, whether it be linked to strategic or operational HR there is a consultant to fit the bill, whether they be a generalist or specialist. Problem-Solving Success Tip: Test Your Assumptions About Everything Test your assumptions about everything. Creativity and Innovation Directors, Consultants and Managers Creativity and Innovation is essential for competitive advantage, yet the role of Creativity and Innovation Manager is often not viewed as essential. Organizations without such a role will simply not perform as competitively as their rivals. 3 Ingredients of Highly Profitable Organizational Change As waves of organizational change sweep across the business landscape, a huge question arises: What must a leader do to make sure change produces highly profitable results? Employee Retention: Its a Changing Game As a management consultant, I have seen some poorly conceived retention policies at otherwise well-run companies. The philosophies underlying these policies lack some basic knowledge of two things: The High, High Price of Distrust A paper manufacturer with over 300 employees once announced that it was planning to move to more spacious and attractive premises thirty miles down the road. Quick Tips On Bringing Out The Best In People Want to bring out the best in people? Your Appraisal System Can Be Better ? Overcome These Nine Serious Failings This article is directed at senior managers. As a senior colleague you have the authority to make tremendous improvements. You can have maximum effect in improving your existing appraisal system or starting one that contributes to profits or other targets. The Key to Successful Performance Objectives Have you ever tried to drive somewhere without proper directions? This almost always turns out to be a frustrating experience. Sure, if you stop and ask enough people you may eventually reach your target destination, but think of all the wasted energy, time, and resources needed to accomplish your goal. Basic Management Skills Recent studies have shown that industrial supervisors are working at less than 60 % of their potential. Basic management skills training is guaranteed to change all this and at such little cost Dialogue: the Four Dialogic Principles For Successful Communication "But you don't understand!" exclaimed the manager, "this new initiative is vital for our team. If it doesn't work we could all be out of a job!" How to Say No Rejection hurts. No one likes to give it or to receive it. We all wish we could live in a world where everyone said "yes." And yet sometimes you have to say "no." The DNA of Motivation It really is about motivation. After all, what impels someone to climb a mountain, or go to college, or save for a car, or learn a new language or anything of a thousand things? What is it that moves someone to action from a position of comfortable stasis? The answer is motivation. Motivation is the process of stimulating you to action. It takes a need, desire or some other impulse and incites a response. Motivation is the high-octane fuel of success and, as such, it's vital that individuals and teams capitalize on its power. Often motivation seems to occur spontaneously -- the result of apparently random events. But random motivation isn't the stuff of greatness - to say the least of profitability, innovation and success. It's imperative that team makers and leaders cultivate and nurture motivation throughout the life of a project. Fortunately, motivation is relatively easy to create. In fact, it can be reduced to a formula: M = (D+ A)U. That is, motivation equals dissonance plus accountability, multiplied by urgency. This is the DNA of motivation. It's the essence of what will fire individual imagination and resiliently drive action. Contained within this simple formula are the seeds of phenomenal success. Making a Decision to Outsource: Driving Factors Most executives view offshore outsourcing most of all as a source of cost reducing. The greatest savings are expected to come from lower labor cost and reduced project timelines. However offshore outsourcing also creates new challenges and expenses for the organization involved. Those may include vendor selection costs, legal costs, costs of transition and many others. That is why despite the evidence of possible major up-front cost savings many outsourcing vendors have yet to prove that they are able to provide positive ROI in a complex project. Joint Accountability: Another Key for Your Effectiveness I once was part of a group of management professors who often taught in executive development seminars. Other non-management professors in the school ran these. Occasionally these non-management professors would approach someone else in the management group to express their concerns about our teaching - they wouldn't approach the person who had taught for them. Customer Focus - Just 5 SimpleThings You Need to Think About You can boil down the difference between successful businesses and the rest in how they work with their customers, in just five areas.So, what does this mean? What They WantSelling what your customers really want is just critical. Being on good enough terms with your customers to research, (hey maybe just by chatting with them - radical idea, huh?), helps you find out how you can best serve their needs. Price is RightBy balancing the kind of pricing you want to offer with exceptional service levels, there is a fascinating calculation to be made. Prices rock-bottom with inadequate attention to item 5 are not likely to bring profitable consumers rushing to your door. Providers have an ongoing dance between price and service - be aware of it. It is not possible to sustain your business with lowest prices and poor service. When They Want ItIn the internet world, availability of your goods and services is measured critically far more than ever before. You may not need to be 24/7, but you certainly need to be aware of it. More traditional customers are also becoming more demanding. So businesses need to be especially sensitive to the hours they trade, whether they sell goods or services, by stores and/or phone. Easy To BuyWith the advent of the internet, making it easy to purchase is vital. Why not make purchases from the comfort of your home study or workplace office? So having your people who are available, exactly when your customer wants them, to make payment for goods and services relly easy is a serious point worth considering. Even in shops, the sensitivity of simply having staff focused on delivering the very best of attention is critical. Every day there may be threats to different shopping channels, so the adage that you 'only have one chance to make a first impression' is becoming ever more important. Trusted Follow UpBy ensuring that you have all your ducks in a row so far, sustainably building whatever business you are in, is vitally dependent on how you handle ongoing customer service. Indeed if you are only focusing on a one-time purchase, then, frankly, you are not going to have much of a future. Repeat business is very inexpensive for you, so an investment of post-purchase excellence is very worthwhile.By focusing on these five elements, teasing out the consequences with your management teams, you will have a great chance of making business progress. If you choose not to take the time to analyse what you truly need to do, there will be a jeopardy for you in the not to distant future.
|
|
|
|
|
