Personal Efficiency and Managing Meetings Training Course

Understanding Ourselves and Others

• Recognizing that inviting others to a meeting imposes our priorities on them.
• Exploring the factors that drive our behavior.
• Assessing how our conduct impacts others: Do they respond as we expect or as is appropriate? If not, why?

The Process for Managing Meetings

• Justifying the need for a meeting by considering and evaluating alternatives.
• The comprehensive process for scheduling, conducting, and preparing for meetings:
  • Developing a meaningful agenda that outlines objectives, topics, and suggested time allocations.
  • Inviting only the essential participants.
  • Managing the session: ensuring contributions remain relevant (distinguishing between relevant and irrelevant points), adhering to the agenda, and staying on schedule.
  • Generating clear outcomes: while detailed minutes are not always required, action points must be defined.
  • Scheduling necessary follow-up meetings.

Attending Meetings

• Evaluating the necessity of attending every invited meeting.
• Determining criteria for deciding whether or not to participate.
• Identifying valid reasons for declining an invitation.
• Understanding what is permissible during a meeting regarding attendee engagement, subject matter, and timing.

Other Personal Efficiency and Time Management Issues

• Setting and maintaining personal and professional goals.
• Work Prioritization
  • Determining what needs to be done.
  • Ranking these activities by importance.
• Employee-Imposed Time: Evaluating whether staff and colleagues are working for you, or if you are working for them.
• Time Bandits: Identifying other time drains and strategies to address them
  • E-mails
  • Telephone calls
  • Unplanned interruptions
  • Displacement activities such as procrastination
  • Other distractions
• Effective Delegation
• Assertiveness: Learning to seek compromises and say “no” effectively