Antoni Lacinai
Mike Darmell
Š 2016 Antoni Lacinai & Mike Darmell Make meetings work Edited by John Mattock Design: Pia Lilenthal Illustrations: Antoni Lacinai Photograph: Serny Pernebjer och Petra Kyllerman Published and printed by BoD ISBN: 978-91-7463-152-4
Table of conTenTs Is it just us? .......................................................................... 9 Before before ...................................................................... 13 Facts about meetings................................................... 14 Why is this?................................................................. 14 Findings ...................................................................... 14 The value .................................................................... 15 What other positive effects can you expect? ................ 15
Before ................................................................................. 17 1. Purpose and goals........................................................... 19 First, the purpose ........................................................ 19 Why it’s good to have a clear purpose ......................... 20 What to do once you’ve got it ..................................... 20 Then the goal .............................................................. 22 Clear goals give advantages......................................... 23 Think about this when you set your goals ................... 23 Goal setting – tools and techniques ............................. 23 Know – Feel – Do........................................................ 24 SMART ...................................................................... 25 KISS ............................................................................ 26 2. About the agenda ........................................................... 29 Design your agenda..................................................... 30 3. About the invitation ........................................................ 33 Rules for the invitation................................................ 34 4. About the meeting room .................................................. 39 Some tried-and-tested layouts ..................................... 41 Colour and light matter .............................................. 42 5. About the coffee break ..................................................... 45 Simple coffee break advice .......................................... 46
During ................................................................................. 49 6. About the moments just before the meeting starts ................ 51 Get a good start .......................................................... 52 Music affects us .......................................................... 53 7. About the start of the meeting........................................... 55 Get off to a good start ................................................. 56 8. About meeting norms and rules ........................................ 59 Agree on rules ............................................................. 60 The role of the facilitator ............................................ 61 The role of the participants ......................................... 62 The technology ........................................................... 62 9. About communicating at the meeting................................. 65 Why have fun? ............................................................ 66 Inspiration .................................................................. 67 How to be an inspirational facilitator ......................... 68 Body language............................................................. 70 The body speaks ......................................................... 71 Your voice................................................................... 73 Vary the voice ............................................................. 74 Storytelling.................................................................. 76 The ingredients of Storytelling .................................... 76 The art of listening ...................................................... 78 3 levels of listening ...................................................... 79 How to be a better listener .......................................... 80 How to treat other people ........................................... 82 Difficult personalities – and how to handle them......... 88 10. About supporting tools/aids.............................................. 93 So there are some advantages with PowerPoint ........... 95 But Oh! So many more disadvantages ......................... 95 If you still insist on PowerPoint................................... 96 Flip Chart ................................................................... 97 Whiteboard................................................................. 97 Smartboard................................................................. 98 11. About virtual meetings .................................................. 101 Quick tips for virtual meetings .................................. 102 12. Ice breakers, warm-ups, energisers and other group exercises ..................................................................... 105
Great energy gives better meetings ............................ 106 Ice breakers............................................................... 106 Energizers ................................................................. 108 Other ways to engage the participants....................... 109 13. About group dynamics................................................... 113 Avoid the pit falls ...................................................... 114 14. About decision making .................................................. 117 Different ways to take and influence decisions .......... 118 15. About ending the meeting .............................................. 123 Close the meeting on a high note............................... 124 Reflect....................................................................... 125
After ................................................................................. 127
16. What you do when the meeting is over ............................. 129 Just do it ................................................................... 130
Afterword .......................................................................... 133
Is it just us? Is it just us, or are there too many meetings that simply don’t lead anywhere? Is it just us, or do you also want to spend your time on the right meetings, great meetings, useful meetings…? Is it just us, or do you agree that good meetings make us happier, more effective and more competitive? Of course it’s not only us. You and many others have realised the importance of having better meetings. It’s one of the key organisational trends right now: to deal with the meeting culture. We appreciate that; we’ve been there and we know the difference!
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This book is for you if you want to create and run better meetings, or if you want to participate better in meetings run by others. It’s loaded with tips, tools and methods – all very concrete and practical. We are not focussing on big events here, just on the everyday meetings you have at work: the morning meeting, the staff meeting, the information meeting, the customer meeting, the weekly meeting…
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You will find that the magical number is three: every way of wrecking a meeting is followed by three specific ways of doing it better – avoiding the pitfall. Why three? Because we remember things in triads (here, there and everywhere… father, son and holy spirit… Stop! Look! Listen!) We have followed the Rule of Three in many ways: 1. The book takes you a maximum of three hours to read. 2. Our facilitator training is three days long. 3. The book (or our lecture if you’d like one!) is divided into three parts: • Before • During • After Before is about how you ensure that the purpose and goals are clear to all participants, set an agenda, decide on who to invite, get the working space (real or virtual) set up… During is about how you and others communicate during the actual meeting – playing roles, delivering messages, exploring options…