Running Great Meetings and Workshops For Dummies

Run engaging, productive group sessions with practical guidance and expert advice Running Great Workshops & Meetings For Dummies delivers the tools managers need to facilitate engaging and rewarding group sessions. Written by two highly experienced leadership and coaching consultants, this book provides practical, hands-on instruction that can help you turn your meetings and training sessions around. Boost productivity by engaging attendees from the start, scheduling with time and energy levels in mind and keeping to a clear agenda. You'll learn the skills that will help you get the most out of every group session and discover which seemingly small details can have a huge impact on outcomes. The current global recession has increased the emphasis organisations place on skills development and training throughout the world. While specialised service organisations exist, many companies lack the means to outsource their training needs or invest in specially trained staff to get the job done. Running Great Workshops & Meetings For Dummies presents a solution by providing clear group leadership instruction with immediate applications to employees in any department. Regardless of the type of meeting, training session or workshop you're running, this book provides the information you need. Learn to align outcomes and objectives, establish an agenda and schedule and manage pre-work for attendees Discover how to connect with the group, establish expectations and set ground rules Find out how to set the pace, manage challenges and objections and troubleshoot issues Effectively evaluate the session, ensure accountability and maintain momentum Running Great Workshops & Meetings For Dummies provides practical advice you can put to work today.

Table of Contents:
Introduction 1 About This Book 1 Foolish Assumptions 2 Icons Used in This Book 3 Beyond the Book 4 Where to Go from Here 5 Part I: Getting Started with Meetings and Workshops 7 Chapter 1: The Business Case for Better Meetings and Workshops 9 Reviewing Why People Hate Meetings 10 Being clear about what everyone dislikes 10 Recognising how many meetings are unproductive 13 Working out the incredible costs of poor meetings 14 Understanding the ripple effect 15 Knowing what everyone wants from their meetings 15 Recognising When People Get a Lot from Their Workshops 16 Developing a great design 17 Delivering brilliantly 17 Understanding Meetings and Workshops 18 Recognising the similarities 18 Understanding the differences 19 One more thing 20 Chapter 2: Planning Your Meeting 21 Deciding Whether You Really Need a Meeting 22 Reflecting on Your Objective 23 Content-free versus content rich meetings 24 Getting to a one-sentence objective 26 Understanding the Function of an Agenda 29 Writing a great agenda 29 Getting your agenda items for a meeting 30 Managing your sponsors and stakeholders 31 Planning agenda items 32 Recognising a poor agenda 37 Structuring a Great Agenda 38 Reviewing a good agenda 38 Writing really simple agendas 42 Planning For and Managing Personal Energy 43 Double-Checking Your Preparation 45 Chapter 3: Planning Your Workshop 47 Understanding What Workshops Are All About 48 Recognising when you might want to run a workshop 49 Following your decision: Making a project plan 50 Identifying Your Stakeholders 50 Finding your key players 51 Meeting your sponsor and any key players 53 Defining Your Outcomes 53 Checking your outcomes 55 Reviewing some good and some bad outcomes 55 Understanding why you spend so much time on outcomes 57 Establishing the return on investment (ROI) 57 Getting Ready to Do the Design 60 Thinking it through 61 Considering whether to stay on-site or go off-site 63 Checking out the workshop room 63 Doing Your Design 64 Getting in the right frame of mind 64 Working on and with your personal style 64 Recognising all the different activities available 68 Getting a rough design together 69 Writing up your one-page design 70 Breaking the ice 72 Writing your detailed running order 73 Getting sponsor sign-off 74 Supporting materials 75 Joining instructions 75 Building your skills and getting good at group work: Next steps 76 Chapter 4: Getting Ready for the Big Day 77 Developing Your Essential Skills 78 Asking good questions 78 Listening to others and the overall conversation in play 84 Recognising the levels of listening 86 Observing others 89 Understanding Groups 96 Understanding group norms 97 Communicating in a group 98 Decision-making 98 Surfacing issues and concerns 99 Doing real work 100 Assessing the gel factor 101 Building self-awareness 101 Practising What You’ll Say 102 Rehearsing 103 Visualising your session 104 Part II: Running Great Group Sessions 105 Chapter 5: Handling the Start of Your Session 107 Managing Yourself 108 Wearing the right clothes 108 Checking your materials 110 Eating the right food and drinking the right drink 110 Getting there early 111 Imagining yourself doing well 112 Meeting and greeting everyone 112 Kicking Off the Session 113 Creating the atmosphere you want 114 Outlining the agenda 115 Housekeeping 116 Clarifying expectations 116 Allocating roles and responsibilities 118 Setting up ground rules or a code of conduct 119 Decision-Making 120 Understanding the decision-making process 121 Understanding your decision-making options 122 Working with weighted decision-making 123 Recognising Personalities in the Room 125 Working with Bolton & Bolton’s Social Styles 126 Working with Honey & Mumford’s Learning Styles 130 Chapter 6: Continuing Your Meeting or Workshop 135 Managing Process 136 Checking in 136 Signposting 138 Summarising 139 Linking 139 Stating what’s been said: Paraphrasing 141 Writing up key information on a flip chart 142 Giving clear instructions 143 Facilitating Group Discussions 145 Introducing a discussion topic 146 Getting input to a topic 146 Allowing a conversation to move sideways 147 Shutting up 148 Dealing with an elephant in the room 148 Dealing with comments skillfully 149 Managing Process Problems 151 Managing time 151 Dealing with rabbit holes 152 Using parking lots 153 Opening old issues up, closing current ones down 154 Managing energy 155 Managing guests 155 Dealing with unexpected situations 157 Revisiting and reviewing expectations 158 Reviewing Your Meetings and Workshops 158 Reviewing a meeting 159 Using online tools 159 Reviewing a workshop 160 Chapter 7: Dealing with the Tough Stuff: Troubleshooting 161 Managing Typical Barriers to Success 161 Knowing What to Do When It’s Not Working 162 At the start of your session – when the group helps you 163 At the start of your session – the group doesn’t help you 164 During your session 166 Dealing with Run-of-the-Mill Difficulties 167 Handling Interruptions 169 Phones 169 Laptops and tablets 169 To-ings and fro-ings 170 Dealing with Difficult Behaviour 170 Managing distorted thinking 170 Dealing with difficult individuals 171 Tactical seating 177 Recognising Personal and Hidden Agendas 178 Tuning in to personal agendas 178 Tuning in to hidden agendas 179 Dealing with personal and hidden agendas 179 Dealing with recommendations 180 Managing Conflict 180 Recognising unhealthy and healthy conflict 181 Getting the group to understand what’s happening 182 Dealing with conflict: A process for a group 183 Dealing with conflict: A process for individuals or factions 184 The main take-away 187 Chapter 8: Handling What Happens Next 189 Reflecting On Your Meeting or Workshop 190 How did it go at a big-picture level? 190 What specifically should I keep doing? 190 What specifically should I start doing? 191 Writing Up Meeting Minutes 191 Writing up simple minutes 192 Writing up more formal minutes 193 Using meeting software 195 Calculating Your Return on Investment 196 Evaluating your work 197 Expressing ROI 198 Reporting On and Closing Your Project 199 Reports 200 Review meetings 200 Understanding project closure 201 Reviewing your entire project 201 Writing up your report 205 Part III: Building Your Skills 207 Chapter 9: Building Participants’ Knowledge and Practise 209 Working with Case Studies 210 Understanding what they are all about 210 Knowing when to use the case study method 211 Thinking through your purpose 212 Using great cases 212 Managing everyone’s preparation 214 Working with the group 215 Working with Role Play 217 Believing that it’s the right thing to do 218 Calling it what you will 219 Developing realistic and appropriate role plays 219 Setting the role play up for success 221 Managing and explaining the process 221 Understanding your role play options 227 Reinforcing the standard 228 Using Video 229 Reflecting on personal performance 229 Observing personal performance 230 Reviewing footage 230 Getting the right technology 231 Having the right software 232 Chapter 10: Running Focus Groups 233 Knowing When to Use a Focus Group 233 Thinking About What You Want to Achieve 234 Side effects of a focus group 235 Characteristics of a focus group 235 Preparing for Your Focus Groups 236 Defining a clear purpose statement 236 Building your timeline 237 Getting the right people in the room 238 Generating the right questions 239 Developing a script 241 Recording information 244 Preparing your kit 244 Running a Focus Group 245 Working with observers 245 Pausing 246 Checking your technology 246 Writing It All Up 247 Transcribing your material or writing up your notes 247 Sorting and then analysing your data 248 Interpreting your data 249 Writing up your report 250 Putting it all into action 251 Recognising the disadvantages of focus groups 252 Chapter 11: Taking It to the Next Level 253 Brainstorming: Best Practise 253 Recognising problems with brainstorming 254 Brainstorming effectively 255 Managing large group brainstorming 264 Managing small group brainstorming 265 Brainstorming alone 266 Working with Some Common Group Tools 267 3Ws 267 SWOT Analysis 269 RACI analysis 272 Force field analysis 273 Ishikawa or fishbone diagram 275 Decision trees 278 Using Appreciative Inquiry 280 Understanding Parallel Process 283 Chapter 12: Running Remote or Virtual Meetings and Workshops 285 Managing Remote Meetings 286 Recognising when to have a remote meeting 286 Inviting the right people 287 Limiting the agenda 287 Finding a good time 287 Sending invitations and call details 288 Sharing materials 288 Managing your kit 289 Getting going on time 289 Reaffirming the ground rules 289 Stating your goal 290 Using a wingman when working remotely 290 Keeping it relevant 291 Handling PowerPoint 291 Taking control when you can 291 Being respectful of time 292 Signposting 292 Using ‘let’s’ to drive direction 292 Thinking about your voice 293 Asking questions for active participation 294 Recording your meeting 295 Saving all the information 295 Reviewing your meetings 295 Managing Hybrid Meetings 296 Working with ten top best practises 296 Reviewing Available Technology 298 Understanding Remote and Virtual Workshops 301 Embracing yet more technology 302 Recognising the challenges 303 Thinking about virtual learning 303 Building your next steps 306 Part IV: The Part of Tens 307 Chapter 13: Ten Common Mistakes on the Day 309 Failing to Set Up Group Work Properly 309 Talking Too Much 310 Ignoring Emotion 311 Failing to Join the Dots 311 Failing to Deal with a Difficult Person 312 Failing to Recognise an Expert in the Room 312 Failing to Change What You’re Doing 313 Thinking about the Detail Rather Than the Big Picture 313 Failing to Push a Group 314 Being Too Dogmatic 314 Chapter 14: Ten Things You Have to Do When the Pressure is On 317 Preparing Brilliantly 317 Having a Plan to Move Away from It 318 Creating Rapport 318 Building Trust with the Group 319 Taking Breaks 320 Being Fair to Everyone 320 Dealing with the Unacceptable 321 Using Humour 321 Noticing When the Group is Going Off Track 322 Holding It Together 322 Index 325

About the Author :
Jessica Pryce-Jones and Julia Lindsay are joint CEOs of the iOpener Institute for People and Performance, an international consultancy headquartered in Oxford, UK. iOpener helps organisations achieve their commercial goals and makes this happen with great meetings and workshops. Over the past 10 years, iOpener has delivered approximately 15,000 workshops world-wide.

Review :
"All in all, this book is a great toolkit packed full of useful tips and creative ideas for facilitating efficient and effective meetings. Read it, re-read it and recommend it." (B2B Marketing, October 2014) "It is worth a read and it could help provide the tools you need." (First Voice of Business, December 2014) "Take heed of its contents and your meetings and workshops will be rewarded with enthusiastic and attentive participants." (CILIP Update, May 2015)