Recently I was appointed to the position of an external advisor sit on the board of a new organisation that will be spearheading some leading edge research in a particular field of medicine in Europe.  (Sorry I can’t tell you more at this stage as we have not formally launched the organisation.)

Suffice to say that the work of this organisation and the research they are embarking on will fundamentally change the future of our health – in fact it has the goal of eradicating the particular medical condition we are addressing, just as we have seen with polio, smallpox and other life threatening diseases.

So this is an exciting and ground breaking project which has the potential to dramatically impact the health of our generation and of future generations which I am honoured to be part of.

Our first key meeting took place last week.  The agenda was set and the attendees invited.

But we got off to such a bad start that we had covered less than half the agenda at the time the meeting was to finish.  I’ll cover more of that later in this week’s article “3 keys to effective meeting management”.

What really impacted me was the lack of preparation of many of people presenting at the meeting.

Now we are not talking about junior people.  The invited guests were senior executives of two major global companies who wanted to present themselves as potential collaborators on the project.

The had not prepared themselves adequately for the issues to be covered, the challenges that would be posed by the board and in that case of one of the companies, had not even tried to convert their pricing to our currency of Euros, demonstrating a lack of connectedness to our agenda.

Suffice to say, when our visitors had left us, the board was less that complimentary about their presentations, leaving us with a negative impression of their corporate brands and the personal brands of the speakers.

It was a great reminder that in fact a contract with a client can be lost before you even meet them through lack of preparation.

So as you prepare for your next key meeting – make sure that you put adequate time into your calendar BEFORE the event to prepare to make a great impression – taking into account your audiences wants, needs and the potential objections they are likely to raise.

FEATURE ARTICLE – 3 KEYS TO EFFECTIVE MEETING MANAGEMENT

As a leader of a professional services firm, you are likely to have many meetings in your calendar – perhaps there are times when you wonder if that’s all you seem to do.

Meetings with clients, meetings with vendors, meetings with team members.

So how can you ensure that your meetings run effectively and effieciently.  Here are three keys that will enhance your productivity and the effectiveness of the meeting for all attendees.

1. BE CLEAR ABOUT THE OUTCOMES YOU WANT TO ACHIEVE

Before your meeting is scheduled and people invited, ensure that you are clear about what you want to achieve.

A useful tool to do this is a P.O.S.T – this is a one page sheet that you develop as part of your meeting preparation and is provided to all attendees, alongside the agenda for the meeting.

It outlines succinctly the Purpose of the meeting, the Outcomes you are looking for, the Structure of the meeting for example will it be facilitated and the … Timing.

If you have a half day or full day meeting planned and several items on the agenda, you should create a P.O.S.T for every section.  You can have the key person leading each section of the meeting to create their own P.O.S.T for you to review and approve.

2. COME PREPARED

The second key is to come prepared for the meeting.

That means making sure that the agenda and any pre-read for the meeting is circulated at least 3 working days before the meeting so that you have time to review it.

Yes that does require you to schedule time before the meeting to read the pre-read, however this will cut down a lot of time in the meeting so that you can focus the conversation around what questions, points of clarification and challenges you have about each area to be covered.

If you are leading one session in the agenda, make sure that you take time to prepare for what you think will be the issues, concerns and challenges of the others attending the meeting.

Consider their style of influence – how will you ensure that your presentation will “connect” for all the different styles of the attendees?

3. FOLLOW UP FAST

After the meeting make sure that you follow up promptly with the actions from the meeting.

Ideally have someone in the meeting write up the actions and have them circulated within 48 hours of the meeting.

Capture the issues discussed, the actions agreed, who is accountable and the date that this is due for completion.

This is document can then be updated ahead of the next meeting by those accountable for each area covered, detailing the actions they have taken – in other words, a status update on their projects or activities. 

This document can be sent with the agenda and P.O.S.T for the next meeting and vastly speeds up the time it takes to walk through the session on the agenda which covers the outcomes and update for the last meeting. 

It is also a great way of ensuring that agreed actions get delivered against – after all who wants to see their name on a document circulated to everyone saying that they have failed to deliver against what they agreed!

So the next time you have a meeting, follow these three keys – you’ll be surprised how much more effective and productive your meetings will be.

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