Personal Efficiency and Managing Meetings Training Course

Self-Awareness and Understanding Others

• Recognising that inviting others to a meeting is an imposition of your own priorities on their schedule
• Exploring the underlying drivers of our behaviour
• Assessing the impact of our actions on others: Do they respond as we hope? If not, what might be the reason…?

The Workflow for Meeting Management

• Evaluating the necessity of a meeting: What are the alternatives, and are they preferable?
• A comprehensive process for initiating, conducting, and preparing for meetings:
  • Designing a meaningful agenda that outlines objectives, key topics, and estimated timings
  • Ensuring only relevant participants are invited
  • Facilitating the session: Focusing on relevant contributions, adhering to the agenda, and respecting time limits
  • Documenting outcomes: Capturing essential action points rather than just verbatim minutes
  • Scheduling any necessary follow-up sessions

Participating in Meetings

• Questioning the necessity of attending every invitation received
• Determining a clear framework for deciding whether to accept or decline meeting invitations
• Identifying valid reasons for declining participation
• Understanding acceptable conduct regarding attendees, discussion topics, and timing constraints

Additional Aspects of Personal Efficiency and Time Management

• Establishing and maintaining personal and professional goals
• Work Prioritisation
  • Criteria for identifying essential tasks
  • Methods for ranking activities by importance
• Managing Time Demands from Staff: Clarifying whether you are supporting their work or if they are supporting yours…?
• Identifying 'Time Bandits': Strategies to address factors that erode your time
  • Email communication
  • Phone calls
  • Unscheduled interruptions
  • Procrastination and displacement activities
  • Other distractions…
• The art of effective delegation
• Assertiveness: Finding compromise and learning to say 'no' with confidence