Was I alright?

She was a bit nervous but she did it anyway. She held the microphone without waving it around and everyone heard what she said. She asked for feedback after making a short presentation to a room full of 260 people. “Was I alright?” She really wanted to know.

We might feel inclined to give strokes. “Yes you were great… brilliant. Sure you were”. That doesn’t help much.

Try this easy tip next time you have to give feedback, give a commendation, a recommendation, and finsih with a commendation. My feedback went something like this:

Commendation:
“I didn’t hear any nervousness in your voice, even though you say you felt it”

Recommendation:
“It was a big room and I noticed you were talking mainly to the people straight ahead of you; next time look at all corners of the room so as to include everyone in what you were saying”

Commendation:
“You knew the three points you wanted to make and you said them clearly so that everyone heard them”.

Three true things. One thing to improve sandwiched between two lots of encouragement to do more of what she was doing brilliantly already. Goes down a treat.

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Bigger is better well for presentations anyway

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How many times have you sat in a presentation and had no idea what’s on the slides because they’re just too small. It’s so simple to put right. Here’s what you do.

Make them bigger!

Which means having fewer slides and fewer points on each. Have five slides with five points on each is a good idea. If you reckon you can’t fit in all your wonderful points, then take a walk and think about what you really want people to remember at the end of your presentation. Just put those points down.
Bigger is much better. And less is much more.

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Time Management – do it standing up

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When you next have an office meeting – do it standing up. People with disabilities and minute takers can, of course, be seated if necessary.

Standing for meetings helps concentrate the mind and makes sure that people don’t talk for too long (with too many papers). If a meeting becomes longer than it is comfortable to stand, take a 15 minute break (to sit down) or reconvene the meeting at a later date.

Easyjet have their meetings standing up, and it doesn’t seem to have done them any harm.

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Play buzzword bingo for boring presentations

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If you find yourself listening to a boring presentation (or a series of them!) at a potentially important conference, try playing buzzword bingo.

As the speaker/s starts to use general buzz words and phrases (agenda, driving, delivering, key, moving forward, manage bright ideas and more specialist jargon words and abbreviations, list them on your notepad. As the speaker/s repeat them, tick the relevant word/phrase (but avoid shouting ‘bingo’ when you get 5 ticks!)

This serves two purposes: It helps to keep your mind on what the speaker is saying (you’re listening and note-taking) and, at the end of the session/conference, you have a succinct record of what the speaker/s covered.

Bingo!!!

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One meeting, ten people, ten versions of the truth

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This look happens to come out at most meetings. Especially long ones. That momentary lapse of concentration, the unintentional double meaning, the unconscious hearing what I wanted to hear not what was said. Ten people walk out and there’s ten slightly different versions of what was said and what was decided. It’s easily done. And easily fixed too.

Agree that a few, maybe three, people will give an extra half an hour after the meeting to sit together to sort out who said what, who might be left with left over feelings about this or that and to pull together one version of events. No, its not rocket science. Most bright ideas aren’t. But they work a treat.

Keywords: meetings, communicating, facilitating

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Making effective and productive meetings

Think of how many hours we all spend in meetings. Then think how magnificent it would be if every single one was powerful, purposeful and helped you make decisions which worked for you and for the common good. Yes, every meeting is a priceless opportunity to surprise ourselves with just how much we can achieve together. Below are a few tips to help you on your way, for a more indepth look at making meetings magic visit our meetings workshop page.

Go on – don’t
How many times have you been bored by someone who spoke too long? How many times have you been surprised that someone on a platform spoke too little? Probably lots of the former and not much of the latter. So say what you have to say, and sit down. (It’s like drilling – strike oil and then stop boring.)

Don’t go to meetings – and we’ll all go home early
Fixing a meeting often seems like a good idea at the time. But it can also be a way of putting off actually doing anything. Its tempting – travelling to meetings when we don’t need to. Feels like we’re doing something when we’re not being proeductive. So do it a different way. First choice is meeting on the phone. Fix a time and stick to it. Save yourself the trip

Fix a time and stick to it (10.30 means … 10.30)
We all lose lots of time calling people who’re not there or who in a good frame of mind to talk to us. So fix a precise time to speak – and say you’ll call them rather than have them call you. Call them at precisely that time. Not before or after and earn yourself a reputation for being on the button. As well as increasing the chances of you both being ready to talk, it also tells them that you want to do business and get on with things

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A room to say “you matter”

When people walk into a room for a meeting, they’ll pick up lots of things in the first few moments. They will only be conscious of a few of them but all will make a difference to how they feel and what they say and do when they’re in the room. If you’re the person chairing the meeting that matters a lot. So … be there a bit early so you can prepare the space:

remove old coffee cups and papers left over by the previous occupants of the room have a kettle boiling with hot water or prepared flasks so people can be welcomed with a cup of something warming;

Open the window if it’s stuffy, close it if it’s noisy;

Put chairs so there’s one for everyone you expect to come; if you’re not sure who’ll turn up, have some spare in the corner;

If there’s a flip chart, write up the name of the meeting, with the day and date maybe adding ‘welcome’ – so that when people arrive they can relax because they know straightaway that they’ve made it to the right place;

If you’re facilitating an awayday, you might bring some flowers to put in the corner or some chocolates to share round.

These kind of things will give people the message ‘you matter’. So if you really do think they matter, let people know – by the subconscious messages they receive. And if they know that you think they matter, they’ll probably be more forthcoming in the meeting – because they’ll know that you think what they say matters too.

Think Productive provide workshops in chairing meetings training. Our workshops are designed to help you get the most out of your meeting, our goal is to help you making meetings magic

See Time to Think – listening to ignite the human mind; Nancy Kline; Ward Lock Chapter 11

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Meetings –begin with the end in mind

Meetings are all too often the part of our workday that we feel is wasted, but it doesn’t have to be that way. Our Making Meetings Magic workshop teaches a range of techniques that you can use both as a participant and as a chair in order to do just that: it’s like Facilitation training but with a practical approach that uses participants’ actual meeting planning to really make a difference whilst embedding the learning. We focus on the time management aspect of meetings, but also on the politics, the nuances and the logistics too. Magic!

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Meetings – use the 40-20-40 model

How many times a week do you get home from work and say to yourself, “wow, what a great meeting we just had?!”. Here at Think Productive we are on a mission! Meetings are all too often the part of our workday that we feel is wasted, but it doesn’t have to be that way. Our Making Meetings Magic workshop teaches the 40-20-40 model from the book ‘Meeting Together’. This can be a really helpful way to think about the time management aspect of meetings, rather than simply the ‘20% in the middle’: the meeting itself.

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