Bigger is better well for presentations anyway

meeting training, chairing meeting training

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

meeting training, meeting workshop, time managment training, time management workshops

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

time management training, meeting training, meeting workshops, meeting workshop uk

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

Time management training monkey

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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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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Feedback that is going to make a difference

Feedback that is going to make a difference has the following ingredients:

what you say is true, (it’s a fact, not your opinion i.e. it’s first hand experience not something you heard from someone else);

it is succinct (if you’re not clear enough to be succinct, find someone to talk to and get things clear in your mind first);

it’s about someone’s observable behavior and is something which they could change i.e. it’s not something about them personally that they can’t change;

you give a recent example of what you’re talking about;

you deliver it direct to the person or people whom it concerns, not to third parties;

you give your feedback at a suitable time and place (e.g. when you’ve got time to follow up if you need to. Positive feedback can be given when other people might be able to hear. ‘Could do better’ kind of feedback should be done one to one.)

If you implement these simple guidelines the next time you are giving feedback you will find your input is a lot more to the point and valuable.

Think Productive also offer a workshop in Making Meetings Magic.

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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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