Personal Efficiency and Managing Meetings Training Course

Understanding Ourselves and Others

• Recognizing that requesting attendance at a meeting essentially imposes our specific priorities on others
• Exploring the underlying factors that drive our behavior
• Reflecting on how our conduct impacts others: Are their responses always aligned with our expectations and requirements? If not, what are the reasons?

The Process for Managing Meetings

• Evaluating the necessity of a meeting, identifying alternatives, and determining if any alternative is more suitable
• Establishing a structured process for convening, conducting, and preparing meeting outcomes:
  • Developing a purposeful agenda that outlines objectives, topics, and suggested timeframes
  • Selecting the appropriate participants and excluding unnecessary attendees
  • Moderating the session: Ensuring contributions remain relevant (while distinguishing between relevance and irrelevance), adhering to the agenda, and respecting time limits
  • Defining clear outputs, which may not require detailed minutes but must include actionable items
  • Scheduling any necessary follow-up discussions

Attending Meetings

• Questioning whether attendance at all invited meetings is genuinely required
• Determining the criteria for deciding whether to participate in a meeting
• Identifying valid justifications for declining an invitation
• Understanding permissible actions during a meeting, considering factors such as attendees, discussion topics, and scheduling

Other Personal Efficiency and Time Management Issues

• Setting and adhering to personal and professional goals
• Work Prioritisation
  • Determining essential tasks
  • Establishing a priority order for activities
• Employee-Imposed Time: Analyzing the dynamic between working for staff and colleagues, versus them working for you
• Time Bandits: Identifying other sources of time theft and implementing strategies to address them
  • Email correspondence
  • Phone calls
  • Unplanned interruptions
  • Displacement activities, such as procrastination
  • Additional factors
• Effective Delegation
• Assertiveness: Finding compromises and learning to decline requests effectively