Run engaging, productive group sessions with practical guidance and expert advice
Running Great Workshops & Meetings For Dummies delivers the tools managers need to facilitate engaging and rewarding group sessions. Written by two highly experienced leadership and coaching consultants, this book provides practical, hands-on instruction that can help you turn your meetings and training sessions around. Boost productivity by engaging attendees from the start, scheduling with time and energy levels in mind and keeping to a clear agenda. You’ll learn the skills that will help you get the most out of every group session and discover which seemingly small details can have a huge impact on outcomes.
The current global recession has increased the emphasis organisations place on skills development and training throughout the world. While specialised service organisations exist, many companies lack the means to outsource their training needs or invest in specially trained staff to get the job done. Running Great Workshops & Meetings For Dummies presents a solution by providing clear group leadership instruction with immediate applications to employees in any department. Regardless of the type of meeting, training session or workshop you’re running, this book provides the information you need.
- Learn to align outcomes and objectives, establish an agenda and schedule and manage pre-work for attendees
- Discover how to connect with the group, establish expectations and set ground rules
- Find out how to set the pace, manage challenges and objections and troubleshoot issues
- Effectively evaluate the session, ensure accountability and maintain momentum
Running Great Workshops & Meetings For Dummies provides practical advice you can put to work today.
Table of Content
Introduction 1
About This Book 1
Foolish Assumptions 2
Icons Used in This Book 3
Beyond the Book 4
Where to Go from Here 5
Part I: Getting Started with Meetings and Workshops 7
Chapter 1: The Business Case for Better Meetings and Workshops 9
Reviewing Why People Hate Meetings 10
Being clear about what everyone dislikes 10
Recognising how many meetings are unproductive 13
Working out the incredible costs of poor meetings 14
Understanding the ripple effect 15
Knowing what everyone wants from their meetings 15
Recognising When People Get a Lot from Their Workshops 16
Developing a great design 17
Delivering brilliantly 17
Understanding Meetings and Workshops 18
Recognising the similarities 18
Understanding the differences 19
One more thing 20
Chapter 2: Planning Your Meeting 21
Deciding Whether You Really Need a Meeting 22
Reflecting on Your Objective 23
Content-free versus content rich meetings 24
Getting to a one-sentence objective 26
Understanding the Function of an Agenda 29
Writing a great agenda 29
Getting your agenda items for a meeting 30
Managing your sponsors and stakeholders 31
Planning agenda items 32
Recognising a poor agenda 37
Structuring a Great Agenda 38
Reviewing a good agenda 38
Writing really simple agendas 42
Planning For and Managing Personal Energy 43
Double-Checking Your Preparation 45
Chapter 3: Planning Your Workshop 47
Understanding What Workshops Are All About 48
Recognising when you might want to run a workshop 49
Following your decision: Making a project plan 50
Identifying Your Stakeholders 50
Finding your key players 51
Meeting your sponsor and any key players 53
Defining Your Outcomes 53
Checking your outcomes 55
Reviewing some good and some bad outcomes 55
Understanding why you spend so much time on outcomes 57
Establishing the return on investment (ROI) 57
Getting Ready to Do the Design 60
Thinking it through 61
Considering whether to stay on-site or go off-site 63
Checking out the workshop room 63
Doing Your Design 64
Getting in the right frame of mind 64
Working on and with your personal style 64
Recognising all the different activities available 68
Getting a rough design together 69
Writing up your one-page design 70
Breaking the ice 72
Writing your detailed running order 73
Getting sponsor sign-off 74
Supporting materials 75
Joining instructions 75
Building your skills and getting good at group work: Next steps 76
Chapter 4: Getting Ready for the Big Day 77
Developing Your Essential Skills 78
Asking good questions 78
Listening to others and the overall conversation in play 84
Recognising the levels of listening 86
Observing others 89
Understanding Groups 96
Understanding group norms 97
Communicating in a group 98
Decision-making 98
Surfacing issues and concerns 99
Doing real work 100
Assessing the gel factor 101
Building self-awareness 101
Practising What You’ll Say 102
Rehearsing 103
Visualising your session 104
Part II: Running Great Group Sessions 105
Chapter 5: Handling the Start of Your Session 107
Managing Yourself 108
Wearing the right clothes 108
Checking your materials 110
Eating the right food and drinking the right drink 110
Getting there early 111
Imagining yourself doing well 112
Meeting and greeting everyone 112
Kicking Off the Session 113
Creating the atmosphere you want 114
Outlining the agenda 115
Housekeeping 116
Clarifying expectations 116
Allocating roles and responsibilities 118
Setting up ground rules or a code of conduct 119
Decision-Making 120
Understanding the decision-making process 121
Understanding your decision-making options 122
Working with weighted decision-making 123
Recognising Personalities in the Room 125
Working with Bolton & Bolton’s Social Styles 126
Working with Honey & Mumford’s Learning Styles 130
Chapter 6: Continuing Your Meeting or Workshop 135
Managing Process 136
Checking in 136
Signposting 138
Summarising 139
Linking 139
Stating what’s been said: Paraphrasing 141
Writing up key information on a flip chart 142
Giving clear instructions 143
Facilitating Group Discussions 145
Introducing a discussion topic 146
Getting input to a topic 146
Allowing a conversation to move sideways 147
Shutting up 148
Dealing with an elephant in the room 148
Dealing with comments skillfully 149
Managing Process Problems 151
Managing time 151
Dealing with rabbit holes 152
Using parking lots 153
Opening old issues up, closing current ones down 154
Managing energy 155
Managing guests 155
Dealing with unexpected situations 157
Revisiting and reviewing expectations 158
Reviewing Your Meetings and Workshops 158
Reviewing a meeting 159
Using online tools 159
Reviewing a workshop 160
Chapter 7: Dealing with the Tough Stuff: Troubleshooting 161
Managing Typical Barriers to Success 161
Knowing What to Do When It’s Not Working 162
At the start of your session – when the group helps you 163
At the start of your session – the group doesn’t help you 164
During your session 166
Dealing with Run-of-the-Mill Difficulties 167
Handling Interruptions 169
Phones 169
Laptops and tablets 169
To-ings and fro-ings 170
Dealing with Difficult Behaviour 170
Managing distorted thinking 170
Dealing with difficult individuals 171
Tactical seating 177
Recognising Personal and Hidden Agendas 178
Tuning in to personal agendas 178
Tuning in to hidden agendas 179
Dealing with personal and hidden agendas 179
Dealing with recommendations 180
Managing Conflict 180
Recognising unhealthy and healthy conflict 181
Getting the group to understand what’s happening 182
Dealing with conflict: A process for a group 183
Dealing with conflict: A process for individuals or factions 184
The main take-away 187
Chapter 8: Handling What Happens Next 189
Reflecting On Your Meeting or Workshop 190
How did it go at a big-picture level? 190
What specifically should I keep doing? 190
What specifically should I start doing? 191
Writing Up Meeting Minutes 191
Writing up simple minutes 192
Writing up more formal minutes 193
Using meeting software 195
Calculating Your Return on Investment 196
Evaluating your work 197
Expressing ROI 198
Reporting On and Closing Your Project 199
Reports 200
Review meetings 200
Understanding project closure 201
Reviewing your entire project 201
Writing up your report 205
Part III: Building Your Skills 207
Chapter 9: Building Participants’ Knowledge and Practise 209
Working with Case Studies 210
Understanding what they are all about 210
Knowing when to use the case study method 211
Thinking through your purpose 212
Using great cases 212
Managing everyone’s preparation 214
Working with the group 215
Working with Role Play 217
Believing that it’s the right thing to do 218
Calling it what you will 219
Developing realistic and appropriate role plays 219
Setting the role play up for success 221
Managing and explaining the process 221
Understanding your role play options 227
Reinforcing the standard 228
Using Video 229
Reflecting on personal performance 229
Observing personal performance 230
Reviewing footage 230
Getting the right technology 231
Having the right software 232
Chapter 10: Running Focus Groups 233
Knowing When to Use a Focus Group 233
Thinking About What You Want to Achieve 234
Side effects of a focus group 235
Characteristics of a focus group 235
Preparing for Your Focus Groups 236
Defining a clear purpose statement 236
Building your timeline 237
Getting the right people in the room 238
Generating the right questions 239
Developing a script 241
Recording information 244
Preparing your kit 244
Running a Focus Group 245
Working with observers 245
Pausing 246
Checking your technology 246
Writing It All Up 247
Transcribing your material or writing up your notes 247
Sorting and then analysing your data 248
Interpreting your data 249
Writing up your report 250
Putting it all into action 251
Recognising the disadvantages of focus groups 252
Chapter 11: Taking It to the Next Level 253
Brainstorming: Best Practise 253
Recognising problems with brainstorming 254
Brainstorming effectively 255
Managing large group brainstorming 264
Managing small group brainstorming 265
Brainstorming alone 266
Working with Some Common Group Tools 267
3Ws 267
SWOT Analysis 269
RACI analysis 272
Force field analysis 273
Ishikawa or fishbone diagram 275
Decision trees 278
Using Appreciative Inquiry 280
Understanding Parallel Process 283
Chapter 12: Running Remote or Virtual Meetings and Workshops 285
Managing Remote Meetings 286
Recognising when to have a remote meeting 286
Inviting the right people 287
Limiting the agenda 287
Finding a good time 287
Sending invitations and call details 288
Sharing materials 288
Managing your kit 289
Getting going on time 289
Reaffirming the ground rules 289
Stating your goal 290
Using a wingman when working remotely 290
Keeping it relevant 291
Handling Power Point 291
Taking control when you can 291
Being respectful of time 292
Signposting 292
Using ‘let’s’ to drive direction 292
Thinking about your voice 293
Asking questions for active participation 294
Recording your meeting 295
Saving all the information 295
Reviewing your meetings 295
Managing Hybrid Meetings 296
Working with ten top best practises 296
Reviewing Available Technology 298
Understanding Remote and Virtual Workshops 301
Embracing yet more technology 302
Recognising the challenges 303
Thinking about virtual learning 303
Building your next steps 306
Part IV: The Part of Tens 307
Chapter 13: Ten Common Mistakes on the Day 309
Failing to Set Up Group Work Properly 309
Talking Too Much 310
Ignoring Emotion 311
Failing to Join the Dots 311
Failing to Deal with a Difficult Person 312
Failing to Recognise an Expert in the Room 312
Failing to Change What You’re Doing 313
Thinking about the Detail Rather Than the Big Picture 313
Failing to Push a Group 314
Being Too Dogmatic 314
Chapter 14: Ten Things You Have to Do When the Pressure is On 317
Preparing Brilliantly 317
Having a Plan to Move Away from It 318
Creating Rapport 318
Building Trust with the Group 319
Taking Breaks 320
Being Fair to Everyone 320
Dealing with the Unacceptable 321
Using Humour 321
Noticing When the Group is Going Off Track 322
Holding It Together 322
Index 325
About the author
Jessica Pryce-Jones and Julia Lindsay are joint CEOs of the i Opener Institute for People and Performance, an international consultancy headquartered in Oxford, UK. i Opener helps organisations achieve their commercial goals and makes this happen with great meetings and workshops. Over the past 10 years, i Opener has delivered approximately 15, 000 workshops world-wide.
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