How To Run A Meeting And Make Progress

By Dom Richards


It is tricky to run a meeting without experience, and it will change throughout your career. Why do you need to call a meeting. In order to resolve a problem or issue. Why do you need to sort something out. To gain insight into the thoughts of others and allow them to help you progress.

Duration of the meeting depends on your agenda, depends on how well you know the people and the materials you have to discuss. Getting the right people in the room is of utmost importance, without the right mix of responsibility and input the meeting will be a failure.

Ensure everyone bring pre-work materials to the meeting and create an action list at the end of the meeting for future meetings. Follow up the action list with an email first then phone call. Keeping on top of everything that is going on can be difficult but people certainly require reminders at times.

Follow the agenda and create some visual aids or handouts where required. It is always important and required to discuss the agenda and stakeholders and how they fit together - essentially why you are taking these peoples time and what you want from them. Your position -Discuss your ideas for solution, and listen to the feedback from others. Action items - Capture all concerns and risks and rank them if possible, its handy to know what the major roadblocks and risks are for any project.

How to present to management and leave a lasting impression. You have been asked to complete a presentation to some managers high up the food chain, you are feeling nervous and are not sure what to put together....... First and foremost, pat yourself on the back!!! They want you to present something because you are doing a great job or are about to embark on a big project or have delivered a project! What does management want. To know what is going on and sell the successes of the department. To reward those who are doing a good job because, if you do a good job you also make management look good. To remove risk, i.e. they want to trust you and they want to have input where you might not see the overall picture, this isn't a criticism of your ability, this is their job! What do you want from management. We all want different things from money to power, to status, but in a work context we can shape our presentation to benefit what we want within an organisation long term. Recognition for a job well done, this means we will need to sell the positives of our work.

Organisational behaviour is the study of why people do the things they do, how and its effects upon business efficiency. Trust and respect are key elements of organisational behaviour as they can shape outcomes and give those in pivotal positions the support they require to excel and exceed expectations.

Presenting to management advice

Structure is first and foremost, start with the outline of where you want to take them and progress in a logical fashion. Context / Details / Outcome.

Always finish with a positive and keep the important details as items to focus on in conclusion.

The flow of the presentation should include the challenges early on and then focus on the positive fixes and conclusions. If you focus on the negative then so will the audience and this will leave a negative impression.

Graphical representations and dot points are great as they are easy to focus on and understand.

Keep presentation of complex ideas to a minimum and keep it simple for a lasting effect.

We all want to do a good job. Relationships at work are pivotal, show your worth!




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