Given current pressures, many of us spend a lot of time attending, chairing or participating at meetings. Research shows that, despite our best intentions, up to 50% of the time spent at meetings is wasted and that often meetings produce little in the way of tangible outcomes – primarily because the basic rules of good meetings are not observed by either the participants or the chair or sometimes both.
Public Affairs Ireland Professional Development have just launched a half day seminar offering practical guidelines and tips to enhance your meeting skills. In the current climate where demands are great and time and resources are limited, everyone needs such tools and techniques to help them maximise how effectively they use their time and limited resources. Ensuring that the meetings that you chair or that you attend are run effectively should help you in the goal of maximising your usage of time.
By the end of the seminar participants will:
• Know the importance of managing both the ‘process’ and ‘people’ elements of meetings
• Have identified what typically goes wrong in meetings.
• Know how to draw up a code of conduct for meetings
• Know what are the key requirements for enhancing the ‘process’ side of meeting –before, during and after the meeting.
• Have identified the skills that will improve your ability to manage the ‘people’ side of meetings – e.g. encouraging participation, dealing with conflict, ensuring actions are completed etc.
• Have written up an Action Plan for implementation back in the work-place
About the tutor
Úna McDevitt is a Chartered Accountant with a Masters in Organisational Behaviour. She has worked with many public sector organisations on this and other management issues aimed at changing behaviour and enhancing performance.
For more information click here.