Become an adept chair who can guide people to a common decision

PURPOSE

How do you cope with the rush of quick decision-making? Do you wish for more productive agreements? Are you looking for ways to make meetings more to the point by avoiding futile discussions and wasting precious time? We can help you to achieve just that.

You have surely been in a meeting where only a handful people were willing to contribute, and you can appreciate how difficult it is to coordinate the interests of all parties involved, find common solutions, and reach strong agreements. The secret to your success lies in learning the skills needed to smoothly chair and moderate meetings and reach a common agreement that can be applied in practice.

CONTENT

1. HOW DO WE USUALLY COMMUNICATE IN MEETINGS

• How do we usually talk?
• Dos and Don’ts.
• We all have our filters and maps of the world – what do they mean?
• Advantages of using assertive communication and the I am ok; you are ok

2. PREPARING FOR A MEETING

• What information do I need as a chair/attendee to be efficient?
• How do I prepare?
• What is the purpose, and what is the goal of the meeting?
• What is my role?
• What are the rules of the game?

3. BUILDING RAPPORT WITH INTERLOCUTORS

• Building rapport and establishing the basis for communication among attendees.
• How to understand and be understood:
  • explaining your understanding, your way of thinking and your point of view,
  • timing,
  • presenting facts,
  • enabling interlocutors to present their perspective of the problem.
• Two basic levels of a dialogue: understanding and evaluation.

4. THE BASIC PRINCIPLES OF CHAIRING MEETINGS

• What to do if participants do not observe the rules of the game (agenda, time, etc.)?
• The level of arguments vs the personal level.
• Interests vs positions:
  • putting the problem before the answer,
  • looking forward, not back.
• Don’t try to change the interlocutor’s position but rather try to find multiple solutions.
• Prove your point based on objective standards.

5. CHAIRING MEETINGS – TEAMWORK

• First, unite participants, then focus them, and finally engage them to find a solution together.
• Reaching a common goal.
• Creating a list of actions (how meeting conclusions will be implemented in practice) and appointing a supervisor (who ensures that things are running as planned).

6. A MEETING AS A WELL-MODERATED PROCESS

• When to moderate meetings.
• Meeting chair vs meeting moderator.
• Choosing suitable moderation techniques (analysing missing parts, the fishbone, the negotiation model, etc.).

GOALS – Benefits for participants

• You will learn to communicate more efficiently in a meeting.
• You will know how to prepare for a meeting.
• You will find more about different types of meetings.
• You will learn how to start a meeting, present, and approve the agenda, and set the rules of the game straight so that the meeting can proceed in an organised and effective way.
• You will learn how to chair meetings while paying attention to the basic elements of a meeting.
• You will learn how to deal with problematic interlocutors.
• You will learn various approaches to resume a meeting after a conflict situation.
• You will be able to define goals clearly, recognise the interests and positions of other participants, and form final decisions.
• You will learn useful moderation techniques that will help you to reach agreements more quickly and in a more efficient manner.

WORKSHOP

The workshop is organised in person or on-line using various platforms (Zoom, MS Teams). The number of hours per meeting is determined by agreement with the customer.

WORK METHOD

Workshops and training sessions consist of: short input sessions, discussions, individual, pair, and group work.

The techniques I employ aim to encourage participants to apply what they have learned to their daily routine immediately.

DURATION

Our basic programmes comprise 16 academic hours, while shorter programmes last 8 academic hours (these programmes involve fewer exercises and practical examples). We recommend a minimum of 24 academic hours if you seek to train your employees thoroughly.

NUMBER OF PARTICIPANTS

The recommended number of participants per workshop is 20; and 10 per training session. The client may, of course, opt for a larger number of participants. In this case, a training session becomes a workshop, and a workshop becomes a seminar/lecture (over 25 participants).

PRICE

The prices of workshops, training sessions, seminars/lectures depend on their duration, the number of participants, and additional preparation time (i.e., analysing participants’ level of proficiency, designing customised solutions, etc.). The final price is always agreed upon in advance with the client.