Three simple tips to help in effective meeting design

Picture this…you’ve just come out of a planning meeting with your manager or client.

And you’re feeling a bit anxious, maybe even a little queezy.

The good news (maybe…) is that you have their confidence. They want you to design and facilitate a major meeting or forum. Hooray!

The trouble is, they already have some set ideas on the agenda – and it’s packed. There are more speakers than you’d find on the stage at a Hilltop Hoods gig!

So how do you negotiate a win-win situation for your client or manager and most importantly, the participants attending the forum? How do get your meeting design right from the start?

Here are three simple tips for effective meeting design

1. Clarify the purpose and outcomes of the forum. Find out exactly what the forum is meant to deliver, who it will benefit and how. Get agreement on this early on in the design phase.
2. Check if the forum sessions are about simply providing information or seeking feedback. Is the focus on ‘tell’ or ‘ask’?
3. Identify the proportion of the agenda that will involve presentations. Include space in-between clusters of speakers for audience reflection and discussion.

More on meeting design

As professional facilitators, the team at the Facilitators Inner Circle is faced with this conundrum on most jobs – how to design meeting agendas to tight times when there are lots of competing interests, presentations and egos.

And of course… ensure we get to robust decisions before 5pm.

Tune in to Facilitation TV as your hosts Bevan Bessen and Margo O’Byrne from the Facilitators Inner Circle consider how to design meeting agendas to tight time-frames.

Be sure to have your pen at the ready to pick up on their years of experience in meeting design and facilitation.