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- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Fachliteratur
- Serie: In A Day For Dummies
- Sprache: Englisch
- Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2012
Get the know-how to run a productive meeting--in a day! Running a Great Meeting In a Day For Dummies helps you put together a successful meeting by explaining how to define objectives, craft an agenda, invite the right people, keep the meeting moving, and following up afterwards. * Put together a productive meeting in a timely fashion * Tips on running a virtual meeting * The best ways to follow up after a meeting This e-book also contains links to an online component at dummies.com that extends the topic into step-by-step tutorials and other beyond the book content.
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Running a Great Meeting In A Day For Dummies®
Table of Contents
Running a Great Meeting In A Day For Dummies®
by Marty Brounstein, Susan Friedmann, CSP, and Dirk Zeller
Running a Great Meeting In A Day For Dummies®
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 111 River St. Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774 www.wiley.com
Copyright © 2013 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey
Published simultaneously in Canada
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without the prior written permission of the Publisher. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6008, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions.
Trademarks: Wiley, the Wiley logo, For Dummies, the Dummies Man logo, A Reference for the Rest of Us!, The Dummies Way, Dummies Daily, The Fun and Easy Way, Dummies.com, Making Everything Easier, and related trade dress are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc., and/or its affiliates in the United States and other countries, and may not be used without written permission. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book.
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ISBN 978-1-118-49122-5 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-49121-8 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-49125-6 (ebk)
Manufactured in the United States of America
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Introduction
Mention the word meeting, and chances are you receive an onslaught of negatives, many of which we wouldn’t dream of putting into print. Suffice it to say that meetings aren’t on the top of everyone’s hit parade. Why? Because historically, meetings have been plagued with sloppy planning, weak agendas, and nebulous expectations. But many practical and beneficial reasons exist for holding meetings, such as when you need a group consensus on a project or when you need to brainstorm ideas.
Running a Great Meeting In A Day For Dummies focuses on the necessary components for preparing a small business meeting so it accomplishes the planned objectives. For that to happen, every detail of your meeting needs consideration. Everything you do helps lay the groundwork and sets the scene. We outline those details in this book.
What You Can Do In A Day
Running a Great Meeting In A Day For Dummies is truly a how-to manual for planning and conducting many types of business meetings. It’s a down-to-earth, step-by-step guide that takes the mystery out of the planning process. We’ve structured this book in such a way that you can jump in and out of the text as necessary. Perhaps you need to know how to put together an agenda for an upcoming meeting; flip to Chapter 2. Maybe you have a hot-button issue to discuss at your next meeting; we’ve got advice for handling conflicting points of view in Chapter 4. You may be able to read this book in just a few hours, but expect to spend weeks, months, and maybe even years implementing the ideas we include.
Foolish Assumptions
While writing this book, we made a few assumptions about you, dear reader:
You’re new to leading meetings and want to make the most of those you’re in charge of.
You’ve led your fair share of meetings, but you aren’t getting the results you want, so you’re looking for ways to make your meetings better.
You’re holding meetings with 4 to 20 or so people. Not too big, not too small.
You’re attending and most likely leading the meeting — that is, you’re not setting up the meeting for your boss or someone else and then skipping it because the topic doesn’t pertain to you.
Icons Used in This Book
Throughout this book you’ll notice small graphics in the margins, called icons. These symbols are meant to draw your attention to particular ideas.
This icon signifies practical ideas and points that help you plan and run your meeting.
This icon indicates an area of concern or offers a tip on how to avoid trouble.
This icon marks information you should keep in mind while planning and conducting your meeting.
This icon marks something that you can practice quickly in preparation for your meeting or an idea you can work on in conjunction with other meeting participants.
When you see this icon, head to this book’s companion website at www.dummies.com/inaday/runningagreatmeeting. Online, you’ll find more-detailed information about topics we cover in the book.
Chapter 1
Making Meetings Meaningful
In This Chapter
Deciding whether a meeting is necessary
Understanding what makes a good meeting
Looking at the different types of meetings
Meetings can be a total waste of time, or they can be powerful and productive communication tools that solve problems, stimulate ideas, promote team spirit, and generate action. The end results lie totally in how they’re run. These days, people seem to be meeting more, enjoying it less, and growing increasingly frustrated that they have so little time to get their “real” work done. Executives can spend as much as 50 percent of their working hours in meetings, and much of that time is unproductive — often it’s wasted discussing irrelevant issues.
Having experienced the wonderful sense of satisfaction from productive sessions, as well as the frustration and anger from ineffective meetings, we believe the key to success lies in preparation and organization as well as actual meeting management. In this chapter, we encourage you to make thoughtful choices about when to hold meetings. We also introduce you to the two necessary components for holding a productive meeting and then give you a list of things to avoid.
Being Wise about Holding Meetings
Are meetings really necessary? Well, sometimes they are, and sometimes they aren’t. Wisdom lies in knowing the difference.
Humans need a connection with others to survive. We’re sure that, like us, you may occasionally fantasize about being alone on a desert island, far away from the trials and tribulations of everyday life. But people also need to belong, communicate, and share a common purpose with like-minded individuals. In essence, what this means is simply that meeting is a natural function of our existence. In reality, doing things alone for any length of time is counterproductive. Working in partnership with others and pooling resources can lead to getting things done more effectively and efficiently.
People need to come together to share information, make decisions, plan, discuss, argue, question, iron out differences, celebrate, gossip, chitchat, schmooze, and much more. Families, schools, clubs, businesses, and governments are key examples of groups of men, women, and children who regularly come together for specific purposes.
These days, with the plethora of entrepreneurs operating home-based businesses and employees telecommuting or working endless hours in front of computer screens, meetings are becoming even more necessary for people’s survival. The need for human interaction is critical. In addition, meetings can minimize or eliminate many time-wasting activities, such as playing phone tag, sending unnecessary e-mails, or exchanging volumes of paper. But, when you consider the myriad business meetings held every year, many should never (ever) take place. The $64,000 question is, “When should you hold a meeting (and when should you not)?”
Choosing to hold a meeting
Deciding to hold a meeting demands serious consideration because of the many costs involved, both direct and indirect. Direct costs include travel, food, facility rental, and possibly lodging. Indirect costs include people’s time and lost productivity.
People today suffer from timepoverty — they don’t have enough time to do all the things they want and need to do. Based on this realization, the first thing the person responsible for holding a meeting has to determine is how necessary it is to meet. Double-check your rationale for holding a meeting against the following list of major reasons that justify getting a group of people together:
To communicate or request vital information
To achieve a group consensus
To respond to questions or concerns
To decide on or evaluate an issue
To gain acceptance or support of an idea
To create awareness of or to sell an idea, product, or service
To brainstorm ideas
