Personal Efficiency and Managing Meetings Training Course

Understanding Ourselves and Others

• Acknowledge that requesting attendance imposes our specific priorities on others
• Explore the factors behind our behavioral patterns
• Assess awareness of how our behavior impacts others: Do they respond as we expect or as they should? If not, what are the underlying reasons?

The Process for Managing Meetings

• Determine the necessity of a meeting: What alternatives exist, and are any superior?
• Implement the lifecycle of meeting management:
  • Develop a meaningful agenda that outlines objectives, topics, and suggested timings
  • Invite only essential participants
  • Conduct the meeting by allowing relevant contributions (distinguishing between relevant and irrelevant), staying on agenda, and adhering to time limits
  • Generate outputs: Focus on action points rather than necessarily detailed minutes
  • Schedule any necessary follow-up sessions

Attending Meetings

• Evaluate the need to attend every meeting invitation received
• Develop a strategy for deciding when to accept or decline meeting invitations
• Identify valid justifications for declining attendance
• Understand permissible actions during meetings regarding attendees, subject matter, and duration

Other Personal Efficiency and Time Management Issues

• Setting and maintaining personal and professional objectives
• Work Prioritization
  • Determine which tasks require immediate attention
  • Establish a framework for prioritizing these activities
• Employee-Imposed Time: Assess whether staff and colleagues are working for you, or if you are working for them
• Time Bandits: Identify other time drains and strategies to mitigate them
  • E-mails
  • Telephone calls
  • Unplanned interruptions
  • Displacement activities: such as procrastination
  • Other factors
• Effective Delegation
• Assertiveness: Seeking compromise and learning to say “no” effectively