Synopses & Reviews
Run engaging, productive group sessions with practical guidance and expert adviceRunning Great Workshops & Meetings For Dummies delivers the tools managers need to facilitate engaging and rewarding group sessions. Written by two highly experienced leadership and coaching consultants, this book provides practical, hands-on instruction that can help you turn your meetings and training sessions around. Boost productivity by engaging attendees from the start, scheduling with time and energy levels in mind and keeping to a clear agenda. You'll learn the skills that will help you get the most out of every group session and discover which seemingly small details can have a huge impact on outcomes.
The current global recession has increased the emphasis organisations place on skills development and training throughout the world. While specialised service organisations exist, many companies lack the means to outsource their training needs or invest in specially trained staff to get the job done. Running Great Workshops & Meetings For Dummies presents a solution by providing clear group leadership instruction with immediate applications to employees in any department. Regardless of the type of meeting, training session or workshop you're running, this book provides the information you need.
- Learn to align outcomes and objectives, establish an agenda and schedule and manage pre-work for attendees
- Discover how to connect with the group, establish expectations and set ground rules
- Find out how to set the pace, manage challenges and objections and troubleshoot issues
- Effectively evaluate the session, ensure accountability and maintain momentum
Running Great Workshops & Meetings For Dummies provides practical advice you can put to work today.
Synopsis
Running Great Workshops & Meetings For Dummies delivers the tools managers need to facilitate engaging and rewarding group sessions. Who hasn’t walked away from a training session (or meeting) feeling as if the entire session could have been summarized in 10 minutes? We can help you avoid being the source of such frustration. Regardless of the type of workshop, meeting, or group session you’re running, this title provides you with the information you need.
Topics include:
- Planning: Aligning outcomes and objectives, establishing and agenda and schedule with time and energy levels in mind, managing pre-work for attendees.
- Getting off to a great start: Connecting with the group, establishing expectations, setting the ground rules, using energizers
- Facilitating: Setting the pace, managing challenges and objections, troubleshooting (group dynamics, lack of focus, difficult behavior and topics), employing approaches and techniques that suite your situation
- Following up: Establishing future actions, evaluating the session, ensuring accountability and responsibility, maintaining momentum and building engagement.
Whether you need to train a group to use Excel, hold a learning-and-development session on “persuasion and influence”, or chair a weekly team meeting, Running Great Workshops & Meetings For Dummies provides hands-on instruction that you can put to work to achieve results.
Synopsis
Learn to:- Plan effective group sessions
- Develop agendas that deliver
- Improve your ability to lead meetings
- Facilitate workshops that provide real value
Make your workshops and meetings amazing with this hands-on guide
If you run meetings or workshops but need to take your game to the next level, this book is for you! Get the tools you’ll need to facilitate engaging, productive group sessions with this comprehensive guide. Dive in to topics like planning, starting and facilitating meetings to become a great meeting leader today!
- Prepare for success — get the details of what makes a good meeting go bad and find out how to plan your meetings and workshops to make them engaging
- Deliver great group sessions — make sure your meetings get off to a good start, outline an agenda, create ground rules and find out how to troubleshoot difficult situations
- Build your skills — dig into techniques for facilitating great meetings, running focus groups and handling remote meetings or workshops
- Master key techniques and best practices — get a firm grasp of the techniques that top meeting facilitators always use
Open the book and find:
- Information on what to do when running a meeting
- Tips for developing a plan and managing people
- Tricks to get your meetings off to a great start
- Hints for dealing with typical meeting difficulties
- Ways to build participants’ knowledge
- Techniques for facilitating remote meetings
About the Author
Jessica Pryce-Jones and Julia Lindsay are joint CEOs of the iOpener Institute for People and Performance, an international consultancy headquartered in Oxford, UK. iOpener helps organisations achieve their commercial goals and makes this happen with great meetings and workshops. Over the past 10 years, iOpener has delivered approximately 15,000 workshops world-wide.
Table of Contents
Introduction 1Part I: Getting Started with Meetings and Workshops 7
Chapter 1: The Business Case for Better Meetings and Workshops 9
Chapter 2: Planning Your Meeting 21
Chapter 3: Planning Your Workshop 47
Chapter 4: Getting Ready for the Big Day 77
Part II: Running Great Group Sessions 105
Chapter 5: Handling the Start of Your Session 107
Chapter 6: Continuing Your Meeting or Workshop 135
Chapter 7: Dealing with the Tough Stuff: Troubleshooting 161
Chapter 8: Handling What Happens Next 189
Part III: Building Your Skills 207
Chapter 9: Building Participants’ Knowledge and Practise 209
Chapter 10: Running Focus Groups 233
Chapter 11: Taking It to the Next Level 253
Chapter 12: Running Remote or Virtual Meetings and Workshops 285
Part IV: The Part of Tens 307
Chapter 13: Ten Common Mistakes on the Day 309
Chapter 14: Ten Things You Have to Do When the Pressure Is On 317
Index 325