This training slides is to help you achieve quick wins in meeting session. It is action based and would help in quick decision making. Please visit www.facebook.com/SalesEnergyTraning for the conversation on this training.

1. Dumb Ways to Ruin a Meeting
SEGLA NAYON SEGLA | CORPORATE ENERGY | H & J F

2. intro
If you must call a meeting,
make it count.
Don't waste everyone's time with one of these
mistakes.

3. introduction
Meetings are incredibly expensive. The next time you're in a meeting, mentally add up
the hourly rates of everyone in the room.
Then factor in the opportunity cost for what every person could be achieving instead
of sitting and listening to rhetoric list of issues and events never acted upon.
Then factor in what you could be doing instead.
Makes you wonder why you ever have meetings, doesn't it?
Still, sometimes you do need to meet--so when you do, don't ruin the meeting by
continuing to make any of these mistakes:

4. 1. You meet at a neutral site.
• Meetings aren't about words; meetings are about action. Great meetings solve
problems, set new courses, create new action plans. Great meetings result in
something tangible.
• So why would you ever want to meet in a conference room when no product, no
service, no nothing is ever produced in a conference room?
• Meet where the action is, at the site of the problem or opportunity. Don't sit in a
room and stare at each other when you can focus on the issue you're trying to fix.
• Get up, get out, get your hands dirty, and focus on the actual--not the intangible.

5. 2. You're a slave to clock conventions.
We all think in round numbers. We can't help it. Our
calendars are marked in 30- or 60-minute chunks.
We're programmed to expect things to start and end at
certain times, say, 10:30 or 9 or 3:30--"round"
numbers.

6. slave to clock conventions
• So the meeting that starts at 9 is usually scheduled until 9:30, even if you
only really need 10 minutes to make a decision. It's like the bigger-house
syndrome: After you buy a bigger house, you somehow manage to fill it
with furniture even if you don't need any more furniture.
• Plus, there's the "just in case" factor: We'll already have everyone
together, so let's schedule a little extra time, just in case. And what always
happens? You fill the time.

7. slave to clock conventions
Instead, decide ahead of time
how long a meeting should last
solely on the basis of what you
need to accomplish--and
nothing more. Then schedule
the time accordingly. Tell
everyone the meeting will end
on time no matter what.

8. slave to clock conventions
• Then stick to it. It'll be tough at first, but people will quickly adapt
and be a lot more focused and productive.
• And consider starting a 12-minute meeting at, say, 9:18. Then it can
still end on a round number, and the people who crave convention
can feel like their world still makes some sense.

9. 3. Your agenda includes information.
• No agenda should include the words information, recap,
review, or discussion.
• Great meetings often have agendas that are no more than
one sentence, like "Determine the product launch date" or
"Select software developer for database redesign."

10. 3. Your agenda includes information.
• Information? Share it before the meeting. If I need to make a
decision during a meeting, shouldn't I have the information I need
to make that decision ahead of time? Send documents, reports,
etc., to participants in advance.
• Holding a meeting to share information is unproductive and wastes
everyone's time--it's lazy.

11. 4. You allow people to
"think out loud."
• If anyone in a meeting says, "I'm just thinking out loud..." cut them
off. Immediately.
• Why? Their thoughts should already be together. They should show
up with concrete ideas based on the information you provided
ahead of time. Don't let people muse aloud about the half-baked
concepts they want to share just because they feel they have to
participate or because they want to seem smart.

12. 5. You're penny polite and pound
rude.
• It happens all the time. A few people get to the
meeting early, and one starts chatting with the person
who will lead the meeting. The room fills and it's time
to start, but their conversation isn't over, so the team
leader keeps chatting for a few minutes so he won't
seem rude. (Or he's in love with his own voice.)
• And everyone else sits and waits and waits until they're
done.
• Chat all you want beforehand, but when it's time to
start, start. Say, "We need to get started, so I'll catch up
with you later," and start the meeting on time.

13. 6. You don't establish accountability.
• Great meetings result in decisions, but a decision isn't a decision if
someone doesn't carry it out. Say what. Say who. Say when.
• Never let ownership be fuzzy or unclear. An action item without a
clear owner is like an orphan--it's someone else's responsibility.
• Which means it quickly becomes no one's responsibility.

14. 7. You publish a lengthy recap.
• Meeting recaps should only include action items. State what was decided, what
will be done, who is responsible for doing it, when it will be done, and nothing
else.
• Never include items like, "Discussed possibility of reorganizing departmental
responsibilities." If all you did was discuss reorganization, then 1) shame on you for
not making a decision, and 2) including a "discussion" in a recap implies that group
discussions that don't result in decisions are worthwhile.

15. 7. You publish a lengthy recap.
• Don't give general discussions credibility by
including them in a meeting recap. People might
start thinking general discussions have value.
• Where meetings are concerned, they don't.

16. 8. You follow up as the group.
• Assigning accountability means specific individuals are
responsible, not the team as a whole.
• So don't meet with the entire team to check on
progress. Don't waste everyone else's time. Meet with
the people responsible. Follow up individually.

17. Follow up individually.
• If you like, the people responsible can send progress emails to the
rest of the group. But don't get the group together just so everyone
else can hear about what's been done.
• Once you're off and running, the only time you need to meet again
is when further decisions need to be made, or when you want to
celebrate success and praise the people who deserve recognition.

18. 9. You meet to improve team cohesion.
Team members do need to work well together. But they don't need to hang out together or "bond" in order to work
well together.
Great business relationships are created when people work together toward a common goal and are able to count on
one another to do their part, meet commitments, get things done--in short, to produce tangible outcomes and
achieve meaningful goals.
Otherwise, the relationship is more interpersonal than productive.
It's your job to build a productive team. Let your employees establish interpersonal relationships on their own time.
Don't worry. They will.

19. Remember
9 Dumb Ways to Ruin a Meeting
1. You meet at a neutral site.
2. You're a slave to clock conventions.
3. Your agenda includes information.
4. You allow people to "think out loud."
5. You're penny polite and pound rude.
6. You don't establish accountability.
7. You publish a lengthy recap.
8. You follow up as the group.
9. You meet to improve team cohesion.

20. Questions

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23. 9 Dumb Ways to Ruin a Meeting
SEGLA NAYON SEGLA | CORPORATE ENERGY | H & J F