Run a High-Stakes Meeting That Doesn’t Suck (Service)

Have you ever been in a meeting that went poorly because nobody could quite agree on what decision needed to be made? Or how the decision would be arrived at? Worse, have you ever run one of these meetings? It’s not a fun time. Nor is it a good use of everybody’s time. Meetings are expensive even when they are well-designed and necessary. Most meetings… are neither.

Something weird about me: I LOVE running a great meeting. People feel good afterwards, and there is a decision, agreement, or next step that everybody is OK with. How do you get there? Preparation.

What we’ll do together

1. Identify the outcomes needed for your meeting to be a success. This could be a specific decision, a document to be produced, or ratification of a proposed portfolio or budget, or agreement on next step(s).
2. Select one or more facilitation methods that will get the group to these outcomes.
3. Develop an agenda, including participant list and roles.
4. Practice. If you feel comfortable and confident in your outcomes, methods, and agenda, the meeting will go great. Practice is how you get there. I’ll help.

What you’ll do on your own

• Run the meeting!

Documents you’ll get

• An agenda (drafted by me, revised together)
• A facilitator’s guide (drafted by me, revised together)
• (Optional) a development plan with next steps if you’d like to learn more about these methods (drafted by me)

How it works

After you purchase the service, we’ll schedule a series of 3, 30-minute working sessions:

1. Quick start, where we’ll get to know one another and identify meeting outcomes.
2. Messy middle, where we’ll review proposed methods and agenda. I’ll bring a draft and we can revise together.
3. Practice makes perfect, where I’ll support you in getting ready to run the meeting, focusing on any facilitation methods that are new or less comfortable for you.

Then you’ll be ready to go run the meeting and have a relaxed, productive time.

Like what you see… but want to do it without my help?

I’ve written extensively on facilitation at Improve Something Today, start there!

Like what you see… but want me to do it for you?

Check out Different Chairs, my consulting sole proprietorship. You can hire me to handle this from start to end, including serving as an outside facilitator or host.