Company Profile
Delegates on the Conducting Successful Meetings Course run by STL mainly hold key stakeholder positions, in addition to management, team leadership and director-level posts.
They came from a variety of different industries including accounting, banking, pharma, a sporting goods manufacturer and tech.
Business Requirement
Many of the companies that sent delegates on ‘Conducting Meetings’ wanted their staff to get better at planning, delivering and following up on action points during meetings in order to make them more effective.
They were hoping that staff would gain a grounding in the core concepts of Conducting Meetings and gain awareness of the impact of external and internal factors in an organisation upon individual and team decision-making when it comes to making meetings more productive.
Some of the challenges identified:
HR departments booking delegates on this course had identified the following challenges:
- Many lacked the courage, conviction and confidence to successfully plan, lead and follow up on a meeting agenda
- They needed a workable model and clear strategies that they could take away and use in the business to help meetings run more efficiently
- Developing their ability to notice and practice higher-level communication and presentation skills was acknowledged as a significant factor in decreased meeting productivity.
Solution
STL worked collaboratively with all stakeholders to come up with this iteration of Conducting Meetings, which is being regularly updated as new material and trends impact the global business landscape.
The training solutions delivered served the following key areas, namely that they had to;
- be of high impact.
- have a practical bias rather than theoretical.
- serve the business needs of the company.
- be of direct benefit to those using the tools and techniques demonstrated.
Some of the topics covered included:
- Basics: The purpose of the meeting, mutual objectives, priorities of attendees and how to build rapport from the beginning
- Communication: Verbal and non-verbal, how others see us, body language, what we say, how we say it and listening skills
- Strategies: Planning ahead, saying Yes and No, giving and receiving feedback, dealing with manipulation and disagreements
- Putting It All Together: Making choices, taking control and practical feedback
To facilitate this process, we provided a number of handouts, engaged in role plays, dug into relevant case studies and used delegates examples to bring the course material alive. Everyone left with a manual and a clear action and implementation plan for their return to work post-course.
Benefits
The outcomes achieved by delivering the strategic decision-making course included:
- Maximising results from business meetings, including rapport building, feedback, dealing with manipulation and disagreements and forward planning
- An increase in confidence as a result of learning about powerful communication strategies
- The benefits of cross-collaboration and understanding how clear objective setting can substantially increase productivity.
Delegates comments:
“Extremely helpful course. Well-paced, never felt bored. No topic felt redundant. Andrew was extremely friendly and engaging. Good level of interaction between presenter and us. I definitely feel more confident after today. Would recommend it to anyone.”
“Good course presented by a very knowledgeable trainer. I found all the content very practical and beneficial.”
Trainer’s comment:
This was an interesting and stimulating course to deliver. There was a lot of lively discussion around communication in general and how to overcome the delegates’ specific challenges.
These included role plays, techniques and practical strategies to help delegates make the most of meetings. It was very gratifying to see light-bulb moments happening throughout as delegates assimilated the material and applied it to their workplace examples ready to action after the course.