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Webinar: Meetings as Teamwork

July 3, 2011 Leave a Comment

Are meetings an essential part of work or major time-wasters?

[event_signup display_till="Sep 16, 2011" event_date="Sep 15, 2011 4-5:30 pm CST"  venue=Webinar (Online workshop)" charge="EUR 23 or RMB 200" event_name="Meetings as Teamwork"]

Of course, it depends on how you plan them, prepare them and conduct them. The average office worker spends 25-30% of her time in meetings, yet we all too often have bad feelings about the time we spend there, because:

  • People turn up late or/and unprepared.
  • Meeting participants do not have the necessary information to make decisions.
  • No one seems to be in charge of results.
  • The main outcome of the meeting is that you scheduled another meeting.
  • No one follows up on suggestions and decisions made at the meeting.

Sounds familiar? Then it is time to think about the 3 fundamental questions of meeting management: Who? What? When?

[Read more...]

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Make Meetings Effective: Assign team roles!

December 13, 2010 Leave a Comment

You often wish meetings were more (much more!) efficient. Everyone does.

The average office worker spends around 20% of her time at meetings, only to find that too much of the meeting time was wasted. When I mention the word “meeting” to my clients, almost nobody gives a positive non-verbal response (smile, raised eyebrows or leaning forward), as they would for the word “holiday”. The usual reaction is a facial gesture that says ‘Oh, here we go again about meetings!’.

What is the problem with meetings? If we need them so much, why don’t we get our act together? If we do not, why do we keep spending our time there?

[Read more...]

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Where do teams go wrong and how to Improve them?

November 4, 2010 Leave a Comment

A group of people will not start working as a team without effort. A group is a number of people together, while a team is a group with shared goals, values and a structure.

We discussed and experienced this basic but vital message at a half-day public workshop entitled “Where Can Teams Go Wrong and How to Improve them?”, arranged with TrainingBridge. The participants, 20 young professionals from 7 multinationals in Shanghai, worked in groups to experience the challenges first-hand. Activities challenged participants in three important ways:

  • How they form a team with shared responsibility;
  • How they distribute tasks within the team, and;
  • How the team interacts with its broader surroundings.

As always, the lessons of the activities and the following discussion are worth a summary for everyone who creates or leads teams. [Read more...]

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