The benefits of an advanced meeting skills course
Every company has some sort of scheduled meeting system on a daily, weekly and monthly basis.
A quick five-minute standup meeting in the morning to make sure everyone is on track with what needs to be done, a bi-weekly catch-up meeting between line managers and their department employees, and monthly meetings to discuss how the company’s activities are aligning with the monthly goals.
And those are just set administrative meetings. Then there are things like project briefings, client meetings and brainstorming sessions. Only important information is (or, at least, should be) discussed at business meetings. So, it’s imperative that all important information is discussed, absorbed and acted upon where necessary.
Minute-taking should not only be the job of the PA or secretary, but of every member present at the meeting. Whether it directly concerns them or not. Businesses cannot underestimate the power in an all-knowing team of employees. This brings us to the discussion of the benefits of taking an advanced meetings skills course with all employees and integrating those practices for business success.
What are advanced meeting skills?
We’ll be looking at what advanced meeting skills are most important and what will be covered in an advanced meeting skills course.
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Meeting preparation: It’s easy to think you can just “wing it” when it comes to business meetings, especially recurring internal meetings such as employee reviews and catch ups. But meetings need to be prepared beforehand and they ought to follow an organised agenda if there’s any progress to be made. Every meeting needs to be officially opened, employees present need to be recorded and topics to be discussed need to be listed in order of discussion, with follow-ups scheduled for the next meeting.
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Minute taking skills: Another important skill for meeting efficiency is minute taking. Minutes are important to keep track of all points mentioned during the meeting and to follow the progress from each previous meeting. It’s also necessary to remind participants, as well as those absent from the meeting, to remain accountable for what was said and to carry the tasks further for a report back in the next meeting. Minute taking isn’t as simple as rewriting everything that has been said. You need to know what’s relevant, what’s important and how people are going to remember how to understand it in context after the fact.
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Listening skills: And in order to do the above, listening skills are necessary. This means being able to understand what’s being discussed while taking notes and still following the conversation so as not to leave any details out. It takes a certain type of focus to do all of that at once.
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Communication skills: As any member of a meeting, you will need to be able to effectively communicate with the rest of the attendees. The effective communication definition refers to ways in which one conveys information to make an important point. Being able to communicate effectively in a meeting is to stick to the meeting agenda and discuss only that information which is required of the project update or client pitch.
How it can benefit the business
When there is more than one meeting member responsible for the minute-taking and meeting agendas, there’s a better chance that the meetings will run smoother, no information will be left out and everyone can hold themselves accountable for staying up to date with their work.
But there are other benefits for the business that will come from implementing an advanced meeting skills course for all employees. This can include:
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Time efficiency and increased productivity: When a meeting has been effectively prepared for, there’s no need for any time to be wasted coming up with agenda items on the spot. This will make all meetings more efficient and, therefore, increase productivity as people will be able to get back to work sooner and get through their tasks for the week. And everyone knows that time is money in the business world. It’s also more productive in that by following an agenda, nothing is forgotten about and everything discussed can help the assigned employee to continue with the task or address any concerns from a different department.
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Effective communication: If businesses want to improve the team dynamics and achieve effective communication in the workplace, they need to have this meeting skills course. For everyone to be able to speak clearly, confidently and decide between relevant information and unnecessary extra information, will cut meeting times in half. And with effective communication, operations run more efficiently and misunderstandings are less likely to happen and disrupt a project’s flow.
With the help of an advanced meeting skills course, your business could benefit by being more efficient overall. Meetings are an important aspect of business and having everyone in the company on the same page, even more so. Take the time and resources to invest in your company’s efficiency and success.