meetings Archives - Page 2 of 2 - Carpenter Smith Consulting, LLC

Provide Powerful Input

January 8, 2018

There is a big difference between sharing your opinion and giving credible input and knowing that difference can have a powerful impact on your success. Giving relevant, useful input is an important skill that requires practice and thoughtfulness. Without a framework for giving input on a question or issue, many of us get anxious and then resort to giving our opinion. Yet, when decision-makers look to you for your expertise, they generally don’t want your opinion—they want useful input.…

3 Key Steps to a Great 1:1

September 18, 2017

Monday Morning Business Coach

In many companies, managers meet regularly with their team members in what is called a 1:1. Over time, these meetings become the norm; it’s on the calendar and the meetings happen, but many managers report that they don’t really know how to structure those meetings so that they’re helpful for them, as the manager, and to their direct reports. In many ways, these 1:1 meetings are mini-planning sessions. You’re coming together to identify a vision for the…

The Bones of Meetings

January 18, 2016

Monday Morning Business Coach

Last week, we started the conversation about meetings with our post, Meeting Madness. In it, we outlined the roles and rules that help to create great meetings. But no discussion of meetings would be complete without reviewing the importance of creating and using an agenda. An agenda is to a meeting like our skeleton is to our body: it provides the internal structure that allows the meeting to successfully come to life. Research on meetings has shown that whatever the group…

Meeting Madness

January 11, 2016

Monday Morning Business Coach

“I cannot get my work done because all of my days are spent in *^#@ meetings!” Sound familiar? Meetings are supposed to be a means to success, but most people in organizations describe meetings as a time-suck that actually prevent them from getting their work done. We’d like to suggest that at the beginning of each year, you take time to inventory your meetings to decide if they are adding value and contributing to your success… and if they…

What to do When Meetings Derail

March 10, 2014

Monday Morning Business Coach

Two weeks ago, we talked about Creating Effective Meetings and last week we shared the contributions of one of our readers in Beyond Effective Meetings. We trust that you are starting to think more deeply about the meetings that you initiate and the meetings you are in. It is critical to ensure that your meetings are moving your teams forward so that they can create success vs. impeding success. Once you have paused to reflect on the meetings you are…

Beyond Effective Meetings

March 3, 2014

Monday Morning Business Coach

Last week our focus was on Creating Effective Meetings. We heard from a lot of members of our community who said that the post was tremendously helpful and one of our readers provided some excellent ideas to consider. Bill S. in Illinois sent this note: Great ideas on meetings! Let me offer another suggestion: group all meetings in the morning or afternoon to leave large blocks of time available to actually work. I work in Information Technology and it is…

Creating Effective Meetings

February 24, 2014

Monday Morning Business Coach

As consultants, we hear a lot of complaints about meetings. We hear that there are too many, they eat up the bulk of the workweek, and most of them are ineffective. From our perspective, the only reason to get 3 to 5 or even 10 or more people in a room is so that when they leave, they are able to be more effective. They leave with information that creates confidence, they leave feeling they have influenced decisions that are…

Your Meeting Agenda: Recipe for Success

September 17, 2012

Monday Morning Business Coach

As consultants we have been in and observed more meetings than we can probably count and can say without hesitation that the best meetings always, always have a good agenda. The businessperson’s relationship with agenda’s has not been consistent over the years. In the 90’s, many agenda’s went overboard and became dictatorial – they were rigid, tedious and drained all life or spontaneity from meetings. They were born of a zealous need to use those new computer programs to organize…

Benefits, Concerns & Suggestions

September 10, 2012

Monday Morning Business Coach

The process of shifting a team to engage them fully in solving a problem, looking for opportunities, or challenging the cultural norms takes practice but can be successfully started using a simple discussion framework that we call Benefits, Concerns & Suggestions. The Benefits / Concerns / Suggestions framework is an easy to use discussion process that will shift the way your team works. To use the framework, take the following steps: Use this format to foster engagement and communication. Always…

But . . . How Do I Get My Team to Participate in Meetings?

September 3, 2012

Monday Morning Business Coach

Last week we wrote a post entitled, Stop Talking! Now, Communicate and we received many responses from leaders who were having success connecting in new and much deeper ways with the people in their organizations as they stopped talking and started listening. Through listening, they were beginning to see a level of engagement and commitment to solving organizational problems that they had not realized was “out there.” We also received quite a number of inquiries asking us how to get…