Optimizing Outcomes for Meetings in Your Business

Everyone who runs a business has meetings. It is unavoidable, whether you meet on-line, face-to-face, in boardrooms or at seminars; you are going to be in or at meetings.

But meetings need not be "something to be avoided". Managed properly, they can be a source of leads, cement relationships, and be a powerful venue for solving disputes or to sucessfully negotiate alliances.

The key is ALWAYS setting an agenda, and visualizing all the possible outcomes, or as many as you can anticpate. You can strategize to maximise the benefits for all participants, seeking win-win solutions to issues, or mutally acceptable compromises.

Be sure to think about the emotional responses that could occur to the content in the meetings. If there is a potential for anger or resentment, bring that up early, and devise ways to deflect or manage the emotions. Acknowledgment can be a source of strength, and can effectively defuse the many fears that could divert you from a co-operative outcome.

I prepare a think sheet before meetings, where I list the possible issues. I distribute this, so that all cards are on the table at the start. By brainstorming the issues with peers, subordinates, clients and superiors at the least you are starting from a place you know, with a potential map to where you should be going.