Meeting skills

Cluster

Leadership & Personal efficiency

Target group

Members of the Doctoral Schools

Level

All PhD students

Course aims

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• consciously ask themselves whether a meeting is necessary/optimal to achieve their objective and therefore worth the time investment (of x number of people);
• limit the time spent in meetings to what is necessary;
• improve the quality of the meetings in which they participate;
• have a structured agenda that is shared in advance with all participants, and that indicates the proposer, the goal/expected result, the working method, and a project timing estimate;
• increase involvement in the meeting by opening up the agenda to the participants so that they can bring in their own agenda items;
• tackle each agenda item according to the CORPI model;
• realize that the effectiveness of a meeting depends on careful and timely preparation before the meeting, efficiency during the meeting itself, and clear (+accepted) agreements on the follow-up after the meeting;
• have gained experience with decision-making techniques: consensus, majority decision making and other useful tools to increase the quality and effectiveness of meetings

Course contents

Before the session:

Participants will be given a questionnaire that gauges their experiences with meetings and their expectations and learning goals for the training. They also receive a form where they can score their meetings on 4 criteria:

• Transparency
• FUN (focus, unite, nurse)
• Facilitation
• Efficiency

During the session:

This course places a strong emphasis on practice, gradually also drawing on the participants' own experiences and cases. The most important frame of reference is the circumplex of interpersonal communication, which the participants may already be familiar with.
Furthermore, we will use a number of structured exercises (a.o. NASA), which are content 'out of the box' and give the participants insight in the group dynamics aspects (process). Because the result is not of primary importance, the focus is more on the interaction and the group.

Specific themes or questions from participants can also be addressed. Here, of course, the content or result is important.

1. Introduction round:

by way of introduction we take stock of:

• the different types of meetings the participants participate in
• Their experience in terms of effectiveness, emotionality
• The cost of a meeting

2. Why meet? When is a meeting necessary?

We can demonstrate metaplan as a tool (with post-it's or sheets on metaplan boards)

3. The preparation of a meeting (agenda):

• short workshop in subgroups on best practices
• plenary discussion
• individual exercise in setting the agenda of a meeting
  meeting
• Visualization: the examples are written on flip chart and hung on the
  the walls

4. The meeting itself

Group exercise on the CORPI model as a tool to structure a meeting in a logical and acceptable way and generate maximum involvement of the participants.

• A group of volunteers (5 people) will be asked to formulate a joint proposal to spend a significant sum of money on a good cause of their choice. The exercise will be closely monitored by the trainer and regularly interrupted to allow the participants (and the observers) to describe the process.
• In this way, the CORPI model is inductively and interactively constructed.
• Plenary discussion, asking and answering questions will probably brings us to the

5. Lunch break

A structured consensus exercise, type NASA bv.

A group of volunteers (5 to 7) will meet to arrive at a common solution. The group autonomously chooses its chairperson. The observers are instructed to note the task- and process-oriented interventions of an assigned participant. They will receive an observation form.

• The results and the process of the exercise are discussed in plenary. The Maier formula E = K x A serves as a frame of reference for task and process interventions. The Circumplex is here again the frame of reference regarding the interaction.
• The 'players' and their observer sit down together in pairs to discuss the discuss the (individual) feedback
• Plenary discussion, posing and answering questions from participants

6. Debriefing on (among other things) effectiveness and efficiency in meetings.
The rest of the time we spend on exercises with specific learning points that the participants bring in themselves.

7. Completion

• Completion of individual learning and action plan
• Evaluation

Teacher

Wim Coessens, The Works!

Wim Coessens has extensive experience as a trainer and coach and has held management positions in the media and cultural sector for many years. He was General Manager of the newspaper De Morgen and later Network Head of Radio 1, Manager of Digital Media at VRT and Director of the International Film Festival Flanders-Ghent. Since 2009 he has been active as a full time presentation coach, media trainer, writing trainer and coach in leadership, communication and negotiation. He has been a lecturer in Public Speaking at Antwerp Management School since 2011.

Wim has a strong passion for language, media, corporate storytelling and people, and more than a passion for public speaking. His workshop approach is highly interactive, evidence-based and practice-oriented.

Course dates & Venue

Registration procedure

Your registration will be confirmed by separate e-mail from the Doctoral Schools. Cancellation of your registration can only be performed by sending an email to doctoralschools@ugent.be.

Registration fee

Free of charge for Doctoral School members. The no show policy applies.

Number of participants

Maximum 16

Language

English

Evaluation methods and criteria (doctoral training programme)

Active participation

After successful participation, the Doctoral Schools will add this course to your curriculum of the Doctoral Training Programme in Oasis. Please note that this can take up to one to two months after completion of the course.