Study Plan

Perhaps the main reason for creating this Program is because we are convinced that one of the main tools for productivity and teamwork, such as meetings, are not as effective and productive as we would like them to be. And, because we want to, we want to correct this.

In fact, it can be done. And, as we already know, we have been trained in certain skills that, upon reaching adulthood, we discover are critically vital. Leading a group, guiding teams toward a goal, seeking collective decision-making, driving action, transmitting information. All of this is essential in our professional and work life, most of the time, especially because we don’t work in isolation. Most of the time, we’ve learned this because life circumstances have placed us in those situations. And we ask ourselves: are we doing it well? Why is it so hard to control a meeting? Are we (they) getting results in relation to the resources invested? Probably, in the answers, there are more “yeses” than “nos.” Well, there is certainly a way to improve this, and we will begin now.

There is a set of historic meetings where most of us would have liked to have attended. Who wouldn’t have wanted to be present, for example, at the Yalta Conference, or during the negotiation of peace treaties, or at the closing of a business acquisition deal between companies?

On the other hand, there are too many meetings we’ve attended, and others we have ahead of us that we wouldn’t want to attend. In some cases, we’ve missed some and probably don’t regret it. And we will probably do the same in the future when we deem it appropriate.

When we study the topic, we quickly reach some conclusions: people spend too much time in meetings – in some cases, between two-thirds to three-quarters of their workday – and, secondly, they wouldn’t want that to be the case. Meetings “consume too much time” and conspire against personal and collective productivity on a significant number of occasions.

The question that arises is, then, why do we spend so much time in meetings? The answer is simple: because that’s where we meet, as teams, as specialized groups, as members of a department, as negotiators sitting across from each other at the table. In meetings, problems are solved, decisions are made, and trust is often built. Therefore, since we must meet, let’s agree to make meetings as efficient, useful, productive (and, if possible, entertaining) as we can.

Work Plan | Focus of Each Class

There’s a portion of activities we do every day. One of the most frequent – and sometimes important – when we are in a work relationship within a company or organization, is having meetings.

When we reflect on our work week, we are often surprised by the amount of time we dedicate to meetings. And two big questions always arise: the first is how much of our time those meetings take, and the second is what is the measurable effectiveness we get from them.

Often, the answers will surprise us, and those surprises will be related to the amount of time they take (usually, the retrospective review will show us what we’ll consider to be an almost absurd waste of time). The second surprise is the investment/benefit relationship we get from those meetings (the issue of resource investment versus results).

By the way, as mentioned in the previous section, this is another activity we prefer to call a social skill, one we engage in without having received preparation for. It’s one of those activities that must be developed, and where neither school, high school, nor university prepares us. They seem to consider it an innate skill in humans. Meeting in groups to solve and work together is innate, but doing it correctly must be learned.

Our experience indicates that this is a sensitive topic from multiple aspects: on one hand, it requires a significant investment of time and resources; on the other hand, it is a complex process that requires knowledge to achieve full results; thirdly, many times what is decided at the meeting table is implemented late and its results are not as promising as we imagined when we made the initial decisions; and fourth, if things are not well planned or well conducted, the final result is completely counterproductive. All of this, without addressing the pathology of all this, which is “meetingitis,” a term that, although not academic, graphically defines the tendency to constantly be in “reaction” mode for everything and at all times, which is generally a major conspirator against personal and business productivity.

As a consequence of the above, the reason for developing this Course becomes clear:

• In general, we have not received any training on how to prepare, organize, develop, and follow up on meeting results.
• As a consequence, we either act as perfect improvisers full of good intentions, or we learn “on the go,” with all its virtues and the vices we can acquire.
• We rarely link meeting management with leadership styles, and this is something we must pay a lot of attention to.
• We invest a large amount of time and material and physical resources into these processes, and often the results obtained do not correlate with that investment. This places us in a situation where we feel that we didn’t invest, but rather spent, and even wasted those resources.
• We experience feelings of frustration in front of many results obtained.
• Or, we experience great hopes at the close of a meeting, which are later not materialized or realized because we don’t know how to “close” it properly, or because we follow up late and poorly.

With all these observations, with the contribution of the theory and practice we have experienced, and the lessons they have left us, we decided to develop this Course, precisely to help others who are experiencing what we have just discovered, by showing them that there are other ways to do things, different approaches, and alternative ways to address issues that are part of our daily lives and that leave results that frustrate us.

With the right technique, tenacity, and dedication, we can perfectly reverse the results we don’t want and replace them with effective and efficient meetings, with less time consumption, better results, and reducing the personal wear and tear that they cause us. And the decision is emphatically made, without a doubt, convinced that this path we are about to take will be transformative.

CLASS PLAN

1. Introduction. Work meetings, an introduction.
2. PREPARING THE MEETING. Preparing a meeting.
3. DECISION-MAKING PROCESS. Decision-making in groups.
4. LEADING THE MEETING. Leading a meeting.
5. SOLVING AND PREVENTING PROBLEMS. The problems that arise in meetings.
6. HOW TO CLOSE A MEETING. Properly closing a meeting.
7. FOLLOW-UP AND RESULTS CONTROL. Following up on the results of a meeting.
8. WHAT TO AVOID. Controlling and eliminating unproductive habits: meetingitis.
9. VIRTUAL MEETINGS. Developing virtual meetings.
10. THE PRESENT AND THE IMMEDIATE FUTURE. What we are seeing, virtual meetings in a global and interconnected world.

¿Who is it aimed at?

It is aimed at all those who need to develop their skills in leading and organizing meetings, with the goal of providing each participant with a system for directing and guiding meetings that allows them to gain efficiency and productivity. Therefore, it is intended for directors, managers, team leaders, meeting organizers, human resources managers, and anyone within a company or organization who needs to conduct an in-depth review of their meeting system and the management of planning and work teams.

Additional tools:

Each course is composed of concrete tools that the participant will find applicable to their reality from the very beginning.

We provide a series of in-depth resources (Ted Talks, articles, work sheets, and videos) so that the participant can expand their resource base.s de cada temática que se aborda en las clases.