What Does the Fiscal Cliff Mean for Your Business?

It feels like there is a great amount of political rhetoric describing the United States economic situation.  To recap:  the recession, the double dip, the rebound, the fiscal cliff, the debt ceiling, and so many more.  Whether our economic situation is uncertain or not, there is enough speculation to make even the most risk-friendly business a little concerned.

We recommend a really simple thought process to know you’ve at least considered the “what if’s”

- Plan A:  How is my company/department/practice positioned grow if we see strong economic growth the next 6, 12, 24 months?

- Plan B:  How is my company/department/practice positioned if we see retraction and optimization now, and each year after?

- Plan C:  How is my company/department/practice flexible if both happens at once?

I know, it seems like a simple idea.  Plan for the best, prepare for the worst.  What we’ve seen is that many organizations know this philosophy but, struggle on the execution.

Take a minute with a colleague, leader, or team member.  Talk about legitimate potential scenarios of expansion, retraction or both simultaneously.  Discuss concepts around flexibility with team members.  Think outside of the norm.  Think about non-traditional solutions and plan accordingly. 

If you are too busy managing your professional life to understand what is happening right now in legislature, we encourage you to change that dynamic.  Every day decisions are being made that will trickle down to each of us. Do what you can to be educated, or better yet, be part of the change!

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Facilitation of an Effective Meeting – Part Two

You’ve done everything possible to prepare for an effective meeting – great work!  Now, you have the tough task of facilitating an effective meeting. 

Helpful Tips:

Logistics:

Distribute Handouts and Agendas:  Have your handouts or agendas distributed in advance of the meeting so participants can review them.

Ensure Electrical Equipment Operates:  If you require a laptop, projector, or telephone equipment, make sure it is up and operating, well before the meeting.

Assign roles:  Designate an individual to document notes and action items through the meeting, a facilitator and a clock watcher. 

Start On Time:  Respect those who showed up on time, kick your meeting off when you designated.

Introduction:

• It is always a good idea to have introductions at the meeting.   Introductions have several benefits:  ensuring the attendees all know one another’s name, stating the attendees for the phone participants and making it easy for whoever is taking notes.
• State the purpose of the meeting.
• Highlight any house rules:  not using cell phones or blackberries during the meeting, sticking to the agenda, not interrupting others are some examples
• Set a positive tone for the meeting.  With comfortable participants, you’ll increase productivity, creativity and ownership.

Establish a Parking Lot:  Carve out a portion of the whiteboard or flip chart and designate it as a “Parking Lot.”  When a topic comes up that is off the agenda or, will not be resolved during the meeting, put the topic on the Parking Lot. You can plan a future meeting with these topics included or, assign them as action items for attendees.

Respect:  Operate with respect during your meeting.  The facilitator should encourage participation from all participants.   If someone starts to get off focus, politely redirect them.

Create an Action Log:  Create a log that documents any actions or assignments.  This log should track the date the action item originated, the owner of the item, and the expected completion date.  Designate time in the meeting to review the Action Log, each owner will update their status. 

Conclusion:   When concluding the meeting, re-cap the action items, the parking lot subjects and a summary of the meeting.  End the meeting on time.

Effective meetings are a wonderful opportunity for idea exchange, collaboration and results.  With simple preparation and strong  facilitation, your meeting will become an essential part of your organization’s productivity.

Contact The Thomson Group for complimentary examples of  Agendas and Action Logs.

Preparation for an Effective Meeting – Part One of the Meeting Series

We’ve all participated in  meetings that seem to go nowhere.  There is little preparation, we show up not  knowing what we are discussing, one person dominates the meeting, there’s no structure, the subjects drift all over the place and the meeting ends late. 

One of my favorite ways to pass time is to count the number of  people in the meeting, calculate a rough salary/hour and calculate  the salary expense of the meeting.  If you find yourself doing this, or creating your grocery list, you are the victim of an ineffective meeting. 

The Thomson Group is determined to change the meeting crisis.  Our meeting series will focus on meeting organization, facilitation, participation and communication.

With a few simple guidelines, your meetings will save time, money and increase productivity.

Some ideas on ways to better organize a meeting:

Define the Purpose of the Meeting:  What do you want to accomplish in the meeting? 

• Can you accomplish your goal  through a quick phone call or email?  Have confidence that there is actually a need for the meeting before setting one up.

Create Attendee List:  Think about who is a required attendee vs. an optional attendee.  Too often, we immediately choose the same people to participate in each meeting. 

• Spend some time thinking about who is necessary to participate in the meeting and identify the required participants in the agenda.  If you include optional participants, specify they are optional.   If your colleagues feel like you are respecting their time, you’ll have great success in your participants showing up, and even on time. 

Establish an Agenda:  Establish an agenda, with assigned speakers and allotted amount of time for each subject. 

•  Include past action items so the responsible participants know they are expected to give an update. 
• Determine and document what subjects are presentations vs. what are discussion topics. 
• If this is a recurring meeting, consider asking for agenda topics from the participants. 
• Send the agenda out in advance of the meeting, preferably with the meeting invite.   Ideally, agendas are received no later than 2 days before the meeting.  The expectation is that the participants will review and be ready with their topics or status updates on action items.

Additional Logistics:

• Be congnizant of participants from other time zones.  Try to avoid lunch hours or too early in the morning/evening.
• If in a meeting room, ensure white boards and proper seating are available. 
• Reserve an appropriately sized room, if applicable.
• Bring hard copies of the agenda and handouts, unless otherwise noted in your agenda distribution.
• If a conference call, make sure that the call in number and password are on both the invite and the agenda.
• Remind participants that the meeting will start at the time noted so, be sure to arrive a few minutes early.

With a little preparation before the meeting, you’ll ensure an effective meeting with willing participants. 

Let’s stop the ineffective meeting crisis one meeting at a time.

Please watch for future articles in our effective meeting series.