This week we’re launching a program that’s been in the works for nearly 2 years and I’d love this community’s collaboration. Please take a moment to visit:
We’re just getting started. Over time, the plan is to continually add new courses that teach a wide variety of meeting skills. Courses are taught by an international instructor base and we aim to continually improve each course as we see what works well.
We’re working to address the glaring gap in practical meeting education in the workplace, providing a resource for all those who don’t get training from their organizations and either can’t find or afford in-person training. More background on the inspiration for Meeting School here.
If you’re familiar with my work at all, you know I appreciate how deep and complex the meeting landscape can be. We’re not going to pretend we can do this on our own. Which leads to my invitation!
Here are the kinds of collaboration I’m seeking.
1. Feedback to Improve the Concept
Do you have feedback that would improve this concept? Critiques? I’d love to hear it. 2. Course Ideas
Do you know of an existing training that would make a good Meeting School course? Do you have an idea for a course that we should match with an instructor? 3. Instructors
Finally, if you have expertise that would shine here and would like to offer a course of your own, please let us know. All the instructor details are here.
And of course, if you know someone who would benefit from one of these courses, we and our instructors would very much appreciate the referral!
Hi Elise,
looks really nice, congratulations and good luck!
If you have an interest in a course focusing on matching meeting objectives with appropriate technologies (audio-conferencing, video-conferencing, telepresence), I could develop a session on that.
Regards,
Willem
Hi Willem - that could be interesting! Especially if you have ideas about what a team’s tech toolkit should include, and advice for times where folks don’t have access to the ideal tech. I know a few hardware companies working on meeting support who would especially love this information.
Elise,
I have developed a case used in my work session/ work shop school training leaders and facilitators. The arena for the case is a customer service center. It all starts with chaos in the company. Just 30 % of customer requests are solved within 24 hours. The goal is to solve at least 80 % of the incoming requests. The task is to select the vital few actions solving the problem. The school participant works with several different process tools such as the Ishikawa diagram, the Helper and Hindrances, Decision Matrix and Action Plan. The first day in school the participants also worked with other process tools such as Stakeholder Map and Business Environment Map.
That sounds like it was a really valuable workshop. It sounds a bit like a Kaizen event, but more comprehensive. Are you proposing a course around some of those techniques, or that problem statement?
I have trained and educating more than 1 000 leaders in these process tools and techniques. It is a two day course where the participant during the second day work with the case. This is more comprehensive and advanced than a Kaizen event. What my approach have in common with Kaizen is change and improvement. The most difficult/complex part of this workshop course is to work with the cause-and-effect tool. The tool helps you to understand the different between the cause and the symptom. The problem will remain if you don’t identify effective actions eliminating the causes (NOT the symptoms). Other process tools are Helpers and Hindrances and Priority and Decision Matrix (and the Action Plan). The tools and techniques create highly participatory workshops. But, you can’t just apply the process tools, you have to ask the right questions too. You ask me if I propose a course around these tools and techniques. All my materials are in Swedish as well as my book (see the attached photo). The title of my book in English is ”Workshops and work sessions - Toolbox for productive meetings”.
If I translate this to English the content will be the size of a Guide book. But, to really understand how it works you have to experience it, to conduct it as a facilitator with a group of approximately 8 people. It would be interesting made a video of the complex parts and publish it on You Tube. Customer Service is just one example of cases. You can have other cases, e.g. "What are the causes we are not reaching our climate goals?” etc.
