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A Workshop for Meeting Facilitators
Perhaps no other business exchange is more feared than the dreaded "meeting." Our calendars overflow with meeting engagements, yet we frequently complain about how ineffective they can be. Meeting leaders are often maligned for being unprepared, lacking focus and failing to generate results. And those same leaders frequently complain that participants are everything from unfocused to uncooperative, or even hostile!
Effective communications can make or break the results of a meeting. One nationwide survey showed that executives believe that 14% of each 40 hour work week is wasted due to poor communications between staff and managers, amounting to a stunning seven weeks a year. The Wall Street Journal recently reported that 50% of workers at big companies said they had attended a meeting where at least one participant fell asleep!
The Ketchum Communications Training Network established its Mastering Meetings curriculum with one core principle in mind: meetings are an opportunity to deliver specific communications messages to a very targeted audience, an opportunity that is often underutilized by business professionals.
Ketchum's Mastering Meetings workshop is an intensive message development workshop focused on business communications skills and meeting content. The course is specifically tailored to help meeting leaders develop compelling messages, avoid the common communications traps and obstacles found in the meeting format, and generate tangible results from meetings.
Central to the Mastering Meetings curriculum is the Ketchum Meeting Planner, which serves as a roadmap for facilitators. The Meeting Planner helps a leader prepare for and implement a meeting in three key phases. A customized curriculum helps a meeting leader build an agenda, analyze the meeting venue and profile audience participants. A significant portion of the Mastering Meetings workshop focuses on developing a complete message architecture for use in an upcoming meeting. Participants work with Ketchum coaches through the simulation of an actual meeting environment and practice techniques that enable them to focus on noteworthy messages and better engage attendees, assure desired meeting outcomes, and generate the highest return on their “meeting investment.”
A full suite of online diagnostic tools and planning templates supports Mastering Meetings. The workshop is appropriate for mid-level executives just stepping into a management role, or for senior executives seeking customized preparation for a critical meeting engagement.
To learn more about Mastering Meetings, please contact Ketchum Communications Training Network Business Manager Jocelin Martinez at 646-935-4062 or jocelin.martinez@ketchum.com.
