Micro course

Leading Better Meetings

Leading meetings well belongs to the sustainable leadership practice of good governance. This might seem like a small procedural detail, but how meetings are run affects a range of other practices that influence your organisation’s performance: employee engagement, retention, innovation, productivity, trust, knowledge sharing and collaboration.

Poorly run meetings cost organisations in many ways: from wasting time, money and good will, to appearing badly led, and not getting the most out of opportunities.

Abolish boring, unproductive meetings forever using the tools and tips from psychologist and expert in organisational behaviour, Dr Gayle Avery.

Gayle takes you on an engaging journey into how to get the most out of various kinds of meetings – whether it’s meetings for innovation and team bonding or for governance through the Board, committee, and team meetings that most of us are involved in.

In a course built around videos, activities and practical tips that work, Gayle shows you how to get the most out of the meetings you have to have, including how to run better meetings online.

By the end of this course, you will

  • – be able to run both on line and in person meetings properly
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  • – know how to issue agendas, follow meeting procedures, come to consensus decisions, manage the minutes and get the best outcomes
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  • – be equipped with sets of tips on how to improve meetings in specific ways, including by managing scarce executive time
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  • – be skilled in countering problems such as groupthink, multitasking and difficult people
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  • – have a set of strategies to enable your organisation to improve productivity by optimising the motivation, performance and wellbeing of its members through proper meeting management
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  • – be able to set your workplace up for enhanced efficiency by understanding how to run meetings effectively.

Use science and knowledge to run your meetings better, making them more productive and innovative.
And enjoyable!

Improved meetings mean increased productivity, innovation and wellbeing

Dr Gayle Avery takes you into the world of meetings, providing you with evidence-based tips and tools for managing your meetings better.

In this microcourse, each session is designed around a specific aspect of managing a meeting. The focus is on providing you with practical ways of making meetings more effective and innovative.

Course details

6 learning modules

Supplementary materials to aid understanding

Work at your own pace online

Certificate from the Institute for Sustainable Leadership upon successful completion of the final quiz

Q&A live session with ISL expert

Estimated time required: 10 hours

6 learning modules

Module 1. Managing meetings. Here we see why meetings need to be managed and the real costs of not managing meetings properly. We offer tips for when expensive and scarce executive time is involved. You’ll come away from this module knowing the important questions to ask yourself before calling your next meeting.

Module 2. How to make meetings work.  This module explains that there are many different types of meetings and how this affects the way meetings are best conducted. We see that size of meeting affects member participation and the appropriate procedure. Meetings should always have a purpose, and we show you how to set SMART purposes.

Module 3. Running effective meetings. Here you learn about the correct procedures for running formal meetings, particularly governance meetings for Boards, committees and teams. You’ll come away with a simple checklist to help you, as well as  understanding the important roles of Chairpersons and Secretaries, and being able to improve online and hybrid meetings.

Module 4. Managing the people side. In effective meetings, members contribute their best, and this requires managing the human side of a meeting. This session shows you how to turn strangers into a team by understanding and managing the stages of development that groups go through. You also get tips on managing the members, including difficult people.

Module 5. Getting the best outcomes.  Meetings are usually held to achieve a particular purpose or outcome or solve a problem. This module is full of tips on how to come to decisions and reach consensus. In the process, conflicts may arise among the members and you’ll learn how to manage and resolve conflicts in our final session.

Module 6. Conclusion and certificate quiz. To ensure you are able to apply the learnings in running better meetings, this final module contains two practical activities: evaluating a meeting and assessing the health of your meeting group. After summarising our journey, this module ends with the certificate quiz.

Course fee: $550

GST will be added for Australian residents at checkout.