[MUSIC] Hello, I'm happy to see that you've nearly finished another module of English for Management and Leadership. In this review lesson, we're going to put all the pieces of what you learned together, so that you'll be prepared to write an agenda and use language that can help facilitate an effective meeting. To synthesize what we've learned, we'll check in on Elizabeth as she plans an effective meeting. Recently, Elizabeth has had some problems facilitating a successful meeting. For example, in her last one, Jake talked so much that a few people started checking their emails. At that meeting, Elizabeth was disappointed with the amount of work that was accomplished. But you know Elizabeth, she learns from her mistakes, and immediately she made a goal to improve the effectiveness of her meetings. Based on the information covered in this module, what document would you suggest she use to help her with this goal? Let's see if you're thinking the same thing I am. I'll give you a hint, the word begins and ends with the same letter. It's an agenda! One of the most important tools for facilitating an effective meeting. So, to achieve her goal, Elizabeth began by thinking about what she needed to accomplish and the specific tasks she could accomplish during the meeting. Then she planned three actionable tasks. She planned one, to communicate information about the upcoming move to their new offices. Two, to get a consensus on a new Biodent toothpaste logo. And three, explain how the Asia/Pac situation is being mitigated. Elizabeth seems to be on the right track. She also appears to have watched Andrea's lesson on writing and agenda. In that lesson, Andrea described three common purposes for meetings, authoritative, consensus, and consultative. Do you remember what each of these purposes describe? Which two of these purposes or objectives does Elizabeth use in her agenda? Well, Elizabeth uses authoritative when her purpose is to communicate information about the new offices. And consensus, when she wants to find out what the majority opinion is on the new logo choices. Do you remember what the consultative purpose refers to? It refers to a time when the leader wants input to help him or her make a decision. When you know the intended purpose, it helps to know when you've completed each assigned task. It tells you it's time to push for closure. I'm sure you remember this phrase from your previous lesson, to push for closure is to call the task completed, for the time, and to ask, what's next?. Who will be responsible for what? And by when? When you're ready to push for closure, you should be ready to summarize the discussion. In other words, to state the topic and the main point. Let's think about Jake's presentation. In the meeting, he answered the question, what is being done to mitigate the Asia/Pac situation? The topic he's going to discuss is the Asia/Pac situation and the focus or main point, is how it's being mitigated. If you were going to summarize his discussion, you would begin by saying something like, The Asia/Pac situation is being mitigated in three stages. Then, you would add, what those three stages are. And finally, conclude with whatever will happen in the future. The closure statement, for example, you might say something like, Jake, the who, will update us, the what, in the next meeting, the when. When you summarize individual action points on your agenda, it ensures that everyone is on point. It helps you remember, and supports your ability to summarize the key points of the entire meeting. Here's the sidenote, or a tip. When you make a habit of summarizing small points as you go along, it becomes easier to complete more complex summaries, such as status reports and executive summaries. Now lets get back to Elizabeth and what she did to plan an effective meeting. After Elizabeth decided on her purpose, she began making a list of the people who needed to attend the meeting. She chose the best time and location, taking into account the different time zones of her staff and their travel schedules. Unfortunately, the best time for the meeting was when Jake was in China. She considered requesting that he fly in for the meeting, but decided against it. Instead, she asked Jake to attend a meeting remotely. This indicates that Elizabeth believed Jake would be effective presenting his topic in a conference call and in a short time. [LAUGH] Do you think she's crazy? What factors influence her decision? Let's think back to the lesson on conference calling. What information could have supported Elizabeth's decision? Maybe length of time? In our lesson, we learned that shorter meetings and speaking times are more appropriate for conference calling. Elizabeth may have also considered whether or not he'd be travelling. Noisy airports are recipes for annoying conference calling experiences. Although there aren't many dogs in airports, there are plenty of loud and annoying sounds that would make hearing and understanding difficult on both ends. Now, Elizabeth knew her decision was risky. She had planned for Jake to speak for less than 10 minutes and for the entire meeting to be over in 40 minutes. She also knew that speaking for that length of time, with complicated content, would be a challenge for Jake and for the other attendees. However, she had an idea. Before the meeting, Elizabeth directed Jake to prepare a PowerPoint presentation that answered one question. Here's his question. What is being done to mitigate the Asia/Pac situation? She tasked him with clarifying the answer to this question and to do it in less than ten minutes. Jake, of course, accepted the challenge. Elizabeth requested that Jake send the PowerPoint presentation to everyone on the agenda, and requested that everyone who was scheduled to attend the meeting, review the slides. I think the next time I call a meeting, I'm going to follow Elizabeth's lead. How about you? You'll be writing an agenda. I encourage you to go to the discussion board and join a discussion on agenda writing. The forum is an open discussion. However, here are some questions to help you get started. Do you think the content of Elizabeth's agenda would be effective where you work? Share formats that have worked and have not worked. Share experiences. What is the most appropriate amount of time, prior to the meeting, to receive the agenda, and, or, to review the documents? Give examples to explain your reasons. Do you have a template for an agenda that facilitates productive and effective meetings to share with your peers? This concludes our review of module two. Thank you for your commitment to English for Management and Leadership. I wish you success in your upcoming peer-reviewed assignment. See you in the next module.
