CORPORATE SUFI : How to plan meeting, achieve outcome

        Here are eight keys to planning any meeting to achieve the desired outcome.

1. Define the objective - Visualize the end result in graphic detail right down to the emotions. This will help you to clarify the big picture and your role in it. Also clarify what you really don’t want. This will help you to eliminate all actions or ideas that do not support your desired outcome.

2. Beware of negative motives that you may unconsciously have - Sometimes a seemingly innocent remark in a meeting might harbor sarcasm, guilt, or even a desire to embarrass the other person.

This chain of thought invariably gathers momentum and creates a negative outcome for all. But once you visualize your desired outcome right down to its bare essentials, it becomes easy to release the stronghold of negative emotions.

3. Ensure adequate time and resources for preparation – Distribute the meeting memo and share the agenda a few days in advance to give adequate time for preparation. Ensure everyone has the required resources at their disposal.

4. Visualize the mutually beneficial outcome for all parties - Now that you have clarified your motives, the next step is to reinstate a win-win outcome where all parties come back satisfied or at least with a certain measure of acceptable gain.

Even conflict situations can be resolved if we stop viewing others as adversaries, but simply as individuals trying to satisfy their needs. Understanding always opens the door for creative solutions and fosters mutual respect.

5. Stick to the schedule and agenda – Respect everyone’s time and presence. Start the meeting on time and end it on time (or even early if possible).

Ensure the meeting is planned at a mutually convenient timeline for all the participants. Adherence to the time schedule and agenda ensures that the participants also value your time, and there is a greater possibility of ensuring everyone else is as punctual as well.

6. Decide on your behavior and presentation to achieve a win-win outcome - Decide what you will say and how you will express it. Do your words or your body language support your intentions and desired outcome? Is there a way to express yourself without offending yet clarifying your needs? Step away from a boxed-in ‘either or approach’ to evaluating several new chains of thoughts and ideas.

7. Do not allow any one person to dominate the meeting – Often meetings lose steam or get derailed because one or two people monopolize the discussion.

It’s best to lay down certain rules of the meeting in advance including the individual speaker’s time and agenda. In case any one person continues to hog the attention or derail the topic, firmly and politely request them to stick to the time.

8. Ideally try to end the meeting on a positive note. Whether it’s commending someone on their contribution or highlighting group effort at a previous task, a positive ending always wraps up an activity with everyone feeling motivated to carry on the next steps with enthusiasm and confidence.

9. Decide on the next steps - Close the meeting with a clear outline of the next steps as well as what kind of a review mechanism will be adopted. Who will do the review, when and how? If any decisions were made at the meeting, the meeting planner should clearly spell out the role of each participant and the scope of work along with deliverables.

Finally, the key to a successful interaction or exchange, or any business for that matter is rooted in a quote by Zig Ziglar: “You will get all you want in life if you help enough other people get what they want.”

This article is part of the A to Z Corporate Sufi series