Effective meetings are like unicorns – mythical, elusive, and beautiful to behold; yet, unlike the unicorn, effective meetings could actually exist in this dimension.

To assist our fellow cryptozoologists aiming to specialize in the field of effective meeting facilitation, we’ve put together a magical recipe to guide you in your quest:

List of ingredients:

• 1x big dollop of a justifiably good reason to have a meeting (*Do not substitute)

• A well-defined objective/s (*Depending on personal taste and appetite)

• 1x healthy serving of a clearly delineated meeting agenda

• 1x generous helping of relevant stakeholders (*Inclusion of irrelevant ones could sully the mixture)

Preparation instructions:

1. Find a justifiably good reason to have a meeting, or it might even find you.

2. Determine whether said reason indeed justifies a meeting, rather than resolving a matter with a phone call or email. Once determined, preparations can start.

3. Establish which objective/s the meeting should work towards – extract carefully.

4. Once objectives have been extracted, a healthy serving of a clearly delineated meeting agenda can be concocted. Bear in mind that said agenda needs to be hearty and flavorsome (Read: It needs to be functional and guide the discussion towards reaching the meeting’s objectives).

5. Determine an optimal starting time and reasonable duration based on the nature of the objective/s.

6. Pick and add all available, relevant stakeholders to the mixture.

7. Combine the ingredients at room temperature.

8. Carefully examine and digest agenda items, while bearing the meeting’s purpose in mind. Stay on topic.

9. Season with water and/or caffeine.

10. If prepared correctly, the meeting will yield a workable, productive action plan.

For best results:

• Start on time and do not exceed determined duration.
• Assign a facilitator to keep the meeting on schedule and on topic.
• Set non-agenda items aside for use, should enough time be available after all agenda items have been addressed.

Here is a list of some fantastic Coggno online training courses to ensure that your future meetings are more efficient and productive, and less elusive than the fabled unicorn:

Course 1: Effective Meeting Strategies Course

Course 2: Meetings That Get Results

Course 3: Effective Meetings For Employees

Course 4: Conducting Effective Meetings: A Guide for Supervisors

Course 5: Effective Meetings

Course 6: Meeting Management

*Discounts applicable: 20% OFF, valid thru Feb. 18th, 2018!