Lesson Plan

Title of Training Segment: Creating Productive Meetings: An I-TECH Lunch & Learn Overall Goal of Training Segment: Provide tips, tools and strategies to ensure meetings run by I-TECH are engaging and lead to the desired results Date & Time: Tuesday, December 17, 2013 12:00 – 1:00 Learning Objectives: By the end of this training segment, the participants will be able to… 1. Define meeting outcomes/success indicators and design agenda segments to achieve those outcomes 2. Design and provide structure to a meeting through the use of an agenda 3. Create an intentional design for meeting items that require interaction and engagement Materials:         

PPT Slides Screen Blank flipchart Easel Markers Tape Handout: Blank Agenda Template Handout: Engagement Ideas for Various Agenda Topic Delivery Methods Prepared Flipchart (x6): Blank Agenda Template

Procedures/Instructional Technique: Estimated Content/Key Points Time 12:00 - 12:10

Welcome & Introductions  Introduce self  We’ll get to your survey feedback over the course of the next hour  Go around room quickly to get a feel for who is in attendance o Name o Role o Finish this sentence: A meeting isn’t a good use of my time unless… (capture thoughts on flipchart)

Slides

12:10 – 12:15

Role of a Facilitator Question for the group: What does the word “facilitate” mean?  Capture responses on flipchart Facilitate comes from the Latin word “facilis” which means: to make easy

12:15 – 12:35

The role of the facilitator is to make a meeting easy on the participants – which means the facilitator role is to:  Identify (by working with other interested parties if necessary) what needs to be accomplished during the meeting o Give example of Manoj or surgeons – meetings were less fun when they weren’t involved and on board with the agenda, outcomes  Keep everyone engaged o Paying attention o Not checking email or Facebook  Keep the meeting on track to accomplish the objectives  All this requires intentional design (That means, even though their job is to make a meeting easy… it does not mean it’s an easy job!) Agenda Writing 101 Giving Structure to a Meeting (5 min)  A well-formed agenda can help meeting organizers/facilitators make sure the meeting is a good use of everyone’s time  Provide sample agenda template, then fill it in  Fill in the overall goal  Fill in the cells of the template for topic, person responsible, time, type of agenda item (informational, action item, review, discussion, brainstorm, etc.)… Small Group Activity (10 min)  In small groups, create an agenda for an upcoming meeting that someone in your group may have (or if you don’t have an upcoming meeting then create an agenda using this format for either a meeting you envision holding or perhaps even how you might have improved a previous meeting using this template) Large Group Report-out (5 min)  One or two groups can share their agenda Exit comment: when you have agenda items that are purely information, ask yourself whether meeting time is really the best place for it, or if it can simply be distributed in an email… then perhaps you answer questions about that item during the next meeting (this way you’re being more inclusive of participants AND you’re checking to be sure they read and understood the email)

12:35 – 12:52

Engaging the Group Anchor question (3 min) How many people in here have ever thrown a question out to the group in order to get some answers or a discussion during a meeting… only to be met with silence? Nobody talks. People start looking at their shoes.  How does that feel?  It makes me want to just move on – assuming people don’t have questions or anything important to add… but that’s not necessarily what it means Once you’ve decided on the outcome and type of agenda item (delivery method), it still takes a little planning to ensure you get the outcome you want. **Distribute handout with some ideas on how to engage meeting attendees vis-à-vis specific delivery methods Group Design Small Group Work (7 min)  Take 7 minutes to map out your meeting agenda items for maximum engagement – either use ideas from the handout or come up with your own ideas

12:52 – 1:00

Large Group Report-out (7 min)  Get an example of one agenda item from several groups – who has an example of engaging with an information item? Who has an example of intentional engagement through discussion? Other examples of other types of agenda items? Wrap Up and Q&A  If no questions, then go around and ask for one take-away from each participant