Here's how you can get ready for a facilitated session.

Meeting Preparation – How to Quickly Prepare Meetings for Results In an ideal world, you have ample time for meeting preparation. But in the real world, you’re swamped. Too much work, too many meetings, not enough time. What you need is a quick reference and that’s what we’ve provided below: ? Codify the purpose and scope of the meeting: What project or product are you supporting? Stipulate what the project or product is worth in currency and FTP (full-time person): Why is it important? How much money or time is at risk if we fail? ? Articulate the deliverables: What specific content represents the output of the meeting and satisfies what DONE looks like? What is your analogy for explaining it? Who will use it after the meeting?

Determine your subject matter expertise, meeting participants who can provide the information required. Speak with participants in and learn about them, the people they work with, and their pain points. For workshops, allow up to 30 minutes for one-on-ones. Meet face-to-face, or at least by videoconference, and establish eye contact before facilitating them. ? Familiarize yourself with each subject matter expert’s role and competencies ? Confirm who should, or should not, attend and why ? Help participants show up better prepared to contribute ? Identify potential issues, hidden agendas, and other obstacles ? Transfer ownership of the meeting output, beginning with the meeting purpose, scope, and deliverables

Draft a Basic Agenda for logical flow. Walk through the agenda steps with someone else to confirm that they will produce the desired results. Rehearse your explanation of the white space, why the steps exist, how they relate to each other, and how they support the deliverable to get DONE. Detail the procedures to capture the information required: Gather and assemble specific questions that need to be addressed. Time permitting, consider including questions for which subject matter experts are also seeking answers. Sequence the questions optimally. Build yourself an Annotated Agenda that focuses on the appropriate tools, methods, and activities required to provide the necessary information for each agenda step.

Use ground rules to help manage behavior during meetings and workshops. You can lead meetings and discussions without ground rules, but did you ever leave an unstructured meeting with a headache? A little bit of structure ensures that you get more done, fast. Primary Ground Rules Consider a few, select ground rules for every meeting, regardless of your situation. We consider the following four ground rules so important we use them in every meeting or workshop. The fifth meeting ground rule shown below (“No Hiding”) has been added for online meetings. 1. Be Here Now 2. Silence or Absence is Agreement 3. Consensus means, "I Can Live With It" 4. Make Your Thinking Visible 5. No Hiding

Send participants a pre-read package, especially for major events. ? An articulate workshop purpose, scope, and deliverables along with the Basic Agenda Steps ? Glossary for terms used in the workshop purpose, scope, deliverables, and Basic Agenda steps ? Organizational and business unit support—especially Mission, Values, Vision, and performance Measures such as objectives and key results ? Product vision or project team charter ? List of questions to be addressed ? Relevant reading materials gathered from others during conversations ? Responsibilities of the participants, including reading or exercises that may be included in a multiple-day or multiple-session workshop ? Sponsor’s letter of invitation ? Team members’ contact information