Top leaders focus on “meetings” before “the meeting”

The most effective meetings only confirm what has been already agreed upon informally. Consultants and team members spend countless hours preparing complicated presentations supported by extensive analysis for decisional meetings.?This preparation and planning is necessary to ensure that recommendations are based upon a solid fact base and they will achieve the intended results.?

However, the right recommendations are just table stakes.?More important to success are informal and impromptu meetings to pre-test conclusions and pre-sell recommendations.?These informal interactions identify improvements, point out flaws and foster commitment to implement.?It is best to build support for your ideas through informal venues such as lunches, coffee breaks or unplanned, drop by meetings.?Early and often, these informal interactions build required trust and confidence.

As clients are taking personal risks, they have to be comfortable to implement your advice.?Focus on informal, pre-meetings in your project planning and daily activities. Formal meetings should just confirm for the group what you have agreed upon during one-on-one pre-meetings.