Do not hurry to include all the meetings into your boss`s schedule — half of them may be unnecessary!
The success of business talks largely depends on their preparation. What is more, if a meeting is held on the sidelines of a larger event, organizers` responsibility grows considerably. Julia Guseva from Kaspersky Lab spoke about seemingly trivial issues that can put at risk the meeting and even the future partner relations at ABT-ACTE Russia educational session «Business talks in personal assistant`s life» that was held in the Savoy on October 27.
«What should you start with to organize talks on the sidelines of a large event? Of course, with planning your boss`s schedule with due regard to the event program», Julia answered the question herself. «I can say from my own experience that it is better to appoint meetings in the morning, because no-one will be able to discuss important issues in the evening after a busy day. Or talks efficiency will be very low. At the same time you should remember that the time that is the most convenient for your partner or customer is your key priority».
Another important nuance is to write exact time and time zone of the meeting in your invitation. «For example, your colleagues from Turkey or UAE may get it wrong without his note».
15-20 minutes before talks participants arrive, it is recommended to invite a technical expert and to examine equipment. Doing it in the presence of your bosses means wasting their time, because they will hardly discuss business issues in the presence of strangers.
«And now imagine that one of your guests has decided to cancel or postpone the talks», Ms Guseva addressed the audience. «It can happen in the morning, afternoon or at night. Your task is to react properly and quickly. In this case you will need the phone number of the person responsible for the venue — the person you may call any time of day and night and notify about the situation, adjust your task and so on — you may have absolutely unexpected questions».
But do not hurry to include all the meetings in your boss`s schedule, Oksana Kostyuk, personal assistant of Parallels vice president warned the audience. The expert cited very unexpected figures in her presentation «An efficient meeting: the way to tame a chronophage»: it turned out that 4-6 working hours out of 9 that are spent on meetings are wasted. The data was obtained in a survey held by Microsoft.
Alek McKinsey, a well-known time management expert, cites a similar result: 5 out of 10 working hours are wasted, which means 220-250 hours per year. That is, on the one hand, a meeting is a tool of settling business issues, but on the other — a real time sink«.
«We often turn out to work with a zero result — you cannot neglect results of international research. But you can cut the amount of time wasted», Oksana said.
First of all, before you include a meeting into the schedule, you should ask yourself questions: can I settle this issue by making a phone call? Is an email enough? An office memorandum? A webinar or a video conference? «If I answer „no“ to all of these four questions, I include the meeting into my boss`s schedule. But if at least one of them is „yes“, I try to settle it with a call or an email first. And only then, if it is not solved, I include it into my boss`s schedule», the expert shared her experience.
Another way to determine whether talks are necessary or not is to gather reports on the work done by all the prospective participants. And then to take the decision whether to hold a meeting or not.
The meeting has finally been arranged, all the participants have gathered, but what is the way to make it efficient? A meeting, after which your boss does not say «What was it all for?»
First of all, use agenda patterns. «I send all the delegates a link to the web page and change its data in the online mode. It is not convenient to change information in Excel and very often it is impossible because of the lack of a single server», Oksana said. «Even Google Docs will do, although this office application is forbidden in many large companies».
The rule
At the same time, an assistant should be ready to control the course of discussion during the meeting. «It is my persuasion, that you, as no one else, suffer from extensive discussion by some talks participants. If you do not react properly and in due time, the meeting will be ruined» Oksana noted. «In such cases I usually suggest such a wrecker had a personal meeting with the boss».
And there should definitely be feedback with delegates. Five questions are more than enough to receive efficient feedback and to adjust the following talks.
In order to make meetings efficient, some companies even take extreme measures. «Virgin (you all know its founder Richard Branson) refused to hold meetings where participants sit around the table», Anastasia Markhai, moderator of the educational session and assistant in Orange Business Services, Russia& CIS noted. «There are standing meetings. Their efficiency grew by tens of percent, because you are more relaxed in the chair».
«One of my bosses asked me to make temperature in the meeting room no more than 15 degrees», Oksana added. «That is, we made it cold any season of the year. The meeting usually took only 30 minutes! And it was always efficient!»
Ms Markhai told the participants about the way the partner`s psychological type affected meeting efficiency. «The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) that was worked out in 1921 and was based on Carl Jung`s works will help us in this question», the expert said. «You only need to choose your answer to the following questions: where you get your energy from, how and what information you perceive best, how you take decisions and how you put these decisions into practice».
Such an approach is very popular in large American and European companies and it lets find a person with a certain set of mind and behaviour for a certain task or project.
The first pair is extraverts and introverts. If you like to communicate, you are full of energy, you are likely to be an extravert. An introvert, on the contrary, «will think twice» before saying anything. «But you should not confuse such behaviour with unsociability and shyness», Anastasiya noted.
The second pair is sensorics and intuits. «Let`s think of our favourite cartoon characters — Vinnie —the-Pooh and Piglet.» Anastasiya brought her example. «Vinnie-the-Pooh heads forward without hesitation, and what about Piglet? He would dream, get distracted here and there... When Winnie-the-Pooh has a goal, for example, to get to the bee hive, he follows a structured plan. But in case of a force majeure situation he starts panicking, it is difficult for him to abandon the framework he has. We see that he is a sensoric. As for an intuit, it is easier for him to adjust to the changing reality — he is more flexible». These types are similar to a golf player and a bike rider. A golf player follows the holes in a certain sequence — the first one, then the second, then the third. A bike rider goes to the park and sees a nice meadow: «Oh, how beautiful!» And he forgets all about the park.
The next pair is the thinkers and feelers, logicians and ethicians. And here the choice is frequently stipulated by the gender. Most women are feelers (ethicians), most men — pure logicians, practical people. They remain calm and intrinsic, take decisions in an unbiased analytic way.
The last pair is rationalists and irrationalists. «Do you remember the cartoon Alice in Wonderland: Alice gets into the underworld and seems to drift along the stream, and to be more exact, along adventures», the expert explained. «And what would Malvina from „Buratino“ fairy tale do in this situation, given that she has everything in the right order».
Rationalists do their work in a planned way, according to a schedule. They do not relax till work is done, keep everything under control. As for an irrationalist, terms and dates are like shackles for him. He takes into account only deadlines, and at this moment he feels euphoric.
«The idea that we all are different does not make us good or bad. Each type is special», Anastasiya concluded. «I hope, this knowledge will help you take a fresh look at the situation and find the right approach to every partner. If you know the psychological type of your counterpart, you may control the situation and neutralize conflicts. What is more, not only at work, but also in your private life as well».
Sofia Vinokurova, sales director of The Leading Hotels of the World presented the best venues for business meetings and events. The company is more than 85 years old and unites independent hotels of 5 star category all over the world.
«At the moment The Leading Hotels includes 400 hotels in 80 countries. The work of the association is coordinated by 12 booking centres and 25 regional offices, including one in Moscow, that has been working for more than 16 years», Sofia said.
Many objects of the association are historical landmarks, besides, 60% of them are located in Europe. The most hotels are concentrated in Rome and its suburbs. «All our hotels, including those that are members of the association, undergo serious examinations by mystery inspectors», Sofia noted. «And we hold about 1,5 thousand inspections every year.»
For the past four years The Leading Hotels has considerably improved its portfolio quality, the expert added: «If you hold talks in one of our hotels, you may be sure that all your guests and partners will be able to find it on the city map. We can offer you venues of absolutely different types: small rooms and halls with capacities from 200 persons and more. By the way, talks with the participation of Dmitry Medvedev were held in the presidential suite in Okura Amsterdam, and its area is 486 sq. metres. It is a two-level apartment with a personal kitchen».
The legendary Hotel Ritz Paris which is also the member of the association, is famous for the fact that Coco Chanel lived in it for more than 30 years — this hotel became her home. Now a large-scale hotel renovation is coming to an end. «We are waiting for its opening in the first quarter of 2016», Ms Vinokurova said. «It will be open for guests from March 16. Coco`s room in the Ritz will be reconstructed. Besides, spa treatments with Chanel products will be offered».
The association offers its frequent customers Leaders Club loyalty program. It includes such options as free breakfast, room category upgrade, free Wi-Fi. Its participants can also accumulate points (similar to airlines` loyalty cards).
«We can check occupancy of any hotel of The Leading Hotels on the real time basis for our Moscow customers, thus avoiding agents», Sofia stressed. «Our Moscow representative office also has a booking centre, which is rare. And we adhere to price parity, that is we are obliged to confirm the price published at open sources, like Booking.com».
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The most attentive listeners of The Leading Hotels presentation got presents, including a voucher for a two days` stay at the hotel in Amsterdam. Lottery prizes also included two tickets to the show of the Cheerful and Quick-Witted by Funticket.TV and prizes from the Savoy — certificates for every seventh free night at the hotel of the brand at the Seychelles including a discount card for accommodation.
Marina Osipova
Source: buyingbusinesstravel.com.ru