Going to a Meeting Series

The two-part Going to a Meeting series is based on a group of middle managers in a large hospital. It is designed to give anyone who attends meetings the skills they need to contribute more effectively and deal with even the most awkward colleagues.

Part 1: Messing up a Meeting
Messing up a meeting, focuses on Jeremy preparing to go to a regular meeting with his colleagues. Unfortunately ‘preparing’ doesn’t describe what we see him doing. ‘Grabbing a few papers and showing up late’ would be more accurate. The narrator, John Cleese, tries to warn him that this isn’t good enough, but he’s in too much of a hurry to listen. The meeting, inevitably, is a disaster for him. On his return, Cleese explains what he ought to have done and he gets another chance. The results of doing his homework properly produce an entirely different outcome.

Jeremy’s problems are not over though. First, he irritates the chair by talking when he has nothing to say and refusing to stick to the agenda. Then he gets into a blazing row with a colleague by disagreeing with him in entirely the wrong way. In both cases, Cleese shows him what he has done wrong and how to change his behaviour for the better by keeping it simple, cool and courteous.

Messing up a Meeting shows how to avoid common mistakes, how to prepare, how to get points across and win arguments. And how to not look like a fool in front of the boss!

The key messages:

• Do your homework – research the facts, present your case professionally and prepare for objections
• Keep it short – stick to the point, stick to the agenda and if you’ve got nothing to say, keep quiet
• Keep it cool and courteous – use questions, not contradiction, show you’ve been listening, respect other’s arguments, admit your weak points and others’ strong ones

Part 2: Meeting Menaces
Meeting menaces contains five short sequences, introduced by John Cleese. These show how to cope with colleagues whose behaviour stops meetings from getting results. Jeremy fails to handle the destructive behaviour of each of the menaces and the meeting they are all attending becomes a farce.

The waffler is guilty of going on and on, wasting time and contributing nothing to the meeting. The turf warrior is only interested in defending the interests and reputation of her department. The assassin has no ideas of his own, so prefers to shoot down others, whilst the dominator would rather steamroller over other opinions. Finally, the interrupter jumps in when others are speaking just because he thinks what he has to say is more important than anyone else.

However, following guidance from Cleese, Jeremy learns the techniques for handling each menace correctly and gets the meeting back on track.

Available in French.