Successfully Speaking: Planning important for successful business year

Jane Sanders is an international speaker and trainer with expertise in gender communication, presentation skills, meeting facilitation and small business success.

As 2002 speeds to its unstoppable end, thoughts of 2003 business objectives and plans should be whirling in management's mind. In many cases, whirling thoughts and soft groans simultaneously.

Groans be gone! Using the tips outlined below, managers can facilitate a productive and effective planning meeting, walking out with specific goals and action plans for next year.

These tips can also be employed to guide successful facilitation of problem-solving, brainstorming, and team-building meetings and retreats.

Identify clear objectives. What specifically do you want to leave the meeting with? An action plan for achieving 2003 goals? An employee recognition program? More productive work processes? New product ideas? Solutions to a specific problem? Be very specific and clear.

Plan the agenda. Determine activities to accomplish your objectives and the time required for each. Include time for opening comments, breaks, lunch, etc. Don't schedule too tightly, as meeting segments and activities usually take longer than estimated.

Establish and post ground rules. Effective ground rules communicate a professional tone, and include timeliness (start and end at the announced times, including breaks, regardless of late arrivals), participation (encourage participants to contribute and ask questions), respect for others, open-mindedness, taking notes, no cell phones or pagers, etc.

Use effective facilitation skills. Choose a credible, objective facilitator. This is easier said than done, as any manager within the organization will have a personal agenda, however subtle.

Set a motivational, dynamic, fun, results-oriented tone for the meeting. Be friendly and sensitive but focused, firm, nonjudgmental, committed to results, knowledgeable about group dynamics and aware of time parameters.

Control off-subject discussion and side-talking. Watch body language and gently encourage reluctant members to participate.

Create a name. Ask the group to take five minutes and brainstorm a name to help establish a bond, commonality and commitment.

This tip is small, but mighty. Have separate small groups are created created for activities name their teams, also.

Use warm-up and creativity exercises. These activities help the group focus on matters at hand, work together more effectively, think outside the box and have fun. Appropriate exercises are described in training books/guides available from most large bookstores.

An example of a five-minute warm-up activity is "Introductions With A Twist." Within small groups, participants take turns sharing their name, department and other assigned facts about themselves such as hometown, first job as a teen-ager, pet peeve or favorite sports team.

Employ the small-group approach. Retreats for more than five or six participants should split into small groups of four to six to maximize everyone's involvement and help ensure a variety of solutions.

Manage the small groups. For every activity (i.e. goal identification, brainstorming, action plan development, problem-solving), determine a leader for each group, assign the specific goal and parameters, and monitor the time.

For example, parameters for an action plan include specific action steps, by whom, by what date, resources needed and milestones to measure progress. Each group records and reports their findings, and then the entire group determines the best course of action, usually a combination of small group suggestions.

Schedule and assign next steps. Ask for a volunteer to writeup and distribute all findings to the entire group.

It is vital to schedule regular follow-up meetings to maintain momentum and ensure plans are being implemented appropriately.

Close with a wrap-up activity. End the meeting or retreat with a "warm-fuzzy" exercise to further bond the group, reinforce findings and disband on a positive note. One such activity, "Share A Thought," involves participants writing a response per facilitator instructions on a separate sheet of paper. For example, "The best thing about working here is" or, "An important thing I learned today is " Everyone wads their papers up and throws them across the room, then picks one up. Volunteers share the thoughts written on the paper they picked up.

Next year will be here before we know it! Preparation of this nature is critical to continued success and growth.

Don't fall into the comfortable, yet high-risk lull of just taking what comes. Plan now for the next year and follow these steps to help ensure the future vitality of your business.