Managing better meetings

(Former name: Meeting skills; Running and chairing meetings)

Course summary

Meetings which go over their allotted time? Poor attendance coupled with endemic lateness? Agendas which don’t hang together and have to be changed as you go along? Participants who feel frustrated and negative? Unclear outcomes or none at all - do your meetings sometimes feel like this? If so, this is the course for you.

Course outline

The course considers the criteria for a successful meeting and offers the chance to define and practise the skills needed for chairing different types of meetings and build participants’ confidence in their abilities.

 Over one day the course covers:

  • what makes a well-run meeting
  • different kinds of meeting
  • setting objectives
  • what’s on the agenda
  • planning and preparation
  • the chair’s role during and after the meeting
  • the participants and their roles
  • how groups work
  • dealing with difficult people and conflict
  • working with the minute taker
  • the follow up
  • a year of free support


“Brilliant. I gained confidence and tips for dealing with difficult people”
≈ JF, South Cambridgeshire District Council

Who is this course for?

The course is suitable for anyone who has to run a meeting. It will be especially helpful to those new to this skill or those who feel that their meetings are not as successful as they would like. The Centre works with people from all sectors including the public sector, voluntary sector, corporate sector and private sector.

What will this course help me do: learning outcomes?

This course is designed to improve your effectiveness in all kinds of meetings. You will be able to make your point, negotiate with others and arrive at win - win situations. As chair, you will feel more confident in controlling meetings to ensure that everyone is able to participate effectively

Other courses to consider

The Centre offers a wide range of courses to help managers and administrators run their organisations. These include PROJECT MANAGEMENT; SUPERVISION SKILLS; MOVING INTO MANAGEMENT and MINUTES.

Course dates

This course is run on request. This means that we will keep your details on file and once we have at least three people interested in the course we will contact you to let you know and to schedule a date. Please contact us to log your interest in this course.

Alternatively we can also run this as an in-company course. Find out more about in-company training.


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