Page 190 - Becoming a Successful Manager

Mastering Productive Meetings Is as Easy as PIE 181

Conclusion and Follow-Up

Before you end, ask for a consensus on whether the specifi ed objec-
tives have been achieved. If they have not, identify what remains
and when it can be completed. Think this one through. In some
cases, you’ll fi nd that it makes sense to remand the unfi nished
business for discussions outside the particular group gathered. Be
careful not to place unnecessary demands on others’ time. A word
of caution on the other side, though: be careful not to cut meet-
ings short. If you do, people may leave with signifi cantly different
views of what happened and what the next steps are. Invest the
time to ensure you achieved what was intended or more with the
meeting before ending it. At the end of the meeting make sure you
can answer these questions:

• Were your objectives achieved? How can you measure
that?
• What are the action steps?
•Who owns them?
• When are they due?

These questions can be very benefi cial in clearing up any impor-
tant questions that might inhibit productive outcomes from your
meeting.
Use the following Discovery Lessons to test some of the ideas
in this chapter. To gain maximum benefit, put what you learn into

practice so that these behaviors become a natural part of your
management style.
In addition to identifying the missing pieces to the “PIE,”
techniques and skills of giving presentations are essential in pro-
fessional development. Most managers concentrate on control,
and they ignore how that control is packaged and delivered. How-