Meeting Effectiveness: Driving increased value from Amey meetings across complex project teams and central functions

As part of a wider Performance Excellence program, Amey trusted Concentric Consulting to improve Meeting Effectiveness – saving teams hundreds of resource days every quarter.

Brief

Saving time and money by delivering efficient meetings

When Amey wanted to achieve and sustain Performance Excellence, Concentric examined current meeting processes and found several inefficiencies.

An opportunity was identified to deliver real value by reducing resource hours and costs, while also supporting management to prepare, engage participants, and successfully deliver during meetings. This would reduce wasted effort, ensure participants felt valued, and lead to more effective actions, owners, and close out.

Delivery

Innovating tailored Meeting Effectiveness programs – Building an understanding of key priorities

Concentric’s agile approach works closely with program delegates to design the appropriate Meeting Effectiveness programs. For Amey, Concentric sent a pre-work questionnaire which asked questions like:

• What are your top three meeting frustrations?
• What is your average weekly meeting timetable?
• Which processes and tools support your meetings?
• Rate the effectiveness of your meetings

Using these insights, Concentric designed a two-day program which focused on both the processes and behaviours needed to deliver real business improvements through more effective meetings.

Concentric’s innovative Meeting Effectiveness approach covered:

Day One

• Sharing the pre-work questionnaire findings
• Sharing / practice exercises with the meeting tool kit
• Defining individual commitments to deliver meeting improvements

Day Two

• Understanding meeting behaviours including using client specific working scenarios and real examples:
  • Personal triggers and obstructions
  • Developing inquiry and advocacy skills
  • Applying a structured approach
  • Managing negativity and resistance in others
  • Gaining confidence through practice
• Behaviours are practiced in live role play sessions using professional actors to facilitate difficult meeting situations and develop skills in a safe environment

Outcomes

Efficient meetings resulting in tangible resource savings and increased meeting success

When meetings are more effective people feel more engaged and empowered, what’s more, managers are better-equipped to drive the value of their meetings, make more decisions, maintain better client relationships, and are less fatigued by unnecessary meetings. With the scale of the burden that ineffective meetings place on an organisation, Concentric’s meeting effectiveness programs pay for themselves through:

• Cost reduction – less wasted time, less travel, and lower accommodation expenses
• Efficiency Gains – effective outcomes, effective people management, and increased productivity
• Human Factors – an empowered, confident workforce with increased morale – leading to better staff retention and a better work/life balance

For Amey, this resulted in each person making at least a 1 day saving per month in management time which was utilised on work delivery.