June 2000 Newsletter ; ManagePro Management and Team Effectiveness Software Tool

ManagePro Newsletter June 2000

For people who want to do more.

Tips & Topics - Staff Meetings
Free Training!

1. TIPS & TOPICS - STAFF MEETINGS

One source (I don't know how they confirmed this) estimated that there are 73 million meetings a day. It seems that meetings predate even pyramids, and the data suggests that the practice of meeting management hasn't changed much in the past 5,000 years.

In this newsletter I am going to show you how to change it for the rest of your life. Here goes, but first lets define the common problems... or better defined as opportunities for improvement. If you made up the list of common problems what would you enter? Here's our list:

1. Meetings drag and consume large quantities of valuable time while yielding relatively low value in return. More specifically in reviewing issues and options, focus can get off track, and/or focus is impacted by individuals who have various needs for "mike time," and verbal dialogue is inherently a slow way to communicate information... slower for some than others.

2. No agenda and/or lack of preparation by participants contribute to inefficient use of time.

3. Action items that get discussed, loose something in the translation to paper, and are additionally impacted by a limited system for tracking follow through.

Guess what? You can solve this very elegantly by using ManagePro to structure your meetings. Here's how.

Step 1 - Give your meeting a name or initial, staff Meeting or SM, (no pun intended) and enter it as a person in the People Planner.

Step 2 - Highlight the meeting (from now on referred to as SM) and click on the Goals button. You will see a blank screen. Enter the word "Agenda" in the top line, and choose to keep it as an "Individual Goal" when prompted by the program.

Step 3 - Now go to the Top Level Goal Planner. Review the goals and sub-goals and decide what you want to cover in the meeting and add "SM" in that goal or sub-goal's who column.

Step 4 - Return to the People Planner, highlight SM and click on the Goals button. You will now see the goals and sub-goals you have chosen listed under the Agenda Heading. You have just created your agenda for the meeting. If you want to add new business that is not part of your Top Level Goal Planner, add a new entry at the last blank line and title it New Business. Choose Individual Goal when prompted by the program and then enter your new Business agenda in the fields below. Choose with each entry, whether or not you want it to display at the Top Level Goal Planner.

Step 5 - During the meeting use a projector to display ManagePro. Highlight each SM goal and bring up the last progress note. Prepared participants should have already entered a current last progress note for the group to now read, review and discuss and add any further comments. Action Items are entered as To-dos as you review each goal. Use the Notes button to store Brainstorming material or data you want to keep in a grab bag of sorts.

Step 6 - When you have completed the meeting, Highlight the Individual Goal Planner fields and select Print Selected Items from the File pull down menu. Go to options and be sure you click the fields to include To-dos, Notes and Last Progress Note. Preview and print. You have just produced a hard copy of your meeting minutes... in less than 30 seconds.

Step 7 - For the next meeting:

* Many people review the same goals each meeting, so you may not want to change your selected goals.

* Some people create a new heading such as Old Business in SM's Individual Goal Planner and drag the goals reviewed down under that heading. Be careful not to change parent to children goal relationships or you will impact the Top Level Goal Planner.

* Schedule your next meeting as an event, and place SM and all the people who will be attending in the Who column.

* Finally create a screen view in the Top Level Goal Planner that is titled and filtered to only show goals with SM in the who column. That way everyone has a means of checking what's on the agenda.

2. WHAT'S FREE?

We have just started delivering training video's over the web and are very excited about the potential. We taken basic skills in using ManagePro and broken them down into 4 to 6 minute videos that users can purchase and download off of our website and replay as often as they need.

But for you, today, we are waiving the cost of a video ($5) and setting it up so that you can get one for free. Here's how.

Click on this link performancesolutionstech.com/TrainingVideoForm.htm. It will send you to a page we have prepared specifically for this purpose. It will ask you 3 questions than give you a link to first download the Lotus Cam Screenviewer (you will need it to be able to see the video), and then a second link to click and download the training video.

God bless and have a great month.

Performance Solutions Technology, LLC
"Helping People be Successful at Work"

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