Soon after you’ve reached an agreement for Michelle to consult and facilitate at a particular engagement, her office will set up a phone interview to set the wheels in motion for preparing for the best meeting you’ve ever had. That is our goal every time. The interview normally takes between an hour and two hours. Here’s what’s covered.

A discussion of the key decisions, dates, and administrative details. We’ll discuss what is needed for your meeting including custom materials, prior retreat or offsite meeting agendas, copies of existing working relationship guidelines, organization chart, names and phone numbers of the team, newsletters, real-life examples or illustrations, pictures and anything else necessary to the program.

You’ll review the payment details laid out in the contract. No matter how good the original agreement is, it’s worth discussing this so we head off any misunderstandings about what’s going to be paid, and when and how.

You’ll discuss handout materials. We’ll also discuss an array of support materials and any key dates that relate to them.

Once the administrative things are covered, you and Michelle will move on to meeting/program issues. She’ll want to know if your meeting will have a theme, who the other presenters and topics are, if any, what the overall schedule is, and what your specific objectives are for her facilitation.

Next comes a discussion of the industry background necessary to begin preparation for your program. Michelle will ask you for any relevant documents about your organization and your industry. She will also ask you for a list of three to four high profile members of your organization with whom she will conduct a pre-program phone interview. During these phone interviews Michelle will focus on their experience, concerns, questions and objectives for your upcoming meeting.

Finally, you’ll spend some time discussing other key issues. Two questions Michelle almost always asks at this point are: What does it take to succeed in this organization and what is changing in the organizational business climate right now?

At the close of the interview you and Michelle will draw up an action list of what is going to happen and when and then proceed to Step 2.

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Step 2: Background development

Your role at this step is fairly simple. You send Michelle the material you’ve agreed to send and put her on the mailing list for any meeting announcement materials. If you and she have agreed that you will do other things, you’ll do those as well. For example, sending out a survey to meeting attendees or workshop participants that will turn into part of Michelle’s preparation, or copies of trade and industry publications as they come out.

This particular phase of preparation lasts from the initial interview up until about 30 days before the actual program date. During that time Michelle is going to review her own information files as well as literature thatıs available on your chosen subject. She’ll set up a clipping file and research discipline to intentionally gather information that will make the program better suited to your group.

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Step 3: Detailed development

This stage of preparation begins 30 days before the actual program date in most cases. During this stage Michelle will be making calls to meeting attendees, experts and others to flesh out the background she’s gathered in her first development phase and to finely hone the specific points that she intends to make.

This is also the phase of preparation where travel and other arrangements are made and finalized.

After we have completed the three step pre-program development process we are ready for the Delivery stage. All programs are completed with an Executive Debriefing Report conducted in the Follow-Up stage.

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The Delivery:

The week before the meeting someone from our offices will give you a call to insure all logistical details are taken care of and make an action plan to tie up any loose ends before the meeting. The day of the meeting Michelle will need to gain entry to the meeting site no less than one and one half-hours before the first meeting attendees are scheduled to arrive. At this time she will be checking the set-up and making any custom materials additions before she facilitates the meeting.

If we are conducting ongoing meetings over two or more days, it is important that the meeting room be reserved for our exclusive use the entire day and evening, even if we are scheduled to begin at 1:00 PM. This is to make sure that another group does not rush us and that we have adequate time for set-up. Sometimes we use the meeting room during the evening and sometimes our sessions may be scheduled to end at noon and the group may decide to extend the time frame. It is our goal to be as flexible as possible to the needs of the group.

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The Follow-up:

After the meeting takes place, we will prepare an Executive Debriefing Report summarizing the attendees comments on the meeting. The report will be compiled from the Meeting Feedback Sheets and include an agreed upon list of Action Steps if necessary.

That’s how it’s done. It’s the kind of research and sharpening that Michelle has found over the years produces that best program to meet your needs. If you have any questions about that, just give us a call.

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