Meetings are considered large time wasters. The more participants, the more difficult it is to obtain a perceptible benefit for the individuals. The attendees escape into the study of documents, the editing of emails or get busy with other things than the actual topic. In order to regain their attention, make room for the collaboration.

For this purpose, the meetings that require practical cooperation can be prepared as workshops. A fruitful session includes the following aspects.

• Topics
  The subject of the meeting should be clearly described. This includes a meaningful title of the meeting, the description of the purpose and the goals as well as sufficient information, so that the involved ones know what is at issue.
• Participants
  The selection of the participants should follow the topic and the contribution of the individuals. The clear tasks, authority and responsibility ensure that the attendees can deliver a decisive contribution to the purpose of the meeting.
• Process
  The procedure shows in advance, which steps, how long and with what results are intended. With an appropriate planning, the activities and an adequate timeframe are determined, in order to ensure that useful results will be obtained.
• Prerequisites
  The list of conditions should prevent surprises. If individual conditions are not fulfilled, it is reasonable to delay the workshop, until the ability to work is prepared. That way the number of meetings without results is minimized.
• Workshop organization
  The preparation of the rooms, the materials and the catering as well as the logistics, the overnight accommodations and the supporting program is an important condition for a frictionless meeting. Depending upon the size of the meeting, it is recommended to form a team that takes care of the event. A checklist ensures that nothing is forgotten.

The effort for the preparation increases exponentially with the duration of the meeting. This ensures that the attention remains high throughout the entire period. Short workshops require relatively little effort for the preparation.

P.S.: In the interest of a better use of time, meetings that do not need the personal appearance should be replaced by other communication channels. Indispensable encounters should be transformed into turbo-workshops that deliver concrete results in one hour.

Further leadership tasks are the self-management, the conception, the coordination and the communication.