Start your own Mindful Meetings Now!
Download 2 Mindful Meetings Scripts to get your Meetings off to a great start.
"Mindful meetings raise morale, improve collaboration and cut time wasting!"
We know that most meetings are unnecessary at worst and go on too long at least. The average Manager spends 2 days a week in meetings. That’s less time building relationships and more time lowering morale and motivation.
So how can we make the average meeting more effective and something that creates results rather than weariness?
It seems a tall order, but Mindfulness has much to offer. A few changes in how your people think about your work culture, and you’re likely to see productivity rise, grievances and disgruntlement fall and a general improvement in attitude.
So how’s it to be done?
I’ve been working in a busy Prison Environment for 13 years+ now. I’ve witnessed the fall-out from Managers who fail to notice and lift their Teams. I’ve seen the weariness of colleagues required to sit in on ineffective meetings. And I’ve watched the chain of repercussions from ill-informed “we want it now” decisions that have piled work-heavy tasks on already overloaded colleagues.
Knee jerk reaction are often poorly planned and ineffectively executed. Over-burdened staff are ripe for gripes. I see it all too often. And gripes lead to grievances. And stress has multiple roads to burnout.
Sound familiar? Now factor in those egos fighting to get heard, pushing through tasks to meet deadlines, poor communication, and personal states of tension generated by rushing from pillar to post with little anticipation of actual contribution.
We’re all busy, trying to fit square pegs into round holes that weren’t designed for many of the elements Mindfulness brings.
And that’s respect, empathy, emotional intelligence, clear purpose, focus and attention.
Some years back I started to introduce Meditation to my HMP establishment. It went well. Calming anxious minds has to be beneficial, and so it proved. The 6 meditations I recorded in 2018 started to reach 25,000 prisoners a day, and it’s so much more now.
As Covid took its grip, I was asked to write an in-cell pack on Mindfulness. That’s simple exercises prisoners could build into their daily routines to help them handle their surroundings. Unsurprisingly, it has met with great enthusiasm and shared with Education Departments in many other prisons.
Bringing Mindfulness to any activity changes it for the better. It helps us slow down and take a pause and move from our constant ‘Doing’ to a place of ‘Being’.
When we bring our attention to the present, we can give it our full attention.We get more of what we focus on.
When we have a concept for the meeting culture we want to create, we can Be better. In Being our best selves around our colleagues and for our Teams, we can bring so much more and achieve so much more – personally and professionally.
If Mindfulness can work in Prison, it can help you run more effective and empowering meetings.
You'll find how it could work for you and your Organisation below.
Mindful Meetings
Developing a Mindful Meeting Mindset is the course objective, based on empathy, allowing and non-judgement. It invites everyone to come to meetings with an open heart and a clean slate of attitude.
Module 1 Preparing for your meeting covers collaboration and co-operation and how to bring focus and attention to the meeting at hand. It looks into the purpose of a meeting to communicate, the thorny subject of Ego, listening, and perspective.
Emotional Intelligence is discussed as the new IQ for the workplace and there’s an exercise on creating Group Rules as part of your organisation’s culture of collaboration.
Each module has Now You worksheets which give each participant a chance to look into their responses to the topics. There’s an exercise on creating Group Rules as part of your organisation’s culture of collaboration.
All responses should form part of wider discussions on Mindful Meetings and lead towards common agreements on how they would work in your organisation
Module 2 Visualising your Meeting recognises the stress colleagues face with work pressure and challenging relationships. Visualising offers a Mindful approach to meeting preparation. Mindful Five suggest personal 5-minute re-group and breathe sessions to focus attention Pre-Meeting. A script is included.
There’s a discussion on the Law of Attraction and Energies, and a Visualising exercise to raise the energy flow and balance between meeting participants. Know me, Like Me, Trust Me is an important part of meeting success and this kind of preparation on an energetic level can do much to ensure a good balance between individual and collective positive energies.
Module 3 Arrive breathing brings in the concept of Mindful Noticing. A collective Arrive moment is suggested to help everyone shift from the activity of arriving, to let go of Doing for a Mindful Moment and to move into Being.
Being Present joins everyone in harmonious energies. It prepares staff for the meeting ahead and bring intention and attention to the fore. This helps everyone get the most from the shared exchanges ahead.
2 Scripts are included and Now You worksheets prompt ideas on introducing this element and Noticing the benefits of changing attitudes.
The Mind the Gap technique is discussed and staff are encouraged to Notice the moment of choice when potential direction and fall out from conversations can be altered. It asks us to be aware of our automatic reactions and to speak when we have something to bring, based on respect and the highest motivation,
Working for the Good of All Concerned brings many opportunities to strengthen relationships within your Teams.
Module 4 After your meeting
A meeting review is recommended for all parties involved. Now you worksheets give everyone a chance to contribute to a collective consensus which should form the basis of change. What’s working and what isn’t? It’s important to invite All staff to respond without fear.
Listening and responding with EQ is the key to Mindful Meetings. When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.
Your purchase gives you a logon for one individual using the email address provided. Once you access the information you can decide how you share it in your organisation.
- You may like to download the resources and hand them out in a workshop style session with break out sessions for discussion and worksheet completion.
- Alternatively, you may distribute the materials to your Teams and ask them to supervise individual study.
- Or you may choose to have one, or a number of large group delivery sessions direct from the included PPT.
- Perhaps you want to include a timescale for course completion, or to drip feed the material on a regular basis – perhaps through email, for colleagues to study at home.
There are a number of possibilities. Choose whatever works best for you.
The Training section of your course includes a Powerpoint Presentation and a pdf Completion Certificate for you to print for participants. This training evidence can be added to personal Continuous Professional Development folders.
"This is professional and clear and would suit class based training perfectly."
Jon Neal
Head of Learning and Development, PeoplePlus
"With Geraldineā€™s expert guidance and skills, we now have a new range of education which is directly impacting peopleā€™s lifeā€™s in a hugely positive manner. Courses like mindfulness are facilitating learners to cope with their current predicament and gives them strategies to help reduce stress and anxiety. Feedback received is invariably positive and shows that Geraldineā€™s courses can help everyone, no matter what situation you find yourself in. Thank you, you have made a difference! "
Pete Donovan
Education Manager, People Plus, HMP Norwich
FAQS
How is this part of CPD?
All staff are required to undergo continuous professional development . Being Mindful makes us better colleagues, enables us to see things in balance and handle interactions with considerations. Mindfulness helps up be more productive open minded. By shifting our personal perspective it can improve working relationships.
How is this good for my Organisation?
When you bring Mindful Meetings into play you reduce meeting time, raise the bar in communication, and work towards better decisions agreed by all parties.
Ultimately, in reducing workloads and improving relationships, you reduce stress and you retain your workforce.
Mindful Meetings
Ā£379
Your course covers:
Module 1
Preparing for your meeting
Purpose of a meeting
What is Good communication?
Emotional Intelligence
Agreeing group rules
Module 2
Visualising your meeting
Mindful Five pre-meeting focus
Law of Attraction and energies
Gift giving visualisation
Module 3
Conducting your meeting
Arrive breathing
Your meeting guidelines
Mind the Gap
Module 4
After your meeting
Meeting Review and reflection
Silent blessings
Module 5
Training Resources
In-house Training Powerpoint
Certificate of Completion
All supported with Step by Step Now You workbooks.
The bottom line of business
The purpose of business is to get, and keep customers. Working Mindfully together, in better harmony, in and around your meetings times, will raise moral and create a culture of co-operation and collaboration. But itā€™s your bottom line that defines how you operate. Ultimately, by introducing Mindful Meetings, you will improve relationships, reduce stress and retain your workforce. When they know how much you care, theyā€™ll care how much you know.
