To overcome challenges, you need more than luck or talent: you need a plan. And in Meetings Made Easy (Entrepreneur Press, September 2004, $19.95, Trade Paper Original), author Frances A. Micale offers a five-step plan to take any business or group from frustration to solution.
The plan, a process model illustrating the actions necessary to achieve a goal, is called PROBE. Each letter of the PROBE process model represents a specific function. And by systematically following each letter, you will end up with a logical, well thought out solution to any problem.
Step One: Projection - Describe the situation and project what action will be taken.
Step Two: Root Cause Analysis - Find the real cause of the problem.
Step Three: Options - Discuss ideas for eliminating root causes.
Step Four: Best Options - Evaluate and choose the best option from step three.
Step Five: Execution - Develop a plan for implementing the best option.
This model works well to make meetings run more smoothly and effectively, by putting in place a systematic plan that all participants follow. Stages of the PROBE plan can be used individually. For example, if a company is addressing an opportunity and not a problem, it can skip step two. If a meeting is planned to identify the cause of a problem, the participants only need to follow the first two steps.
This and other methods for making meetings more productive and less frustrating abound in Meetings Made Easy: The Ultimate Fix-It Guide. Geared toward anyone seeking to make meetings more productive, the book offers tips on listening, asking questions, making charts, dealing with difficult participants, responding to conflict, and other common concerns.
Frances Micale, owner of Micale Training Corp., is a top consultant and trainer. A 20-year veteran of the human resources industry, she has been hired to facilitate group meetings and build consensus by companies such as BellSouth, Scripps Howard Cable TV Co., CableVision, The Weather Channel and many more. She lives in Roswell, Georgia.
Meetings Made Easy: The Ultimate Fix-It Guide
Frances Micale
Entrepreneur Press
ISBN: 1932531246; Paperback; $19.95
September 2004
Please accept the enclosed copy of Meetings Made Easy with our compliments. We are also including a recent article by the author titled “Playing Hard Ball: Sometimes the Facilitator Has to Break the Rules and Get Tough!”
For more information or to schedule an interview with the author, please contact:
Leanne Harvey
Director of Marketing
949-622-7131
e-mail protected from spam bots