THE IMPORTANCE OF MANAGING MEETINGS 

It can be extremely frustrating when you’re in a meeting, and:

• Your teammate brings up a topic that is not on the agenda and takes up half of the meeting with the discussion that ensues.
• The agenda is full, yet a colleague spends 20 minutes speaking about something unrelated to the agenda topics.
• You leave having no idea what was supposed to be accomplished or what your next steps should be.
• Ten people are present, but two people are dominating the conversation so others’ voices are not heard
• As you are presenting information on an important topic people are on their phones or laptops.

In a recent survey (and through our own client experience) meetings are the most frustrating element of work life AND the hottest topic when leaders are asked, "what is most irritating about your current job?"

Effective meetings aren’t just about a solid agenda. They’re about fostering collaboration, clarity, and momentum. We often underestimate the importance of structure to our ability to create healthy team dynamics. By using strong meeting management techniques, we can enhance team dynamics, ensuring every voice is heard, decisions are made efficiently, and action items drive real progress.

Structured discussions, clear objectives, and intentional facilitation help us avoid wasted time, reduce misunderstandings, and create an environment where innovation thrives. Let’s commit to making our meetings more purposeful and impactful!

This month’s newsletter offers some advice and tools to help you stay on track and make the most of your meetings.

Sincerely,

Laurie Cure, CEO

THE KEY TO PRODUCTIVE MEETINGS

Effective meeting management is crucial for organizations because it directly impacts productivity, communication, and decision-making. To be successful, leaders must understand group decision-making processes, clearly define roles, and apply facilitation techniques to foster productive discussions. Additionally, effective meeting management requires leaders to leverage these skills to guide the agenda in the right direction, address distractions, document action items, and establish clear accountability. This module will lay the foundation for conducting effective meetings through a review of roles and responsibilities and preparation techniques.

To get you started in the right direction, here are some key strategies to include:

1. Define Clear Objectives: Before scheduling, determine if a meeting is necessary. If so, establish specific goals to guide the discussion.
2. Develop a Structured Agenda: Create an agenda outlining topics to be covered, allocating time for each. Distribute this agenda in advance to allow participants to prepare.
3. Select Appropriate Participants: Invite individuals whose presence is essential to achieve the meeting's objectives, ensuring that decision-makers and relevant stakeholders are included.
4. Manage Time Effectively: Start and end meetings on time. Adhere to the agenda's time allocations, and if a topic requires more discussion, schedule a separate meeting to address it without derailing the current session.
5. Encourage Active Participation: Foster an environment where all attendees feel comfortable sharing their thoughts. Encourage diverse perspectives and open dialogue to enrich discussions.
6. Assign Roles and Responsibilities: Clearly define and assign roles, such as facilitator, timekeeper, and note-taker, to ensure the meeting runs smoothly and action items are document.
7. Summarize and Follow Up: Conclude meetings by summarizing key decisions and action items. Distribute meeting notes promptly and follow up on assigned tasks to ensure accountability and progress.

Implementing these strategies will give you a good start at conducting meetings that are more focused, efficient, and productive, ultimately contributing to better decision-making and organizational success. We have more than 15 years of experience helping organizations streamline their processes and navigate the complexities of today's environment. If you’d like to learn more about how we can help you, contact us for a free consultation by clicking this link: Innovative Connections or calling us at 970-279-3330.

EFFECTIVE ORGANIZATIONAL REDESIGN AND CHANGE 

In 2025, organizations are grappling with the escalating pace of rapid and constant change. Now more than ever, it is crucial for leadership to understand their current strengths while continuously evaluating "what’s next" to stay competitive in an ever-evolving landscape.

Organizational redesigns and change efforts have become a common strategy to future-proof an organization's success. However, new research from Bain & Company reveals that although more than a third of large organizations are undergoing business transformations at any given time, only about 12% are achieving their initial goals.

Success, as a McKinsey survey indicates, depends more on how organizations approach the redesign than on the reasons behind it or the specific changes implemented.

Key factors behind the failure of 70% of change initiatives include resistance from employees and insufficient leadership role modeling. Yet, with a well-crafted approach, these challenges can be addressed, paving the way for a successful business transformation.

Ultimately, organizations are more likely to succeed when leaders align objectives, establish clear criteria for the redesign, engage employees early, focus on culture, and meticulously plan and communicate the changes effectively.

Here are a few key factors that contribute to successful organizational redesign and change management:

1. Align Leadership - Ensure leaders share a clear and consistent vision for the change effort. When leaders model the behaviors they want to see, they set the tone for the organization.
2. Establish a Clear Case for Change - Clearly communicate the reasons behind the change and its urgency. Make sure the link to the organization’s mission, values, and goals is clear as well as the employees’ role in it.
3. Engage Employees Early - Involve employees in discussions about the change to understand their concerns and insights. Encourage feedback and co-create solutions to foster ownership and commitment.
4. Develop a Comprehensive Plan - Define clear, achievable objectives with specific milestones and timelines. Ensure adequate funding, staffing, and tools are available to support the change.
5. Focus on Culture - Identify and shift outdated mindsets or behaviors that could hinder progress. Align the change effort with the organization's cultural strengths to build momentum.
6. Monitor Progress and Adapt - Use data to evaluate the success of the change effort against key performance indicators. Adjust plans as needed based on feedback and evolving circumstances.
7. Celebrate Successes - Recognize and reward teams and individuals for their contributions to the change effort. Highlight success stories to inspire continued commitment and build momentum.

Through our decades of experience, we’ve learned that an expert, impartial perspective can be invaluable in uncovering the right path for successful organizational redesign and change initiatives. If you are struggling to find your way forward, we’ll help you identify your organization’s critical needs and design structures that effectively address them. Partnering closely with your leadership team and employees, we create and implement tailored solutions that deliver sustainable, long-term success. If you’d like to learn more, contact us for a free consultation by clicking this link: Innovative Connections or calling us at 970-279-3330.

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

• 92% of employees think having access to professional development is very important or important.
• Employees with professional development opportunities have 34% higher retention.
• Employees with professional development opportunities are 15% more engaged at work.
• 80% of people who receive coaching report increased self-confidence.
• Over 70% benefit from improved work performance, relationships, and more effective communication skills.
• 86% of companies report that they recouped their investment in coaching and more.

Source: The Impact of Professional Development

If your organization is like most, the people within are constantly striving to do better, to be better, and to innovate better. So, how are you investing in your greatest asset – your people – to ensure they have the skills and support they need to help you reach those goals?

A two-prong approach may well be your best option. Organizations should strongly consider investing in:

• Professional Development
• Professional Coaching

Here’s why:

One of the top three reasons people leave an employer is a direct result of a bad manager. This is troubling because not only is it difficult to hire in this competitive job market, but it is also a time-consuming and costly process for organizations. According to information from The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM, Jan. 2023) on average, it costs a company 6 to 9 months of an employee’s salary to replace him or her. So if you have an employee that makes $60,000 annually, it costs an estimated $30,000 – $45,000 in recruiting and retraining costs to replace them.

What’s more, according to the HBR article, Quiet Quitting Is About Bad Bosses, Not Bad Employees, ineffective frontline managers have three to four times as many team members who are “quiet quitting” compared to their effective counterparts. This is a big deal because quiet quitters, on average, cost companies 34% of salary costs in lost productivity. So, add this to the costs associated with those physically quitting and your organization is quickly in serious financial trouble.

This problem becomes more complex when you add the fact that about 80% of individuals report to a frontline leader, and up to 40 % of those leaders are in the first year of a leadership role.

On the flip side, the report says that companies with effective frontline managers have 30% more engaged employees and 15% fewer quiet quitters.

It quickly becomes apparent that investing in professional development to train and retain our greatest asset is indeed a good investment. So, let’s take a look at some of the issues and how they can be adeptly addressed.

Why are so many frontline leaders ineffective?

It is a widely known fact that between 50 – 70% of new leaders fail within 18 months of hire. The reasons vary of course, but some common denominators include:

• Lack of communication and listening skills that allow them to build trust with their teams and their stakeholders.
• Failure to learn or assimilate to the organizational culture (assumption that what worked elsewhere will work here too).
• Overcommitting and making mistakes before understanding the full scope of work, environment, culture, and process.

While this doesn’t encompass all of the possibilities for leadership failure, it does give a jumping-off point for making a difference. It seems that doing better and being better is within reach simply by providing professional development opportunities and coaching to build the skills and effectiveness of frontline managers.

This is where the two-pronged approach comes in.

First, choosing the right professional development program can help leaders:

• Expand their self-awareness and emotional intelligence skills.
• Build trusting partnerships to enhance team effectiveness and accelerate collaborative relationships.
• Deepen communication and listening skills to build trust with teams and stakeholders.

Our Conscious Leader program is crafted to facilitate learning integration and team collaboration over time (typically six to 12 months), because we know from experience that transformational learning takes time.

Using research-based models and experiential learning, we guide you through a variety of teachings and activities that will help you deepen your self-awareness and discover your unique leadership styles to support your organization’s mission, values, and goals. You will experience growth in leadership competencies and interpersonal effectiveness.

Second, organization-sponsored coaching can help leaders proactively build team and workforce culture, support employee performance and engagement, and increase retention. In fact, according to a global survey conducted by The International Coaching Federation:

• 80% of people who receive coaching report increased self-confidence.
• Over 70% benefit from improved work performance, relationships, and more effective communication skills.
• 86% of companies report that they recouped their investment in coaching and more.

Organization-sponsored coaching is a partnership between the employer, the leader, and an experienced, neutral Innovative Connections coach. After a discussion between all three to determine goals, meeting frequency, and timeline for the coaching, the coach and the individual begin developing their relationship through a deeper discussion of the goals and challenges, as well as delving into the development or refinement of skills and work approaches that can enable individuals to be more effective in their roles and have a clearer understanding of their career trajectory.

Together, or separately, these tools give organizations the tools to empower their leaders, and leaders the tools to successfully build their careers, and engage, motivate, and transform their teams.

If any of this sounds like a path you want to walk with your organization, let’s talk. Contact us for a no-obligation, free consultation by clicking this link: Innovative Connections or calling us at 970-279-3330.

TOOLS FOR EFFECTIVE DECISION MAKING

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MEET OUR NEWEST TEAM MEMBERS

Stacey Brandon - With more than three decades of experience in education, Stacey is committed to cultivating authentic partnerships with leaders and organizations striving for racially equitable futures. She believes in the humanity of all people, recognizing that our lived experiences profoundly shape our beliefs, behaviors, and the ways we navigate the world. Grounded in design-based problem solving, racial consciousness, and healing practices, Stacey collaborates closely with clients to drive meaningful change. Learn more about Stacey.

Rich Been - Rich’s twenty-five years of traveling the world and working with thousands of leaders have given him profound insights into what it means to be a true leader. Throughout his career, Rich has designed leadership development programs for some of the world’s largest and most innovative organizations. He specializes in creating transformative development journeys that integrate individual assessments,
real-world experiences, and coaching to drive sustainable growth. Learn more about Rich.

Our organizational effectiveness consultants have helped clients from diverse industries work through tough challenges and walk the path to greater personal and organizational success. We'd love to help you too! CLICK HERE for an obligation-free consultation, or call: 970-279-3330.

OUR COMMITMENT TO EACH OTHER AND OUR CLIENTS

We believe every voice holds value and everyone should be empowered to bring their full and authentic self to work. We celebrate diversity and feel a deep responsibility to move organizations from good intentions to meaningful action around equity and inclusion. We approach this work with intentional awareness, curiosity, and respect. As consultants and coaches, we recognize our ability to influence individual behavior and organizational culture, and we aim to always create safe and inclusive environments that encourage our clients to learn, grow, connect, and innovate.

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