Effective Conduct of Meetings and Board Paper Writing
Introduction:
Focused on sharpening meeting management and formal writing skills, this course enables professionals to organize impactful meetings and produce clear, strategic board documents.
Duration: 5 Days
Who Should Attend: Executive Assistants, Company Secretaries, Board Support Staff, Senior Managers
Course Modules
- Purpose and Types of Meetings
- Governance vs. operational meetings
- Formal vs. informal meeting dynamics
- Alignment with corporate decision-making
- Preparing for Effective Meetings
- Setting objectives and crafting the agenda
- Distributing pre-read materials
- Preparing the chairperson and participants
- Roles and Responsibilities During Meetings
- Chair, secretary, and participants’ roles
- Managing roles in virtual/hybrid settings
- Creating psychological safety for discussion
- Facilitating Productive Discussions
- Managing airtime and encouraging participation
- Conflict resolution techniques
- Staying on topic and handling disruptions
- Taking and Writing Effective Minutes
- Templates and styles for minute writing
- Capturing actions, decisions, and dissent
- Ensuring accuracy and neutrality
- Understanding Board Paper Expectations
- Purpose and types of board papers
- Audience analysis: executives and non-executives
- Alignment with strategic priorities
- Writing Clear and Impactful Board Papers
- Executive summary writing
- Structured writing (problem, options, recommendation)
- Avoiding jargon and information overload
- Presenting Data and Financials
- Visuals: tables, charts, and dashboards
- Ensuring integrity and transparency in numbers
- Simplifying complex financial data
- Review, Sign-Off, and Submission Protocols
- Internal validation and compliance checks
- Approval workflows and timelines
- Confidentiality and version control
- Practical Session and Simulation
- Drafting and peer-review of sample board paper
- Chairing and minute-taking in a mock board meeting
- Feedback, lessons learned, and improvement areas