High-Stakes Meetings Toolkit

Ace your impact in high-stakes meetings

Stop feeling underwhelmed and start excelling using the world’s most powerful toolkit for meetings that really matter. Designed by David Lancefield, founder of Strategy Shift.

Increase your influence: tackle problems skilfully that stakeholders care about
Improve your reward: do your best work on high-value issues
Enhance your career prospects: signal your potential when it matters

Feel more confident and capable in every board, exco, investor, or stakeholder meeting. Check out everything you get in the list of guides, templates, spotlights, scripts, checklists, flowcharts, and tips below.

Extent: 150 pages.

£75.00

Excludes 20% UK VAT (added where applicable).
Price is for one user. Email us for multiples.

Most high-impact meetings are a waste of time

They promise a lot. They should matter. They’re there to make the most critical strategic, commercial, operational, and people decisions. But most are underwhelming because:

The wrong people are invited
It’s unclear what the meeting is there to achieve
The agenda doesn’t help you prepare
Introductory remarks are underwhelming and confusing
Presentations are long-winded and unstructured
People are uninterested or distracted•Conflict spirals out of control — or goes left unsaid
Important topics are ignored in favour of the trivial
A few people dominate, crowding out others
There’s style over substance as people perform
The meeting finishes without closure and decisions
Nothing new happens afterwards

It doesn’t have to be this way — if you use the High-Stakes Meetings Toolkit.

Relative to their potential, most people underperform in high-impact meetings

COMPLACENCY

leads to mediocrity just when you need to play your A-game

POOR PRIORITISATION

leaves you underprepared

INSECURITY

leads to indecisiveness

OVERCONFIDENCE

clouds your judgement

APATHY

diminishes the impression you leave on others

Your confidence takes a hit. You leave people wondering whether you’re up to the job. Your team wonder if you’re representing them as well as you should.

Your career growth stalls.

You start fearing, if not avoiding, high-stakes meetings. It doesn’t have to be this way. Imagine designing and participate in high-stakes meetings that are pivotal. It just takes dedicated effort to learn new mindsets and practices. That’s where the High-Stakes Meetings Toolkit comes in.

Effective high-stake meetings are critical for high-performing organisations

Achieve outcomes that make a positive contribution to the strategy
Stimulate discussions that are substantive, robust, and inclusive, enhancing the quality of thinking
Enhance team building through mutual interest and respect
Leave people feeling they are doing their best work
Lead to important decisions
Serve as a catalyst to actions that people are committed to taking
Signal to stakeholders the quality and capability of the team

High-performing individuals do their best work in high-stakes meetings

You perform at your best, time after time, in front of your peers, bosses, sponsors, and stakeholders by:

Designing a meeting with creativity, precision, and empathy
Anticipating the interests, questions, and challenges of others
Influencing stakeholders strategically beforehand
Making a strong first impression
Focusing on the most material issues
Presenting with conviction and personality
Asking succinct, incisive questions
Facilitating inclusive, engaging discussions
Being a great team player
Handling questions and challenges calmly
Making wise decisions

YOUR TOOLKIT CONTENTS

David Lancefield, Strategy Shift founder, has consolidated 30 years’ experience as a chair, participant, advisor, and observer, in more than 25 countries — and added the leading research from academia. The toolkit includes:

50 punchy guides showing you what it takes master the mindsets and practices.

20 powerful templates to complete and use right away.

17 illuminating spotlights to elevate your skills to the frontiers of research and practice.

13 compelling scripts to help you say what you should, rather than forgetting, waffling, or getting it wrong.

10 rigorous checklists to help you remember to do what matters most.

Six impactful flowcharts to guide you through important decisions.

Four lists of incisive questions that help you surface the best thinking.

Three collections of valuable tips to enable you to focus on high value activities.

Check out the list of absolutely everything in the toolkit.

A QUICK LOOK INSIDE

A few of the 150 pages, from across seven sections, that you’ll get in your High-Stakes Meetings Toolkit.

Check out the list of absolutely everything in the toolkit.

About your toolkit creator

The High-Stakes Meetings Toolkit was created by David Lancefield, founder of Strategy Shift. He has worked with 50 CEOs and hundreds of C-suite executives over the last 25 years.

He’s led, facilitated, participated in, and presented high-stakes meetings in 30 countries — including board, exco, investor, regulator, and ministerial meetings.

He is a contributor to HBR, MIT Sloan Review, and Strategy+Business, and has been quoted in the Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal. David’s HBR article ‘Stop Wasting People’s Time with Bad Meetings’ is one of their most popular and widely-read.