Leading Meetings and Teams: Manga for Success

By Masumi Tani

LEARN TO FACILITATE PRODUCTIVE MEETINGS AND BUILD HIGH-PERFORMING TEAMS WITH MANGA FOR SUCCESS!

Shigeo, an employee of a building material manufacturing company, is sent to a regional office to improve sales. Along the way, he encounters challenges engaging with the local team but, with advice from a helpful facilitation specialist, Mayumi, he eventually learns to build the skills of his colleagues and cobble together a high-performing team. You’ll also learn about:

• How to run an effective business meeting
• How to productively use a variety of meeting tools
• Facilitating fruitful brainstorming sessions
• Using effective communication to lead your team to success

Leading Meetings and Teams is a practical and hands-on book that will earn a place on the bookshelves of managers, executives, and early-career professionals everywhere. Find out why the Manga For Success series—now available in English for the first time—is so popular in Japan, Korea, and beyond.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Wiley
• Release date: Apr 25, 2023
• ISBN: 9781394176205

Book preview

Copyright © 2023 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.

Published simultaneously in Canada.

Copyright © 2017 Masumi Tani, Enmo Takenawa. All Rights Reserved.

Original Japanese edition published by JMA Management Center Inc.

English translation rights arranged with JMA Management Center Inc. through The English Agency (Japan) Ltd.

This translation © 2023 John Wiley & Sons, Inc., published under license from JMA Management Center Inc.

English translation Copyright © 2022 JMA Management Center Inc.

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Library of Congress Cataloging‐in‐Publication Data is Available:

ISBN 9781394176199 (Paperback)

ISBN 9781394176205 (ePub)

ISBN 9781394176212 (ePDF)

Cover Design: JMA Management Center Inc.

Cover Images: JMA Management Center Inc.

© ShEd Artworks/Shutterstock

Hello, I'm Masumi Tani.

My first book, Facilitation Skills for Leaders!, was published in 2014. I was overjoyed to receive many positive reactions saying how easy it was to understand, but along those comments, there were some that caught my attention.

The contents of the book finally sunk in after I took part in a workshop.

Even though I've been trying to put it into practice, it hasn't been going well in the field…

Each time I heard such words, I thought how nice it would be if I could paint a better, easier‐to‐understand picture of facilitation being put into practice. It wasn't long before I was approached about writing this book, Leading Meetings and Teams and I still can't forget the feeling of excitement | I had.

This book, depicting the growth of the protagonist through trial and error, together with the transformative effect this has on his workplace, seeks to convey the reality of facilitation in a tangible, easily digestible fashion. It is the result of the hard work of many people, including JMA Management Center's Okada‐san,* the wonderful illustrations of Enmo‐san, and countless others.

A leader who has the ability to draw out and consolidate things from others, or a facileader for short, will naturally attract people and form a nice work environment and team. However, there are many obstacles on the road to obtaining these skills. Many give up thinking, I tried, but it didn't go well or Yeah, it's not something I can do. A big reason as to why it may not be going well is because they do not have a successful concept of facilitation.

You probably lack any senior staff that can act as role models for facilitation in action and have never experienced the sort of ideal meeting where opinions are actively thrown out and discussed. It can be hard to find the motivation to continue grappling with the concepts of facilitation when you can't see the end result.

Also, another large source of problems is that there is a big difference between a seminar or workshop and the actual workplace.

It's natural for there to be a difference in enthusiasm between workers who have gathered with the explicit interest of learning about facilitation and regular members of the workplace. When trying to form a facilitative work environment for you and your co‐workers, implementing facilitation techniques in meetings is only half the battle. It is necessary to understand each team member and apply facilitation to each of them individually, even in daily life.

There's an infinite variety of workplaces; no two are exactly alike. Things may go well or they may not. It can't always turn out exactly as we'd like it to. I expect that the facilitation skill will be a strong asset for leaders who want to turn such situations into positive ones.

Facilitation exists wherever people gather. The level‐up process began the moment you flipped open this book. A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Come and take your first step as a facileader, along with the protagonist.

Masumi Tani

Note

* The honorific suffix san is standard in the Japanese business world.

Prologue Facilitation is …?