One of the worst things you can do is to ask someone for a meeting and then not ask for their input or assistance during the meeting. One of the most important results that should come from a meeting should be to enlist support, both in helping to design the program and to implement the program.
A case in point: A pastor was trying to develop a program for young people incarcerated in the California Youth Authority. He asked the superintendent for a meeting, and presented his idea: a mentoring program that would develop these youth into peer tutors for an after school tutoring program. He described the program: told who the program was for, what it would do, how it would benefit the youth it served, who would run it, and why it was needed.
He asked the superintendent for his support and got it. He had brought with him a letter of understanding detailing the program with a place for the superintendent's signature.
He got his signed agreement, after all what did the facility have to lose? The program wasn’t costing them anything, they didn’t have to do anything to facilitate it, so they didn’t.
So what should he have done?
First, he should have taken the proposed program details: the who, what, when, where, why, and how and left it with the superintendent to remind him of what was being proposed.
Second, he should have asked the superintendent for his actual participation and support for the program. If the superintendent didn’t have the time to participate, he should have asked the superintendent for the name of someone who might be willing to participate in developing the program within the facility.
Once he received buy-in from the superintendent, he should have (with permission) met with others within the facility to get their buy-in and their ideas on how to make the program effective within the constraints of the Youth Authority. This is best accomplished by creating a working group that incorporates ideas from the facility staff, potential users, and potential program staff.
Finally, he should have gotten buy-in from the youth he was trying to reach to make sure that they were going to be responsive to the proposed program.
