Lousy meetings are the rule – vibrant meetings the exception.
In an ideal world, meeting-agendas arrive the day before the meeting. But you don’t live in an ideal world.
Spontaneous agendas result in meetings that suck the life out of teams.
3 reasons meetings matter:
Organizational life improves when meetings improve.
#1. Meetings are culture building activities. Let me attend five meetings in your organization and I’ll tell you what it’s like to work in your organization.
#2. Positive energy takes you further than negative.
#3. Meetings are expensive.
Meeting cost formula: Salaries in the room + Lost Opportunities + Lost Productivity + Friction of low energy = The real cost of lousy meetings. (S+LO+LP=FoLE = RCoLM)
An agenda you can use:
Meeting goals:
- Connect.
- Choose an opportunity.
- Choose a challenge/problem.
- Improve.
Item one: Strengthen connection.
Ask three or four people to complete the following sentence for one person at the table.
Example – “Mary, when I see you at your best, I see you ….”
Rules:
- Be specific.
- Look at Mary when you speak. (Essential)
- Use Mary’s name.
Item two: Identify and choose one opportunity to pursue, assuming you understand mission and vision.
Discuss potential opportunities in small groups of two or three. (5 min.)
- Debrief and list opportunities on the whiteboard.
- Everyone votes for the opportunities they would most like to pursue. Everyone has three votes that must be used on three separate items.
- Assign a small team to explore the opportunity and come to the next meeting with recommendations.
Item three: Identify and choose one problem/challenge to address. (Same process as item #2.)
Item four: What agenda items might you suggest for our next meeting? (Don’t commit to any agenda items. Simply ask for suggestions.)
Item five: Improve.
- What worked in this meeting?
- What could we do better in our next meeting?
Item six: Schedule next meeting. Adjourn.
What items would you add to this agenda?
How might you modify the above agenda items?
Download: Meeting Agenda