When a meeting is necessary, try these suggestions for making them enjoyable, engaging and productive:
- Set the stage. Is the purpose of the meeting clear? What is the subject and why does it matter? What will make this meeting meaningful for the group? What outputs do you want from the group? A lack of focus drains the lifeblood of any group, so will annoying debate. Send your attendees a brief of the topic, and questions well in advance of the meeting to give people time to incubate.
- Create hospitable space. Provide colour in the form of crayons, paper, and felt pens. Does your meeting have to be held inside? I recently led a discussion with a group of university managers, at a gazebo in their Japanese Garden. The experience inspired them to hold some of their own staff meetings at the gazebo.
- Ditch the Powerpoint. You’ve probably heard of death by powerpoint. Slides overloaded with charts, ugly clip art and bullet points make people go brain dead.
- Use metaphors to make your point. Metaphors are very short stories that paint a picture in the mind of the audience. Here are some examples from the media: “The development cost for a single drug is roughly $900 million. That’s more that it cost to build the Queen Mary 2.” Google on defending why it doesn’t report quarterly earnings said: “A management team distracted by a series of short-term targets is as pointless as a dieter stepping on a scale every half hour.” What metaphor best describes your situation?
- Ask compelling questions. David Cooperrider, (developer of Appreciative Inquiry, a methodology for organizational change) said “The seeds of change are planted in the very first questions we ask.”
- Tell a story.. Stories capture people’s interest, enhance organizational learning and make information more memorable.
The story could be your own or you can draw upon history, headlines, or myths. How do you craft a story? Lori L. Silverman, author of Wake Me Up When the Data Is Over (Amazon) has these suggestions: First, paint a context in order to capture people’s attention. Then introduce the cast of characters and describing pertinent elements such as the location, time of year, and what is going on in the situation. Next, outline the obstacle, the challenge, or the conflict and finally, bring the story to closure by describing how the situation was resolved. (or what needs to be resolved.) Drive your point by linking your story to the business issue you are addressing, and use the story as springboard for group discussion, creativity and problem-solving.
- Invite stories from your team. Ask each person at your meeting to draw a diagram or picture of what the challenge/situation looks like to them. What would they do about it? It’s best if they use stick figures for people to reduce fears about drawing. Let each person show their picture and tell their story. If you are working virtually you can post your images in digital form on a canvas such as Mural or Jamboard. In my experience, this is an effective way to engage people and keep the meeting focused. Images transcend the limitations of language, and help capture the wisdom of the group. In this way you make thinking visible, which promotes insights, understanding, creativity and engagement. Write down ideas that come from the stories on post-it notes.
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