How we like to talk….how I love to get to actions
Turn talk into actions - you know you want to!
Read more for a 10 step plan on how to do it!
I am becoming increasingly interested in how meetings are run. I attended a face-to-face team session with some colleagues that I haven’t seen for a year. There is no doubt that humans thrive on being with each other. But getting down to the business of the day was interesting. One of the attendees was nominally a facilitator but I was intrigued at how little work we had to do as attendees and how much the facilitator and the leaders in the group presented and talked. We did have some good debate and discussion but it was unstructured and there came the inevitable moment where the facilitator said - we are out of time for this agenda item, great discussion but what now? See my 10 point plan below for how to take a different approach and have 3 clear actions instead of another question.
In the room were a bunch of highly intelligent, committed individuals who were positive and keen to work with the leaders to explore various topics including ways of working following Covid. During that agenda item the facilitator talked to us for 5-10 minutes about their opinions, and asked a closed question about whether we thought we were one type of person or another (I can’t even remember the two categories!). One thing I have learned in my many years of working in business change is that the world is grey - not black of white. Perhaps it’s my Scottish work ethic at play but as time is such a precious commodity I want to leave meetings with actions not just interesting chat.
So what would have been a more productive approach for the agenda item to agree on future ways of working?
Up front, before the meeting, the facilitator needs to have agreed with the leaders what the desired outcome is for each agenda item. Sometimes information sharing (or showing off knowledge and expertise) is the objective, but in this case it was about making a decision.
When I say outcome it would be a statement like ‘a decision about future ways of working based on the input from the meeting attendees’
To achieve that outcome the facilitator needs to get the attendees to write down what they think, feel, want (depending on the topic)
Getting everyone involved is key - by using post its and getting everyone to write down at least 3 short points on post its means that every single person has a chane to share their views.
Once the post its have been stuck on the wall - get everyone to get up and read the post its. This already creates a new energy in the room.
The facilitator can then facilitate a discussion with some real input from everyone - not just randomly opening up a debate in the room. In the case of the meeting I attended - 2 people out of 14 attendees gave input.
Based on the outcome and the questions that the facilitator is trying to garner from the group - use a prioriting mechanism - eg voting with stickers - to decide which are the most important elements.
Once you have a short list of eg 6-10 elements, get individuals in 2s or 3s to write what actions they would take in what timescale.
Then ask each mini group to explains their ideas.
Vote again and choose the top 3 actions
Bingo! - in about 15-20 minutes you have an action plan based on what the group has prioritised based on input from every single person in the room.
The approach I’ve described is really easy and effective - I can run a short workshop to show you how and give you the confidence to do it yourself again and again.
