Category: Meeting

#Teams365 #3135: Flashback Friday – 5 tips and 5 questions to make your meetings more effective

8/5/2022

Keeping aligned with our focus on meetings, here’s a number of quick tips to focus on, originally shared in Teams365 #960.

Five quick tips, and questions to consider, for making meetings more effective include:

1. Be clear on the purpose of the meeting. Is a meeting the best way to handle this?

2. Be clear on who needs to be at the table. Does everyone need to be there for the full meeting? Who might be needed in order to provide information? Decisions? Authority? Make sure you know who will need to be there or else it may mean another meeting. Having everyone there all the time may actually slow the meeting down. At this point, you will want to start considering who needs to be there, when.

3. What is the outcome you desire? What are the 3-5 tangible takeaways you want from the meeting? This question will help to reinforce what the purpose is, and who really should be at the table.

4. What decisions have been made? What outcomes are expected, and what are the timelines. Who is responsible for doing this? Tracking it? Reporting on it? What will follow up look like? Being granular in this stage is a key to success. Many times it is glossed over. Be sure to leave sufficient time to summarize key decisions made, and implications of this.

5. Keep to time - Time management is an art form with effective meetings. Being too lax with time can lead to frustration and disengagement. If timing tends to fall off , assign someone a time keeper role, and put your stronger facilitator in the chair seat to keep the meeting moving. Tangents don't always benefit meetings.

Check out the recent Teams365 blog posts here for more on meetings, as well as Chapter 18 of my 2021 book, Reconnecting Workspaces: Pathways to Thrive in the Virtual, Remote and Hybrid World.

Enjoy!
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized |Reconnecting Workspaces | Group Coaching Essentials

Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Retreats
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Phone: (416)996-8326

Check out my TEDx talk - Virtual, Remote and Hybrid Checklist

Looking to bring your workplaces back together, whether you are remote, hybrid, or face-to-face? Pick up a copy of my book, Reconnecting Workspaces, at Amazon

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#Teams365 #3133: Making Your Meetings Work – Part 2

8/3/2022

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Yesterday we started looking at the top 5 tips for Reconnecting Workspaces around making your meetings work. Today we’re picking up with the next six:

6. Be strong on process. Again, from Effective Virtual Conversations, “In the virtual realm, it is really important to have a strong focus on process. This includes:
• Letting people know what they can expect from the process.
• Is there an agenda you will be following? (A meeting template is included at the end of this chapter.)
• How will you be working with time?
• What level of engagement do you expect?
• Will you be going around the room?

7. Set a clear focus for the meeting. Have strict timeframes in mind. This includes sending out agenda items and agreeing on and sticking to time frames. It is likely that different group members will be in different time zones, so going overtime in virtual meetings is usually not respectful. Have a game plan on what absolutely needs to be covered and what can wait.

8. Create ways of working and shared agreements. Just as in team meetings, have agreements about how you will operate, especially around focus, etc.

9. Consider multiple feedback loops. Ask for feedback as you go. Take a “temperature check” or have people identify what they have learned so far.

10. Consider the best platform. Is a conference call the best way to go, or should you consider a more robust platform like Zoom, where you can see each other and have people move into breakouts? The type of meeting you are hosting will influence the platform. Consider the various options. Make sure it is easy so people don’t spend their entire day getting into the call. (Refer to the August 2017 Community Call on Platforms for more on this topic.)

11. Make things visual. From having a place to take notes (if you are on a conference call) to using a virtual whiteboard, to having a photo to anchor the conversation, making things more visual boosts engagement and avoids the Death by Conference Call mindset where people automatically disengage. What visual anchors can you create in your meetings?

Let us know which of these tips resonates most with you?

Enjoy the conversation,
Jennifer

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#Teams365 #3132 – Keys for Making Your Meetings Work – Part 1

8/2/2022

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Today we’re dipping into another excerpt from Reconnecting Workspaces, today covering part 1 of the Keys for a Successful Meeting

Are you making your meetings as successful as they could be? In Effective Virtual Conversations, I share these eight things that can help you create the foundation for a successful meeting:

1. Do you have all the right people at the table? It’s hard to bring someone in mid-call, so think about if you have everyone on the line or around the virtual table. Is there anyone else who could provide information, and/or the authority and responsibility to get things done?

2. What can be done pre-meeting vs. post-meeting? In the virtual space most things take more time, and we want to set people up for success. What can people do before they come to the call? How clear is communication around pre-work and what participants need to bring to the call?

What needs to be done post-meeting? Consider these questions: What commitments around next steps and agreements have we made? Who will follow up? When?

3. Keep the pace moving and engaging to avoid multitasking and Death by Conference Call. As I wrote in Effective Virtual Conversations, “We have all been there! There’s nothing worse than hearing someone having a conversation in the background. Where possible, use streaming to avoid the Death by Conference Call mentality and multitasking. Create agreements around focus and/or presence during the calls.” Check out the later part of this chapter on Moving the Needle on Engagement.

4. Watch for and expect technology glitches. Know your platform and practice it so you know how to keep going if technology issues happen.

5. Get out of the rut with roles. Having a job to do on a call can boost engagement. Provide opportunities for equal participation by rotating roles. Roles include that of note-taker (or scribe) and timekeeper. If you are on a web-based platform, set a timer. Assign times to each action or agenda item. Have a scribe/note-taker capture the minutes and circulate them.

Tomorrow we’ll come back with Tips 6 – 11 of Making Your Meetings Work, and excerpt from my book, Reconnecting Workspaces: Pathways to Thrive in the Virtual, Remote and Hybrid World (pages 340 – 342).

Let us know in comments which tips you are going to put into practice.

Enjoy,
Jennifer

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#Teams365 #3131: A reminder of the 8 Essential Meeting Questions

8/1/2022

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This week’s focus is going to continue to be on boosting your meetings in the virtual and hybrid space. One of the biggest complaints for the hybrid work environment is that people are in the office for meetings and to collaborate, but are spending as much time, or even more time on zoom meetings.

Regardless of space – virtual or in-person – here are 8 questions to be asking before every meeting:

Eight Essential Meeting Questions (EXCERPT: Reconnecting Workspaces © Jennifer Britton, 2021)

A quick way to get virtual meetings under control is to prepare for the session. Before you step into any virtual meeting you will want to ask yourself eight questions. Here are The Eight Essential Meeting Questions I posed in Effective Virtual Conversations

1. What’s the purpose?
2. What takeaways do we want?
3. Who needs to be on the call?
4. What preparation is needed for us to be most effective?
5. What pace do we want to keep it engaging?
6. What will help keep the focus?
7. What is absolutely essential to cover?
8. What follow-up might be required?
How can these questions support you with your meetings? How can they support you in making the conversations that much better?

Enjoy the conversation,
Jennifer

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Teams365 Blog

#Teams365 #3135: Flashback Friday – 5 tips and 5 questions to make your meetings more effective

#Teams365 #3133: Making Your Meetings Work – Part 2

#Teams365 #3132 – Keys for Making Your Meetings Work – Part 1

#Teams365 #3131: A reminder of the 8 Essential Meeting Questions

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