Meetings: Good or Bad?

Transcript

1. Meetings:
   Good or Bad?
   Lunch and Learn for September 24th, 2019
   by Shane Holloway
   

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2. &Meeting
   Working
   Are both built on four-letter words.
   * and are both too abstract to be meaningful.
   

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3. The Bad
   Meetings
   Doom Loop
   From the first chapter of Elise Keith’s
   Where the Action Is:
   The Meetings That Make
   or Break Your Organization
   1. I believe meetings waste time
   2. I avoid wasting time preparing
   3. I host ineffective meeting(s)
   4. Others see that preparation for
   meetings is not expected.
   5. Others become disengaged
   and frustrated.
   6. Others catch the belief that
   meetings waste time.
   goto 1;
   

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4. Meetings
   Tools
   are simply
   that leverage skillful application
   

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5. The Virtuous
   Meeting Cycle
   Break out of that doom loop!
   Choose your initial belief.
   1. I believe meetings bring us
   together to do great work.
   2. I invest in designing, planning,
   and preparing my meetings.
   3. Host better meetings over time.
   4. Others see preparation and
   engagement is expected.
   5. Others arrive ready to pursue
   the meeting goals.
   6. Others catch the belief that
   meetings can be effective.
   goto 1;
   Adapted from chapter 1 of Elise Keith’s Where the Action Is: The Meetings That Make or Break Your Organization
   

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6. O(n2⋅t)
   Kinda somewhat similar to Metcalfe’s Law.
   1. Ensure only the right people are attending.
   2. Stick with a small number of topics.
   Where:
   t : # of topics
   n : # of participants
   

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7. Meetings are an
   experiential & frequent
   expression of
   our culture.
   

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8. Both meetings and culture
   can be influenced by
   thoughtful design.
   * And that investment of effort can
   have high leverage and high reuse.
   & iteration!
   

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9. Meetings are
   Sociology in Action
   according to Helen Schwartzman, Ph. D.,
   Psychological Anthropologist
   Effective meetings have a
   specific and definite
   purpose.
   (so write it in your plan!)
   Design the
   human-centric
   outcomes.
   Design the
   work-centric
   outcomes.
   

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10. Meetings:
    Good or Bad?
    You decide.
    Every meeting.
    Individual Writing Activity
    List your recently attended
    meetings. Beside each, note:
    1. Number of attendees
    2. Purpose, as you perceive it
    3. Human outcome(s)
    4. Work outcome(s)
    [5 min; t+22]
    

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12. Meetings as a Skill
    ...and Skills can be learned!
    

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13. We meet to forge
    shared perspective
    & develop
    understanding
    of our collaborative work
    

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14. Effective Meetings need
    an Introduction
    a Summary
    &
    In the first 5 minutes,
    get everyone present,
    establish context
    & purpose
    In the last 5-10 minutes,
    summarize achievements, decisions,
    unresolved items, and next steps.
    Review action items and owners.
    

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15. Meeting Planning Skills
    Design and State
    ● Specific and Definite Purpose
    ● Desired Human Outcomes
    ● Desired Work Outcomes
    ● Plan the Flow:
    topic to topic, goal to goal
    * and expect to adapt the plan in real-time!
    Structure to Achieve
    ● An Agenda is a good start;
    some kinds of meetings don’t need one
    ● Start with one of 12 types of
    meeting.
    ● Tile the 7 building blocks of
    meeting goals together.
    I love reusing knowledge!
    (I also love Legos...)
    

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16. 12 Types of Meetings
    ● Cadence Meetings
    ○ Team Cadence
    ○ Progress Check
    ○ One-on-One
    ○ Action Review
    ○ Governance Cadence
    ● Catalyst Meetings
    ○ Idea Generation
    ○ Planning
    ○ Workshops
    ○ Problem Solving
    ○ Decision Making
    ● Learn & Influence Meetings
    ○ Sensemaking
    ○ Introductions
    ○ Issue Resolution
    ○ Community of Practice
    ○ Training
    ○ Broadcasts
    From section 3 of Elise Keith’s Where the Action Is: The
    Meetings That Make or Break Your Organization
    Also see Lucid Meeting’s page on the 12 meeting types
    

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17. 7 Meeting Goal Building Blocks
    1. Share Information
    2. Advance the Thinking
    3. Provide Input
    4. Make Decisions
    5. Improve Communication
    6. Build Capacity
    7. Build Community
    pp 167 Sam Kaner’s Facilitator's Guide to Participatory Decision-Making
    

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18. Meeting Performance Skills
    ● Respect time invested. Start & stop on time.
    ● Introduction and summary are important.
    ● Interactively take visible notes.
    ● Engage your participants.
    ● Publish notes with decisions & action items.
    ● Level up: Seek feedback and ideas for improving
    

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19. Take Visible Notes
    It changes how we interact and think as humans.
    It also helps check for understanding.
    

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20. Design your meetings
    to fully leverage
    those powerful human brains!
    

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21. Perceived Meeting Quality (PMQ)
    Preparation
    ● Clarity of purpose and desired
    human & work outcomes.
    ● Solicit input and provide material
    in advance.
    ● Agenda many hours ahead of
    the meeting (or it doesn’t work!)
    Performance
    ● Set & deliver on expectations.
    ● (Inter)active participation from
    everyone.
    ● Respect time invested.
    

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22. Net Positive Impact (NPI)
    Did the meeting deliver
    meaningful outcomes
    to enable people to
    move the work forward?
    Did the meeting
    bring people together,
    forge shared perspective,
    and provide the
    impetus to deliver results?
    

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23. Effective Meetings
    ≝ PMQ + NPI
    Did it deliver on purpose & outcomes?
    Did the meeting let you feel
    productive & in the flow?
    

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24. 5 Focus Areas
    1. Meeting Design
    2. Meeting Skills
    3. Stakeholder Satisfaction
    4. Facilities, Technology, and
    Resources
    5. Cultural Ownership
    Meeting Performance Maturity Model
    5 Maturity Levels
    Level 1: Individual
    Level 2: Professional
    Level 3: Effective
    Level 4: Systematized
    Level 5: World Class
    Let’s aim for Level 3!
    From chapter 11 of Elise Keith’s Where the Action Is: The Meetings That Make or Break Your Organization
    and her company Lucid Meetings
    

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25. Meetings
    as a Skill
    Tricks of the Trade:
    Single Topic Agenda
    The Real-Time Agenda
    Individual Writing Activity
    Expound your list of recently
    attended meetings.
    1. Are the right people
    participating?
    2. How often do you meet?
    3. How well does the cadence
    match the work?
    4. Your PMQ and NPI ratings?
    5. Your guess on the PMQ and
    NPI ratings of others?
    [5 min; t+35]
    

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27. Effective Meetings
    as a Gateway
    building on a foundation of better meetings
    

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28. Asynchronous
    Collaboration
    When other processes fail, call in a meeting
    of the General Purpose Humans to save
    the day!
    Full of open “How do we address” questions:
    ● designing our processes to be enjoyably asynchronous?
    ● feedback latency and outcome duration challenges?
    ● differences in communication density, fidelity, and checks for understanding?
    ● retaining the reserved time blocks and borrowable cognitive focus from
    meeting participants that scheduled meetings provide?
    ● balance iterative, concise, and approachable processes with in-depth
    back-and-forth feedback?
    

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29. Gradients of Agreement
    1. Full endorsement
    2. Agree with minor contention
    3. Support with reservations
    4. Abstain
    5. More discussion needed
    6. Don’t like but will support
    7. Serious disagreement
    8. Veto
    Quality
    (Participatory)
    Decision
    Making
    Confuse silence
    for assent or agreement
    to your (project’s) peril.
    Decision Rules
    ● None
    ● Random
    ● Delegation
    ● Person-in-Charge Decides
    ● Majority Vote
    ● Unanimous agreement
    See chapters 4, 22, 23 and the rest of Sam Kaner’s Facilitator's Guide to Participatory Decision-Making
    & meta-decision making
    

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30. Active Collaboration
    & Co-creation
    as (an essential part of)
    the Work Designed collections of meetings
    & systems-of-meetings:
    ● Agile
    ● Gamestorming
    ● Design Thinking
    ● Service Design
    ● Facilitation
    Start with Gamestorming: A Playbook for
    Innovators, Rulebreakers, and Changemakers
    by Dave Gray
    

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32. Recap
    1. Meetings are good (or bad) as we run them.
    2. Skill-up and invest in hosting better meetings;
    improve our experienced culture at the same time!
    3. Effective meetings are a solid foundation
    to collaboratively build fantastic things.
    

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33. Effective
    Meetings as a
    Tool & a Skil
    Are you bought-in to change
    ours together?
    Individual Writing Activity
    Select one meeting from your list to
    improve. What will you take and
    apply from this Lunch & Learn to
    make that meeting more effective?
    Improve, rinse, and repeat until
    satisfied.
    [5 min; t+49]
    

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34. Primary Resources:
    ● Where the Action Is: The Meetings That
    Make or Break Your Organization by J.
    Elise Keith, (c) 2018
    ● Facilitator's Guide to Participatory
    Decision-Making by Sam Kaner, Third
    Edition, (c) 2014
    Starting with Collaboration as the Work:
    ● Gamestorming: A Playbook for Innovators,
    Rulebreakers, and Changemakers by
    Dave Gray
    Secondary Resources:
    ● Surprising Science of Meetings by Steven
    G. Rogelberg
    ● Meeting Design by Kevin M. Hoffman
    ● Death by Meeting by Patrick M. Lencioni
    Collaboration as the Work:
    ● This Is Service Design Doing: Applying
    Service Design Thinking in the Real World
    by Marc Stickdorn et al
    ● The Design Thinking Playbook: Mindful
    Digital Transformation of Teams, Products,
    Services, Businesses and Ecosystems by
    Michael Lewrick et al
    End of Message: Q&A time
    

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