Are your meetings effective?
When you start off a new series of meetings, such as at the beginning of a project, it provides an ideal opportunity to lay a new foundation of how you, as a team, would like meetings to be held. This exercise can be particularly useful in a team that meets regularly, or to set the right tone for new collaborations.
- Think about the last meeting you attended and determine on a scale of 1–10 (with 10 representing the most effective meeting you’ve ever been in and zero being the opposite), where would you rate that meeting?
- List 10 things that contributed to the meeting being this number and not lower
- List 5 tiny little signs you will be noticing at the next meeting if it was to score just one point higher on the scale.
- Share your lists in the group and use it as a foundation for better practice in your own meetings
Practice makes meeting perfect
As with any exercise, practice makes perfect. By reminding yourself (and each other) about which principles you wish to adhere to during meetings because you have found them to be effective before and pre-agreeing how you want to bring the discussion back to focus, you can remain on track. Share in the comments: what (little) habit have you found helpful in keeping meetings meaningful?
If you missed the part 1 of the solution-focused take on meetings, find it here.
Author:
Amaechi Nduka-Agwu
Sources:
Iveson, C. George, E. & Ratner, H. (2012): Brief Coaching: A Solution Focused Approach
