Every meeting and conversation is a balancing act

Watching someone handle a meeting and conversation well, is just like the skill of a highwire walker. Balancing, woah over balance, back to centre, wait, steady, step forward, balance, wait...

The almost easy part is moving along the wire to achieve your outcomes. You can run across if you like. But you might lose people along the way. Or, everyone can be having a great time and participating, you'll achieve some outcomes but they won't be on topic or relevant.

So the balance is between achieving the meeting or session outcomes; involving and engaging the people who are there (in the room or dialling in remotely); and keeping things on topic. It's a balance and you need to let some slight overbalancing happen here and there, but get back to centre, steady and then keep stepping forward.

In a meeting, workshop, conversation today, notice how the balance is going. Is anyone really participating? Are you getting anywhere? Are you on topic? How are all three coming together to the applause of the crowd?