How to get the good stuff done

It truly is time to stop meeting like this. There have been some valiant attempts to get us to reinvent how, when, why and if we need to meet over recent years ... but it’s not changing quickly enough.

I think if you’re leading change, you just need to ‘step in’. Put your hand up, step up and say ‘yep, I’ll facilitate this one.’

Then say: ‘We’re making this a ‘doing’... not a meeting!’

Yep, meetings should be called ‘doings’. So you get stuff done. Otherwise, our meetings will continue to be dysfunctional. Too much time. Too little output. Too much talk. Too little listening. Too few actions. Too little impact. Too big a cost. 

I worked with a team recently to facilitate their team planning and strategy days and they were amazed at what they achieved in the time available. A day here. A day there. Yes that's what good facilitation will do for a group and the clear objective they had!

But it is also about HOW the meeting was set up, what the agenda looked like, how they worked together, what they did throughout the sessions and how there was a strong bias for action.

I'm all for setting aside some time for talk but that's what I do - set aside some time. Timebox it. You say 'this is how much time we have to talk about this topic.' Then go! Talk about it. I capture the key points raised, the key arguments and the main ideas and agreements. But we are always thinking about forward movement and progress. Doing.

So... timebox it 

Use the time boxing technique to get good stuff done.

I worked with some cool technology developers recently ho were working on a project for a major retail chain. Prior to the important client work, the team got together, to get their sh*t together. Smart team!

They had their strategy and planning day. And they were used to working together so what they did was use a clock with short timeframes to keep them moving, keep them progressing and keep them active. One of them was a keen runner, so they used a running clock on their iPad to segment out time for tasks throughout the day. Short intervals of just a couple of minutes.

It was brilliant to see. This team, pushed to decision making, action and prioritizing in two minutes. What!? I wondered if they could do it.... and yes, they did it. Time and time again throughout the day. Plenty of time to talk and discuss, but then it was down to action to decide and prioritise and they did it super-quick.

Get on with the doing, less of the meeting and you'll make a great start to your project and piece of work. Go. Do.

The Accelerated Meeting Framework

'Everybody in the house put your hands up'... who would prefer that meetings went on l-o-n-g-e-r  than they already do?

And keep your hands up if you'd like those meetings to achieve even less than they do now?

Urgh - so many meetings are just a time, energy, mood and productivity waste that we can't even be bothered putting our hands up!

But what to do? How to keep it short, sharp, focused and driving towards outcomes?

Try my Accelerated Meeting Framework:

1. Start with the background - no interruptions, just set the scene of why we're here, what we're gonna do and the facts and data that inform where we're at now. 

2. Then open it up - stand back and let the talking and opinions fly. Let people have their say, put forward their viewpoint and get it off their chest. Be sure to make visual and visible note of the key things people are contributing. Keep it to the topic, share the contribution and 'air time' around. Beware, this is where things can go around in circles - summarise what the main views are. 

3. Generate ideas and opportunities, possibilities and potential. List them and visually capture them so people can see. Narrow down the ones that are quick wins, easy to implement, partially done (see my blog on Stop Starting, Start Finishing) or will bring a great return on investment. 

4. List the actions that are to be followed up and implemented. Put names and dates next to those. Make it visual and visible, so people can see what you've worked through and where you've got to. 

Done. 

The success of meetings, workshops and strategy sessions is judged on what is done, what is achieved and what progress is made.

You're responsible for leading a team to great progress. 

Use visuals with your meeting and you'll reduce meeting time by 25%.

Use my Accelerated Meeting Framework and you'll get through more, quicker. 

Clean up your (meeting) room!

Last week I ran a skills workshop in an organisation's meeting room. 

I could tell it was a meeting room because there was a sign on the door that said "Meeting Room". 

But if I'd been guided in there with my eyes closed and then opened my eyes, this room could have easliy doubled for the "Storage Room".

This meeting room was a dumping ground for old broken chairs, additional surplus chairs, trolleys, boxes of supplies, more chairs, some broken tables, filing cabinets, storage cupboards and other 'junk'. 

The environment this created was .... cluttering. 

I spent time before the session, clearing some breathing space, sectioning off an area and making sure the 'working space' was separate from the 'storage space'. There wasn't alot I could do about the 'rubbish space'. 

The feedback was that it was the best meeting room they'd seen and worked in. 

When space is at a premium, it's understandable that any sort of space begins to get taken over. 

But the cost on your communication, collaboration, productivity and performance suffers, particularly when you can't get things done swiftly or cleanly because the environment is polluted. 

Clean up your (meeting) room. And if you need half of it for a storeroom, then section it off so that the roles and purposes of those spaces are clear. 

How often do you hear interior designers on lifestyle shows talk about 'zones' for living. Retailers do it too. They're looking for ways to create an environment that will give you a positive reaction... not a reminder from your mum that you need to clean up your room!

So here's a reminder from me.... clean up your meeting room. It's costing you so much more than a bit of cluttered floor space. 

It's time to clean up our language

Listening to people talking is something we do every day; listening in workshops, in planning sessions, in meetings, conversations and learning environments.

I don't know about you, but I hear lots of 'dirty' language! Ok, not swearing, but rather let's call it 'unclean language'. 

This is language where people interrupt, make assumptions, give directions, tell people what to do and dish out prescriptions. Yes... how much do you enjoy being told what to do? Often we may not intend to be so ... dirty... with our language, so it's something to be aware of. 

We really do need to clean up our language!

Clean language has the capacity to break down silos, build trusting environments, boost our capabilities to think, evolve our ideas and deepen engagement. It's an approach identified and developed by New Zealander David Grove. More leaders, coaches, managers and drivers of change might like the idea of achieving those things.

You can read more about the technicalities of clean language here and here but a session presented at a conference I was at recently reminded me of the power of this clean listening and communication tool.

In short, here's how you keep it clean:

• listen using the person's words
• use 'and...' to kick off your sentence or question
• ask 3 key clean questions (where x is a word they've mentioned/used)
  • And what kind of x is that x?
  • And is there anything else about x?
  • And that's x like what ?
• stick to these three questions
• slow down.

You can get the essence of the session from my visual notes.

So... how 'clean' are you? How clean are the others on your team? 

Boost engagement, build trust and break down silos in these challenging times by cleaning things up.

Diversity Input : Innovative Output

Eleven men, three women - all aged 50+ - and from the same industry. That's about all I can tell from their photos and titles.

This is the composition of a leadership team being charged with leading and creating a dynamic and vibrant community project.

What are they thinking?

Where is the diversity that will give them the innovation that the project and region needs?

Where is youth? Where is the diversity of talent, skills, thinking and backgrounds? Where is the lateral thought, from related or totally different fields? Where is the willingness to learn? Where is the leadership?

In an inspiring contrast, yesterday I spent a thrilling day at the Future of Leadership event in Melbourne. 

Several presenters spoke about leading without a title, without a position and simply doing what needs to be done. 

Most of all, our current world, climate and communities need different ways of thinking and working to solve the challenges we face. 

A key lesson is that you must get diversity plugged into the 'input' part of your project, program or event to ensure you get innovative responses in 'output'. And leaders can make this decision, source the diversity and encourage it. 

There are long paths to travel for many communities and organisations, where diversity hasn't been considered or thought of or it's simply been forgotten. Sometimes people get allocated to leadership teams from the positions they hold, rather than the experiences and diversity they will bring.

We need to encourage teams, communities and groups so they think, invite and act with diversity, are not afraid of it and see it as an opportunity to go further and do better than they have before. 

That is what will bring a dynamic and vibrant result to that community or project!