Want to have better meetings? Structure them like a performance.

I recently attended a meeting that went something like this:

Everyone came in, many of them rushing, a few looking at cell phones. They sat at the conference table, laptops popped open. The person who’d called the meeting looked around, said ‘I think we’re all here,’ immediately threw a spreadsheet up on the screen, and started going through a bunch of numbers.

The attendees (I was there as an observer) scrambled to keep up. . .then they started asking a ton of questions about the spreadsheet. They questioned assumptions, tried to solve for problems that hadn’t been directly mentioned, and asked for additional details. The meeting-caller became increasingly flustered as the gathering spiraled out of control.

After 45 minutes, time was up. Laptops collapsed and everyone left. No action items, no real resolution. I wasn’t even clear what the intention of the meeting had been.

It didn’t feel so great. The meeting-caller, who happened to be my client, looked at me: ‘Please tell me there’s a better way to do that.’ 

There is.

Master storyteller and teacher Doug Lipman breaks a storytelling performance into four sections:

1. Unification: Bringing storyteller and audience into a greater sense of presence with themselves and each other.
2. Invitation: The storyteller invites the audience to join them on a journey.
3. Performance: This is the main body of the story. The storyteller and audience go on the journey together.
4. Acknowledgement: The storyteller offers gratitude to the audience for their time, attention, and presence.

I’ve found that applying these sections to meetings works incredibly well:

1. Unification––> Presencing
   Jumping in to a presentation or topic without creating a bit of space for everyone to get present in the room can lead to a rushed or chaotic feeling. Here are a few remarkably quick ways to foster a feeling of presence:
   
   1. Acknowledge that everyone in the room is busy and Invite them to take three deep breaths together to create a bit of space around the gathering.
   
   2. Invite everyone to write down anything that’s distracting them, then ball up the piece of paper they wrote on and throw it in a bag.
   
   3. Do a one word check in. Simply go around and ask everyone to share a word that reflects their state of being at the moment. There’s no judgment associated with these. It simply provides a small moment of reflection and connection.
   
   
   
2. Invitation –––> Agreements
   Once everyone has had the opportunity to become present in the room, it can be powerful to establish a joint intention and guidelines for the gathering. Tactically, this may look like:
   
   1. Creating a consent agenda with an agreed upon outcome for the meeting.
   
   2. Offering agreements to guide the conversation. Examples I’ve seen work well are:
       Establishing a ‘judgment free zone’ for the meeting;
       Empowering any participants to gently redirect the meeting if it starts to veer from 

               the agreed on agenda;
               Disallowing use of the word ‘but’ for the duration of the meeting.

        3. Introducing the use of a ‘talking piece’ that delineates the role of speaker and listener. In the right setting, this                 can have the effect of slowing down the conversation so participants listen deeply to each other. In the wrong                  setting, it can feel weird or inappropriate.

  3.  Performance –––> The Meeting
       This is the bulk of your meeting; the content. If you have established a consent agenda or agreements before                    jumping into the meeting, it gives you the ability to refer back to them should the meeting become chaotic.

  4.     Acknowledgement –––> Next Steps & Gratitude
       In a storytelling performance, ‘acknowledgment’ may look like offering a simple ‘thank you’ to the audience for     
      their attention. In a meeting, it may look a bit different. Here are a few ways to honor attendees for their time and
       attention:

1. Offer reflections on the conversation that show the impact it has made on the project or topic that has been discussed. For example: ‘This conversation has helped me understand that X and, because of your input, we will Y.’
2. Create an action item list that reflects consensus developed during the meeting.
3. Simply acknowledge that you recognize how valuable everyone’s time is and express appreciation for their attention.

The most common push back I get when suggesting this type of meeting structure to clients is that it will feel ‘awkward’ or take too much time. While it’s true that putting a structure place may feel uncomfortable at first, it’s almost always less uncomfortable that the agitation that results from a scattered, unproductive meeting.

As for the amount of time it takes, devoting five minutes at the top of a meeting to unify and invite can save countless minutes, if not hours, that it takes to get everyone on the same page later on.

Ultimately, change of any kind involves some level of discomfort. The question is this: is the level of discomfort you experience in the current scenario greater than the discomfort of embracing change?

If not, carry on!

If so, try some of these ideas and let me know how it goes!

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