The way to end a meeting 👋

We said goodbye to what we used to.

We introduced a moment of reflection at the end of every corporate gathering. Why? So we can change something the next time. Or not.

In this article I’ll explain why and how we like to wave off.

A moment to look back 👀

Usually, when a meeting is about to end we wrap up quickly. Are all topics covered? Cool. Now run for the next event or lunch. Whatever the situation or motivation is, in our experience most of these endings are pretty rushed.

Also, we have a lot of meetings and are curious how we could improve our game. That is why we started to look back on what we did, with a check-out. There might be a chance to learn from it. For example, did we all like the meeting? Was it too short or too long? Did we cover the right topics? Did everyone contribute?

How we do a check-out 😮

A check-out is a moment of reflection at the end of a meeting. It is started by a question and followed by an answer from everyone. The latter might come in one word or a few sentences.

These answers are and should always be from the perspective of the people that share them. Someone’s opinion is not a fact, but it’s true for themselves. Some might experience the same situation completely different than others. That’s fine.

Also, it is not the start of a new conversation. After someone has shared something, take their word for it and move one. Keep it simple.

Asking the right question 🤓

There are all kinds of questions to ask. Here are some examples, starting with the most obvious one:

• How did you experience this meeting?
• What was your highlight during this meeting?
• What should we do again next time?
• Looking back, what would you have liked to be different in this meeting?
• How would you rate the succes of this meeting on a scale from 0–10?

There are way more, of course.

What we’ve learned 🏅

The trick is pretty easy to implement. However, here are some some lessons from the things we ran into.

• Don’t do ‘Tips & Tops’
  In search for a model or form, we tried ‘tips & tops’. This is a way to express something positive and something negative, in a positive way (get it?!). It felt a like we were forcing people to dig up an opinion, even if it wasn’t there. People felt uncomfortable with this. We decided to make ik more open and lighthearted, usually we just ask: how did you experience this meeting?
• Giving feedback might be scary: make it nice, not huge.
  Not everyone is evenly comfortable with sharing their thoughts. Giving feedback might be scary. Therefor we now frame it in a way so it becomes less scary for people to open up. Don’t empathize too much. Also, set a good example as the facilitator of the meeting. People will get used to it over time.
• Make it part of the agenda
  Sometimes the check-out surprised participants. Therefor we like to make it part of the agenda every time, and ideally refer to it at the beginning of the meeting.

The way to open up 🙋

What I like about the check-out is the mellowness. It’s a light-weighted way to gather important information. If someone has had a positive experience, it’s nice. If someone share something more critical, that’s ok too. We don’t have to be perfect all the time.

In respons we might change things, but we don’t have to. If some comments are widely shared or become structural we can focus our attention on it. And then adjust to the desired situation.

Overall, we’re convinced that doing check-outs are a good investment of everyone’s time. It’s a way for people to speak up, and by doing that, it brings progress just around the corner.

Ending a meeting at Clockwork, Amsterdam.

Tweak: how we discover what works for us ✨

Introducing a check-out during meeting is part of our quest to work better as a team, at Clockwork. Our process is called Tweak, which is introduced here & here.

There are other examples of alternatives to defaults, read how we got started with a TimeTimer and IDOARRT (for meeting design).