How to make your meetings 75% decision making

• Does it feel like every time you are in a meeting it feels like Groundhog’s Day and you find yourselves having the same conversations over and over?
• Are your meetings considered a time suck?
• Are your team members multi-tasking and not engaged during discussions?

* The below structure can be used in both a virtual and face to face environment, but it does assume access to a collaboration platform (see below for some options and check out our free and customizable Mural Template LINK)

How do you have a meeting where 75% of the meeting is decision making?

Meeting Setup

1. Set meetings for 15 to 20 mins or 45 to 50 mins
2. In the meeting notice, set an agenda and expected outcomes
3. Identify the right participants (be deliberate about who should be there)
4. In the meeting notice, share relevant links to documents or pre-reads for reference with a quick description (we prefer links vs attachments)
5. Set the expectation that the purpose of the meeting is not to review the content but highlight major points, answer clarifying questions, and make a decision(s)
6. Design your meeting as a series of activities. For example, each agenda item structure could be: context, prompt, and then activity (5 to 10 mins total)

Meeting Facilitation

1. Timebox each activity
2. Set expectations and ground rules (1 min)
3. Review the agenda and expected outcome(s) (1 min)
4. Manage and facilitate each activity like a loving and supportive dictator
5. If conversations go off-topic, put them in the parking lot and move on
6. Engage the team by having them create notes (one idea per sticky) while active listening on the board
7. Give the team time to think and analyze the content provided to them if needed (but not too much time)
8. Facilitate decision making with Note-n-Vote activities to either narrow down the choices and or build a heatmap so that everyone can see where the teams’ heads are at

All of the above can be done both virtually and face to face. With us all going remote recently, we have found huge advantages to everyone doing the work on a digital collaboration platform:

• there is no physically crowding around stickies
• it is easier and faster to write down and share ideas
• we can read everyone’s sticky in Mural (y’all have the penmanship of a 5-year-old)
• we can affinity map the content in real-time (if you have a co-facilitator)
• voting is now a cinch, as well as being able to quickly visualize the top votes (via Mural)
• we don’t have to capture and document everything, it is already captured on a shared platform

Resources

• Some conferencing options: Zoom, Google Hangout, Webex, BlueJeans
• Some collaboration options: Mural, Miro, Microsoft Whiteboard
• ‘How to quickly generate ideas and make group decisions’, Garrett Sheridan, March 8, 2018, UX Planet LINK
• ‘Why your meetings stink — and what to do about it’, Steven G. Rogelberg, Jan 2019, HBR LINK
• ‘Making Decisions’ Mural Template LINK
• ‘Groundhogs’ Day’, 1993, Amazon LINK

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We are The SIX, a women-founded and owned strategy and innovation firm. Feel free to ask questions, challenge, and share new ideas and frameworks in the comments section below. To learn more about us visit us at www.the-six.co