Structure can help everyone contribute better - and here's the simplest way to add some.

 

First, there's such an important distinction between formality and structure.

By formality, I mean unwritten or implicit behaviour protocols - who can speak when, what you can say, how you should say it. In a formal meeting, most people feel less free to speak candidly.

Structure is different. Structure makes behaviour protocols explicit which in turn frees people to speak candidly because they understand the framework which they are operating in. Using explicit structures helps people move through different phases of the meeting together and quickly contribute in helpful ways.

We can use structures to equalise voices, to encourage helpful task-related conflict and to speed up contributions.

Enter scaffolds

I call these scaffolds. They support and guide the discussion in explicit ways without controlling or stifling it.

There are lots of scaffolds to explore in my e-course bundle  but let’s look at the simplest way we can start to bring structure to a meeting.

Even if a meeting has a single purpose e.g. to make a decision or to solve a problem, there are multiple stages the group need to go through to get there.

For example, if you want to make a decision you might want to hear information shared first, then you might want people to share their views on everything they’ve heard and finally you might want to make a decision.

This sounds simple but it’s when some people are suggesting decisions and others are chipping in with more information that meetings become cyclical and frustrating.

Everyone has a different picture in their head of what is happening in this part of the meeting. Like this:

 

 
Let's look at some common meetings and how we can break them into stages.

 

Problem solving meeting?

Fully understand problem (no trying to solve it yet)
THEN 👇

Explore solutions (no judging solutions at this stage)
THEN 👇

Evaluate solutions and make decision
THEN 👇

Agree next steps

 

Project meeting?

Gather updates so everyone has full information
THEN 👇

Agree issues which need resolving today
THEN 👇

Work through them one by one.

 

Team meeting?

Reconnect together as a team and build trust and safety in the meeting
THEN 👇

Reflect on what has gone well and what could be improved
THEN 👇

Pick one thing to improve this month
THEN 👇

Celebrate success

 

Let's look at a scenario

And here's another worked example - this time for a tricky meeting between two teams trying to resolve some issues working together.

I break this meeting into stages and show you how to use a question to frame up each one.

 

Stage 1: Create a picture of success together

“What would be be happening if working together was really easy?” i.e. define a first, positive stage for the meeting which avoids getting bogged down in problems. If people start talking about issues rather than what good looks like, you can say “ok so what would make this easy?”

THEN 👇

 

Stage 2: Get into what people need

“What can we understand about each other’s ways of working to make it easier to work together?” This question allows people to explain more about how they work and what they need - it’s a chance to feel heard and to share what matters… without getting into blame or posturing.

THEN 👇

 

Stage 3: Identify changes together

Now the group has defined success together and developed a shared understanding of each other’s needs you can move to the final stage: “What changes can we make that would make it easier to work together?” The group is ready for this stage now.

 

 

OK, now your meetings

Thinking about one of your meetings - one that often gets lost or meanders or where you feel you are herding cats....

What stages does the group need to get from A to B?

If you’re not sure where to start, think about:

• Do you need to help get people contributing quickly at the start of a meeting?
• Are there things people need to do first, before they can do something else?
• What do people need to understand or share to be able to have the later part of the conversation?
• What stage would cultivate willingness(1) at the beginning?
• Where can you see people ending up a cross purposes - and how can you separate things out?
• What stages could help people discuss and THEN decide?

You'll find you start to do this intuitively in other people's meetings too - asking questions to help prise apart conversations that really should be sequential and help guide the group through a flow.

 

TL:DR

Break meetings into logical stages and give each a question to answer 🙂

 

 

References and further reading  

(1) From the book Using Convergent Facilitation to Reach Breakthrough Collaborative Decisions

by Miki Kashtan