Create a high-functioning 'pop up team' (AKA meeting) with my simple system

Your brain is processing things all the time at work.

Interpreting. Analysing. Judging.

Every email, every chat message, every document, every meeting.

There’s only so much processing we can do at once and it all costs energy.

Collaboration draws down hard on your brain’s processing capacity because it’s trying to sense and respond to things that are uncertain, unclear and in motion.

Meetings are tiring because they are trying to funnel all these uncertain, unclear, in motion things in a short space of time - alongside other people doing the same thing.

So it makes sense to reduce the amount of processing that’s required to just figure out the actual meeting. Instead, let’s focus all the processing power on the problem the meeting needs to solve.

How do you do this? There are lots ways but here’s my 6-minute system that will work for most meetings, most of the time.

It's designed to be just 6 minutes more than your usual prep.

Here’s what I do.

Step 1 - I make a session canvas, not an agenda [3 mins]

Step 2 - I use the invite to be totally explicit about what we are doing and exactly how everyone can best contribute [3 mins]

Step 3 - I use the start of the meeting to form the pop up team with some specific phrases [0 mins]

This whole system is about social contracting which my research (1) shows is one of the most important and also the most overlooked drivers of meeting performance. Here’s a break down of the three steps.

Step 1 - I make a session canvas, not a meeting agenda

I make a session canvas which share EXACTLY what we’re doing and how to contribute, not an agenda which lists topics to cover.

A session canvas briefs:

• The specific main goal of the meeting
• The questions the meeting will work on
• The behaviours/styles that will be most helpful
• What we’ll do - and what we won’t do
• What people should “come ready to” do in the session

I create this brief collaboratively. At the very least, I’m asking “Here’s what I’m thinking, how does that sound? What have I missed or misunderstood?” when I send it out.

More likely I’m talking to people about the brief and we’re shaping it together so when they see the invitation, they are already invested.

There is a template for the session canvas on the FewerFasterBolder resources page.

[Time: 3 mins extra to create the session canvas over a normal agenda]

Step 2 - I create a warm, clear invitation

The invitation is the second chance to make it easy for people to contribute. I pull from what’s in the session canvas (and might even attach it) and also I might:

• Set the tone I want in the meeting through my choice of language in the invite
• Add any more context that makes it easy for everyone to know what the plan is - for example I might remind people of the big strategic goal this meeting is in service or I might summarise the specific sequence of events that led to this session
• Tell people what to expect if I’m planning something that will stretch people
• Tell people individually what you are hoping they’ll do: “Gaynor, I’d love you to critique our plans so they work for the finance team.”
• Remind people what to ‘come ready to’ do
• Provide clear links to prep/background so people don’t have to hunt.

Here’s a template for a clear, warm FewerFasterBolder meeting invitation.

[Time: 3 mins extra to write this clear, warm agenda]

Step 3 - I use the start of the meeting to create the pop up team

The start of the meeting is the final chance to create your pop up session. There in the moment, get everyone 100% clear and switched on.

Draw from the the session canvas and the invitation.

• Prepare 5 lines in advance. Don’t shuffle papers and wing it. Be crisp, be clear.
• Have a plan for late comers.
• Ask for specific help moderating the meeting around most likely problem points: ”Please would you contribute to keeping us on track / making sure we are being frank and respectful / helping get us to a decision?”
• I always try to get people contributing as early and equally as possible (ideally within two minutes of the meeting starting). One way to do that which helps form the pop up team is to ask people to share in a sentence what they think their job is in that meeting. Now everyone knows what everyone else is doing.

[0 mins extra - this is just a replacement for the opener you would normally do]