A creative technique for resetting a regular scheduled meeting that has 'got lost'

Chances are - if you're not sure what this meeting is supposed to achieve, no one else is either. 

 

You know that meeting.

It’s every month.

Everyone goes.

But it’s frustrating.

Lots of talking but no real action. Hard to know exactly what we’re trying to do.

It brings together people who are all interlinked - which is great. But what are we actually doing with our time?

No one’s quite sure what everyone else is getting from it.

But next month, we complete the circuit again.

I call this a meeting with an identity crisis. And I have two ways to solve it. A conventional way… and a fun way!

Pick one or mash them together somehow. You’ll know what to do.

Both ways are about eliciting the meeting’s identity from the group. I recommend you do this IN the meeting - as part of the meeting.

 

Here’s the more conventional way.

Ask some variation on the following questions:

- What does [our organisation] need us to achieve in this meeting?

- What do each us need from this meeting? (do this as a round)

- What does this meeting do really well?

- Where could this meeting serve us better?

 

Slightly more provocatively…

- Who cares what happens in this meeting, other than us?

- What would happen (and who would care) if we never had this meeting again?

 

Use the answers to these questions to create a meeting purpose statement.

"This meeting is a vital for ______ and our commitment to each other in this session is to ________"

(a good purpose statement expresses not just the reason for the meeting but binds the participants in a promise to each other)

 

And here’s the fun way...

I’m going to show you how to use the Washing Powder Box exercise from Agile to reset your meeting.

You’re going to have the group imagine the meeting is a product - like a box of washing powder.

Just like washing powder, your meeting does a particular job.

The exercise helps you identify this and focus everyone on having the meeting achieve this core job.

The idea is that you’re going to borrow the 3 core components from the washing powder box and use them to describe your own meeting.

The components are:

- The ‘job’ the washing powder does (its purpose)

- The top three product promises

- The product name (we do this last, even though it’s at the top of the box).

 

 

The ‘job’ is the purpose - but the promises are what you commit together to do. As I said earlier, hugely important.

 

Here’s how to run the Washing Powder Box exercise to refresh and refocus your meeting:

1/  Show people a picture of a washing powder box and explain the concept [feel free to steal my slides]

 

2/  Give people their own soap box template. You could:

- Sketch them up on a Miro/Mural/Jam board

- Print them on a piece of paper

- Ask people to draw the basic shape on their own piece of paper (this is what I normally do - I’m just too lazy for 1 and 2 😂)

 

3/   Ask people to jot down what they think the product job and the product benefits are (tell them to ignore the name for now). Give them 3-5 minutes for this. If it’s virtual, ask them to type DONE in the chat when they’ve finished.

4/   Each person presents their product box. You capture the key themes coming out of these on a shared board.

5/   Facilitate a discussion around differences / commonalities / competing priorities for this meeting.

6/  Once you feel you have agreement, draft up a final product box.

7/   At this point, you can create a name for your meeting. A memorable and meaningful meeting name can create energy and clarity. I have a little section on naming meetings in the full FewerFasterBolder ecourse.

When you’re done, turn the product box into a nice illustration and use it on the slides / whiteboard or whatever else you use in that meeting so it’s an ongoing reminder of your intention.

Like this:

 

 

You might consider creating a washing powder box for all your meetings to serve a clarifying visual aid. 

And of course, you don’t HAVE to go through this exercise to create the box. If it makes more sense, you could lead with the completed box and check for agreement.

 

 

Variations

 

Change the metaphor

You could switch up the metaphor to something that makes more sense in your company.

- Sell cereal? Make it a cereal carton.

- Run a bank? Make it a bank account

- Work in the NHS? Make it a prescription.

 

Real boxes

Want to make it more experiential? Use actual boxes. If it’s virtual, ask people to bring one (but don’t tell them why). If it’s in person, bring a range ask people to pick a box that speaks to them :-)

 

Groups

Have people make their boxes in 2s or 3s in the first instance, especially if there are lots of people. The downside of this is people will have already made some trade offs to create alignment around the box in this first round - and that can mask individual differences and also resist a second round of alignment with the whole group.

 

Let me know how you get on... :-)