Ten Tools for Better Meetings

The primary vehicle of managerial work is conversation. Too many meetings are ineffective. A few people dominate. Many people are checked out. Results are sub-optimal. Here are ten facilitation techniques to get more engagement and better results from your meetings.

• 👉 Working Agreements – Simple agreements with each other to be more effective
• 👉  Thumb Voting – Make decisions with commitment.
• 👉  Stand-up – Recognize issues and who needs to talk to each other.
• 👉  Talking Stick – Ensure that all the voices get heard.
• 👉  Come unprepared – Admit it, we all have too much to do.
• 👉  Time-boxing – Because time is your most precious currency. You only get to spend it once.
• 👉  Prioritized Backlog – Identify the most valuable topics and handle them first.
• 👉  Information Radiator – Enable independent yet aligned decision-making.
• 👉  Brain-writing – Create many ideas, then pick the best. The high-output alternative to brainstorming.
• 👉  Pair & Share – Discuss a problem in pairs or trios, then each group presents results to the whole meeting.
• 👉  Five-Minute Picture – Take a few minutes to draw a picture about the topic at hand.

Oops! That was 11 approaches, and I could have done more. Check out the presentation for details on how each of these works.

P.S. if you want help with better or fewer meetings, let’s have a chat!