How to redesign a meeting you’ve compressed
Don’t just put it on fast forward - here’s how to make fewer/faster meetings work in practice
Dr Carrie Goucher for Meeting Pioneers 2023
Reducing the sheer volume of time spent in meetings is a key part of transforming meeting culture.
Q: But how do you do that without just putting every meeting on fast forward?
A: use meeting duration as a creative constraint - add some structures and encourage more candour. Also, use alternatives to a meeting.
A reminder of some techniques for reducing meeting load
First ask yourself…
“What’s realistic for this group of people to achieve in this timeframe?”
Yes, we can get some meetings running at a high pace - with a great design and lots of practice. But rushing through a lot of important content is rarely a good use of time.
So cut the scope. If you work together efficiently, what is a realistic goal for this session?
How to create a sharper scope and set expectations
👆 Send all this over in the invitation to set expectations.
If you have changed the duration or frequency of the meeting, explain why and how it will work “We’re going to meet for 30 minutes, rather than 60, for the next few weeks to give everyone some time back in their diaries. We will reduce the scope of this session and introduce some structures to help us all contribute more efficiently. Expect this to take a bit of practice! At the end of each session, I’ll ask you how it went so we can improve it for next time.”
During the meeting, you can refer back to what you shared in the invitation to bring back focus e.g. if someone is talking in circles you can say, “let’s come back to the question we said we’d answer in this session”
Use meeting questions to help focus everyone on progress
Meeting questions are designed to turn an agenda item into a scoped conversation.
Here are some examples:
If you want people to explore a problem, the meeting question might be: "What do we need to understand about ...?" or "What is the issue with ...?
If you want to solve a problem, the meeting question might be: "How might we....?"
If you want people to decide something, the meeting question might be "What's our decision on...?
If you want people to create some actions, the meeting question might be: "What changes shall we make to ..."
An agenda might be a series of 3-5 questions - they could be different phases of exploring the same thing or they could be totally unrelated.
The Super Clear�Invitation Template
Available for download at www.fewerfasterbolder.com/resources
Here’s an example
Available for download at www.fewerfasterbolder.com/resources
Change how you ask people to prepare.
To make the best possible use of time, ask people to ‘come ready to…’
Flipped meeting: You might ask people to prepare an update for others to read before the meeting and ‘come ready with questions and insights based on what you’ve read’.
If you want people to give an update in the session, help them make that more concise by giving them a list of what to say e.g. ‘come ready to share briefly, what you’ve just done, your next priority, your concerns and any blockers you think the group can help with’.
Ask questions in Teams chat before the meeting - potentially allowing a wider group to contribute their views - and then review this async discussion in a shorter meeting.
Ask people to come ready to tell the group what type of contribution they’d like from the meeting e.g. sanity check, ideas, critical friend, support, challenge, advice, just listening!
Scope the meeting when you open it
As you open the meeting, reiterate the scope from the invitation:
Give a contribution time limit
Tell people how long you want their update to be: “In 90 seconds, can you…” or “In this first 10 minutes we’ll hear everyone’s updates”
Tell people how the meeting will work e.g. “We’ll do 10 minutes together just getting clear on detail of the proposed roadmap - so literally just asking clarifying questions to establish the facts - and THEN we will have a full 25 minutes to explore our opinions and perspectives it” so they can judge when to ask what kind of question.
Break the meeting in to meeting questions and give each a time allocation. Towards the end of that time slot, ask, “what remains unanswered from this question?” and “do we need more time to answer this or should we move on to the next question?”
Use rounds to speed up an equalise contribution
A round is where the group is invited to answer a question in turn. Everyone has the chance to respond and there are rules about what others can say during each response e.g. no discussion or clarifying questions only.
Rounds can help at the beginning of meetings, to allow everyone to contribute early and get key facts on the table.
They can also help break long, circular discussions e.g. “Let’s to a round where we each share where we stand on this particular issue.”
Use agreement levels to find a path through
Deciding is nuanced. A straight vote of ‘for or against’ often isn’t that helpful. But disagreeing in different ways takes a long time and can slow progress dramatically. Sometimes we need to disagree and move forward with one option anyway.
Use levels to develop an acceptable route forward.
Level 1: Blocking: “I believe this proposal would be majorly detrimental to our group, because either it goes against our fundamental principles or it would lead to a disastrous outcome.”
Level 2: Abstain: “I feel we have no clear sense of agreement among the group. We need to talk more before considering a decision.”
Level 3: Stand Aside: “I may not be especially enthusiastic about it, but I can accept the group's proposal.”
Level 4: Consent with Reservations: “I support the basics of this proposal, and have one or more minor unresolved concerns. I think this proposal is the best choice of the options available to us.”
Level 5: Full Agreement: “I am enthusiastic about the group's proposal and am confident it expresses the best wisdom of the group.
Invite more candour so people get to the heart of what matters quicker
“Psychological safety is a belief that one will not be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns or mistakes." - Amy Edmondson, author of The Fearless Organisation.
In other words - trusting that you will be treated well, whatever you say with good intent. Punishment and humiliation can be very subtle - a sigh or eyebrow raise can convey disappointment and disapproval.
We need psychological safety (or rather psychological strength) for healthy conflict where people respectfully exchange ideas and disagree with each other in pursuit of a shared goal. Without this, discussions take too long.
Use a safety statement at the beginning of the meeting to explain the kind of contribution you are looking for e.g.
All the feedback we give today is given with respect for thinking that has gone in so far and is in service of [our big goal].
OR
Today is about disagreeing as much as agreeing. We need everyone’s unique perspective. We always interrogate the facts not the people.
Use a positively framed ‘we’ statement in the present tense.
Ask questions to speed up slow contributions
Questions can come from anywhere and help to sharpen the discussion.
An obvious way to refocus the conversation or bring it to a conclusion is just to re-state the relevant meeting question out loud again: “So what do we think our decision should be on X?”
Other good questions to speed up and refocus include:
Here are some alternatives to a meeting
DON’T MEET
First, a definitive guide: do we need a meeting or not?
Use group typed chat to help you get some insights as you make a decision
Use group typed chat for some of your team check ins
And same for a keeping in touch on mood and energy
Make short videos using tools like Loom.io to share concepts for people to review in their own time
And invite people to comment on documents as an alternative to a long meeting
Use clear, well-laid out emails to keep your team and other teams up to date
What else has worked for you?