How to Make the Most of Meetings

No matter who you are or where you work, you go to meetings. There is a spectrum of how you feel about meetings. It looks like this:

My goal with this post is to move you, at least a little, from the eel side to the OMG side of things by sharing some tips on how to make your meetings effective, useful, and fun.

Purpose.

• Always have a clear goal or purpose for the meeting, and make sure everyone knows.
• Always have an agenda (even if it’s just “5-minute update from both teams”). Again, make sure everyone knows.

Timing.

• Create an expectation that meetings start and end on time, and stick to it.
• Limit meetings to 30 minutes and see what you can actually do with that focused time.
• Start meetings at an unusual time, like 1:36 pm.
• How do you make sure to stay on time? Read on…

Technology.

• Place a Phone Basket by the door and have everyone, including leadership, put their phones in there.

Consequences.

• To ensure these guidelines are respected, institute consequences – positive or negative – for behaviors that support or undermine being on time.
• For example, if you’re late, do 10 pushups for every late minute or you have to sing a song in front of the group.
• If you are the reason a meeting goes long, you have to buy a round of drinks for everyone, or bring coffee for everyone next time.
• If a phone rings during the meeting, the person needs to make a donation to a non-profit of choice.

Bring in a graphic recorder or graphic facilitator.

• Your team will be able to wade through complexity more quickly and easily by seeing the conversation take place in front of them.
• People stay engaged and better remember key ideas from the meeting.
• Seeking connections and working collaboratively become second nature to the group.
• Having a tangible map of what was achieved helps keep people focused and action-oriented after the meeting is over.

To me, the key for success here is building these behaviors and expectations into the organization’s culture.

For more great tips on effective meetings, read this article from Fast Company.

Once again, thank you from my heart and soul for your support, great senses of humor, brilliant minds, collaboration and what you're each doing to make the world a better place.

Cheers, Karina

Interested in hosting the most interesting meetings in the world?

Where in the World is ConverSketch?

This week I’m out East in the DC area with the NSA again. We’re talking leadership, resiliency, and management styles and how to help teams work better together.

Talk Nerdy to Me: The Science Behind Why Graphic Recording Works

If you’ve ever experienced graphic recording, you know it’s an extremely valuable tool to support groups to do their best thinking. But what is it that’s making the meeting feel so productive, insightful, and energized?

Today, instead of my usual explanation (It’s magic…see, I even just added a Unicorn to your strategic plan!), I’d like to share some of the neuroscience behind the benefits of having a graphic recorder or facilitator supporting your group.

Visual thinking is innate. From the Harvard Gazette: “…the study found that even when [participants] were prompted to use verbal thinking, people created visual images to accompany their inner speech, suggesting that visual thinking is deeply ingrained in the brain.”

Thinking visually helps us remember information better…

• “People who were encouraged to doodle…were able to remember 29% more of the information on a surprise quiz later,” Wall Street Journal
• Dual Coding Theory: Information is more likely to be understood and remembered when presented using images and words.
• Cognitive Load Theory: We have a finite amount of “brain power” to apply to critical thinking, remembering, or being creative. In fact, our brains can remember up to seven chunks of information before we start letting other things go. Using visual cues helps free up our minds from keeping track of those chunks and instead focus on connecting ideas, remembering key information, and creative thinking.

…and to express our emotions more deeply…which, in turn, results in a stronger memory and likelihood to retain information. An article by the Wall Street Journal cited a study that showed more complex emotional communication and processing from doodles than written responses: "Their pictures communicated more than just a text or a regular photo. They were more personal, more intimate."

We all learn best in different ways. There are four ways in which people learn; auditory —prefer to listen, visual—prefer to see, verbal—prefer to speak, and kinesthetic—prefer to move or do some physical activity. Graphic recording can support all four modalities as people hear the speaker, see the images and words, and get up to see the drawings closer, or walk around the view them.

Everyone wants your attention, which means visuals are more likely to be looked at and engaged with. “Recent studies say that nowadays, content is browsed 94% more often if it contains images and is shared 40 times more often in social media if it contains images.” - Visual Facilitation Cookbook

Side note: I could geek out on this all day – in fact a large chunk of my master’s thesis was devoted to using visual thinking to support understanding of the complex science of climate change. For more articles and publications, check out my Resources page. If you want to talk more, please let’s do!

Once again, thank you from my heart and soul for your support, great senses of humor, brilliant minds, collaboration and what you're each doing to make the world a better place.

Cheers, Karina

Think this sounds pretty neat? Let’s put science into action for your organization.

Where in the World is ConverSketch?

Feeling the ENERGY in Utah.

This week I'm back in Salt Lake capturing content for an Energy Democracy Symposium at the University of Utah. Starting tomorrow...so for now here's a watercolor card of the Irish countryside I made for my Da.