"No Agenda; No Attenda!"
But what does that really mean? Does EVERY meeting need to have an agenda?
A client recently asked me, "What do you do when you’re facilitating strategic planning and there are people that aren’t engaged? They don’t believe in the process and think things can just continue the way they’ve been."
Indeed, facilitating a strategic planning session can be a challenging task, especially when some participants aren't fully engaged and skeptical about the process. However, with a well-thought-out approach, you can overcome this obstacle and ensure that everyone's voices are heard and that the planning session is productive.
"No Agenda; No Attenda!"
But what does that really mean? Does EVERY meeting need to have an agenda?
If you’re bringing together multinational teams, there are several measures you can take to ensure teamwork as they come to gather.
High-stakes meeting facilitator Kristin Arnold shares a guest blog on leaving a lasting leadership legacy of kindness from Michael Kerr.
What would you do if you knew that communication with your teammates was going to fail? After all, you inherently know that there will be a communication mishit, but we just don't know when or where it is going to be! Whether it is during a face-to-face meeting, a virtual meeting, email, text message or shared document, here are some ideas to improve team communication.
Many of these team members are busy professionals, inspired by the organization’s good work. However, when push comes to shove, higher priorities prevail.
I had an interesting conversation with one of my clients about her people working with teams vs. leading teams. This might appear to be a subtle nuance at first blush, but let’s dig a little further to discern the difference.
High-stakes meeting facilitator Kristin Arnold shares how team leaders can set up their teams for success with "the team launch."
Team goals provide the team with needed focus and direction. An all-encompassing vision or simple, well-defined goal statements provide the team with a unified sense of what is important.
One clue: No agenda, no attenda! Follow these five strategies and you'll see your meetings be much more productive.
High-stakes meeting facilitator Kristin Arnold shares techniques for active listening in order to enhance teamwork.
The next time you go to your team meeting, take a few moments to observe the team functions and roles. At any particular moment, someone is leading, taking notes, keeping on track and on time, as well as participating in the meeting. Watch closely who is performing each function.
The team leader may be working very hard at all of these functions — not only leading the meeting, but keeping notes on a yellow legal pad, steering the agenda and the timetable, and answering questions without a whole lot of participation.
If that leader is you, well then my friend, you are working too hard!
Of all things about strategic planning, it drives me crazy when the plan has a number of strategic objectives. How many are too many?
High-stakes meeting facilitator Kristin Arnold shares fun and creative tips for how to start a meeting.
All teams need a team leader to focus their efforts, set guidelines, and deliver results. How you go about selecting your team leader depends largely on the mission, management, organizational culture, and development of your team.
When you watch a high-performing team in action, you realize that they have some habits, rituals, and ceremonies that support the team's work. Here are some examples that I have seen effective teams establish to create a certain purpose and put them in a different mindset.
Measure your teams effectiveness on an ongoing basis with these metrics.
There are myriad formal and informal team assessment tools that you can purchase “off the shelf.” In the event you decide to use one of these instruments, follow these steps to maximize the experience.
High-stakes meeting facilitator Kristin Arnold shares how to avoid tedious Board presentations using a Board presentation packet.
I often work with clients to facilitate an "after-action review" at the end of a project to discover pitfalls and opportunities for improvement for the next project. So I was thinking....why not do this with your team at the start of this new year? Discover key learnings about the year so you can prepare for the year ahead!
I am often asked to facilitate an after-action review (AAR) upon the completion of a project. It's a bit more formal than a standard debriefing and allows the participants to truly understand what happened and create some preventive and mitigating strategies for the next project.
AAR typically occurs when the project went south...but can also be applied to glorious projects that we wish we could clone and replicate!
Want your teams to stay focused? Capture and post key information for all to see – on a whiteboard, on flipchart paper, or on the screen. By writing down what has been said, team members will stay focused and on track as well as remember and act on the information well after the meeting.
If your team is like most, it relies on two or three strategies to make decisions: consensus, team input with the team leader making the final decision, or the loudest voice wins. Effective teams use MANY different decision-making strategies, such as these.
If you are serious about moving your organization from a traditional, hierarchical organization into flexible, nimble teams, think through the benefits and costs—as well as the many cultural changes that you, your employees, and your customers will have to face. For some, the changes are just too great, and teams may not be the best solution. For many, the benefits far outweigh the disadvantages.
Any organization interested in moving toward a team-based environment should have the following things in place.
A client of mine was frustrated that nothing was happening after a team meeting. He said, “It’s a great conversation, but then everyone goes back to ‘work,’ and nothing happens!”
It’s a common complaint as most teams identify potential tasks throughout the course of their meetings and then walk away thinking that everyone knows what they need to do.
Au contraire! Unless you have a process to ensure all know what needs to be done, who is responsible for doing it, and by when, it’s no surprise nothing happens.