The Effective Communicator: Add Meaning To Your Meetings

Aug 21, 2023

Is a more meaningful meeting possible? The Effective Communicator teams up with Megan Call of the Resiliency Center to help you start your meetings right.

By Isaac Holyoak and Megan Call | 2 minutes

Dear Effective Communicator:

I鈥檓 struck by how often the most human part of the work day鈥攃onnecting with fellow human beings鈥攃an be so dreary. I鈥檓 talking about meetings. Right about now you may be thinking that my expectations for meetings are too high. But I鈥檓 convinced they can be a meaningful, important part of work. What can I do to make them better?

Looking for Meaning in My Meetings

A speech bubble with the word "oy" in it.

DEAR LOOKING,

Meetings are an important opportunity to connect with colleagues, hear new ideas, and prompt helpful insights鈥�when done well. If only our meetings lived up to those expectations. You鈥檒l be glad to know that Megan Call, the Resiliency Center鈥檚 associate director, agrees with you. Meetings can be meaningful.

I reached out to Megan for her approach to meaningful meetings. She referred me to a group called Hyper Island, which specializes in creating tools that keep pace with our digital age.

to bring purpose and intention to your meetings. Their approach fits with other basic insights from the effective communication world: we tend to remember the first and last things we hear. In fact, the check-in, check-out processes may be the most important parts of any meeting.

Checking-in sets the tone for the remainder of the meeting鈥攂e that serious, energetic, or boring鈥攚hile checking-out lends attendees the emotional tenor they鈥檒l bring to the rest of their workday. With help from Megan, I鈥檒l focus on the checking-in process for the remainder of this post. There are two things you might consider.

CONSIDERATIONS FOR CHECK-INS

1. CHOOSING THE RIGHT QUESTION

The check-in process frames the rest of the meeting, so choose your introductory question wisely, and base it on your sense of where attendees are.

Hyper Island suggests three types of questions: focused, general, and project-based (depending on whether you are starting, during, or ending a project). One of my favorite focused questions is to ask attendees what they hope to accomplish by the end of the meeting.

A more general question might relate to how your group is feeling. For example, what worries you? Excites you?

2. MANAGING TIME

It鈥檚 crucial to understand how much time you have when starting a checking-in process. If you鈥檙e in a weekly huddle, you might begin your question with, 鈥淚n one word鈥︹€� It will set the tone for a fast-paced meeting.

However, if this is a longer, monthly meeting, you might consider asking attendees to 鈥淭hink of three things about鈥︹€� This contemplative approach opens up the meeting to discussion, rather than simply reporting out. Adjust your check-in process to meet your expectations and the expectations of your attendees.

Before using the check-in process at your next meeting, take a few minutes to explain to your team that this process is designed to improve the effectiveness of meetings. After explaining the purpose, take it slow and start with simple, general questions so that attendees don鈥檛 feel cornered. You can adapt from there as your team grows.

You got this,

The Effective Communicator

The Effective Communicator is Isaac Holyoak. Isaac was Accelerates former contributing editor. He received a Master's in rhetoric from the Brian Lamb School of Communication at Purdue 亚洲自慰视频 and taught speech, argumentation, and debate to undergraduates in Indiana and Texas in his pre-health care life.

Originally posted March 2019