Last week, I had the pleasure of joining a Roundtable discussion at the House of Lords. I have to be honest, I was anxious heading into the meeting as there was a huge risk I felt that it would be a great discussion with no clear next steps or meaningful outcomes. I have attended one too many of those meetings.
As a result, I thought about, ‘how can I influence the outcome of this meeting?’ Although it wasn’t my meeting or agenda, I wanted to ensure it was a win-win for all participants including myself so I was keen to exert my influence in a positive but not overbearing way.
As I type this out I realise how thoughtful I was I was during the meeting to balance being helpful without taking over the meeting or coming across like I am putting my agenda before others. This is how I typically structure productive meetings. I use P.O.S.T. It stands for:
- Purpose: Why are we having this meeting?
- Outcome: What do each of you want to achieve from this meeting?
- Structure: What is the order of conversation we need to have?
- Time: How long are we meeting for?
Since it wasn’t my meeting I focused on the area of impact I could influence which was the structure and outcome.
I asked early on in the meeting after introductions what the ideal outcome of the meeting was. Once I understood that I suggested a simple exercise we could use in the breakouts they had planned to:
- Start with the end in mind: Thinking Big what would we love to achieve long term?
- Where are we today: What needs do we have today?
- What fears do we hold: What are the biggest barriers/ challenges that stand in our way?
Now, I had no idea what each individual was going to contribute in the breakout but it gave me a platform to structure my answers to the three questions above. The attendees were impressed with my playback and clapped once I was done. It was an immediate feedback loop on my approach above which pleased me.
I share this detailed example above because our time is precious, it’s a commodity we can’t get back once it is gone.
I encourage you to take a proactive approach in applying some of the above to meetings you have planned this week and let me know how it works for you.