On April 1, 2020, we hosted a webinar with principals at the Mission Critical Teams Institute. We explored the communication practices business teams can learn from mission critical teams (firefighters, military, medical, and others who handle emergencies for a living) as we all work to adapt in times of rapid change.
Recent Posts
Meeting in Times of Rapid Change and Crisis
Apr 3, 2020 by Elise Keith in meeting design (21 minute read)
Topics: meeting design
On March 12, 2020, we sent a list of 14 resources to our newsletter. Our local government had just banned gatherings of more than 200 people, President Trump had closed the borders, and the NBA delayed their season. Like you, we're suddenly juggling a family at home, an unravelling economy, and the shock of worst-case scenario planning turned real.
The Right Story for Every Meeting
Feb 7, 2020 by Elise Keith in fun with meetings, tips & techniques (5 minute read)
We've all experienced the power of storytelling. A great story can inspire and move us in ways that spreadsheets or presentations full of bulleted lists never will.
We are wired to learn from stories. And yet, only a few rare leaders regularly tell stories in meetings. Most leaders limit themselves to dry information sharing and opinion statements, holding to a mistaken belief that storytelling is somehow unprofessional. But unlike most reports, a good story communicates both data and meaning simultaneously, which makes stories more efficient and effective.
Topics: fun with meetings, tips & techniques
How Coda's Meeting Operating System Ensures Every Conversation Has a Home
Dec 16, 2019 by Elise Keith in meeting design (9 minute read)
This blog is full of advice for running a great meeting. Of course, teams don't run just one meeting. Teams run lots and lots of meetings.
Now, if you have oodles of spare time, you can design each and every one of your team's meetings from scratch using the advice you'll find here. No one has those oodles, however, which is why—despite the ready availability of all this super practical how-to goodness–lots of folks just make stuff up.
Other teams find a better way. They design their meetings up front, then codify these designs into a Meeting Operating System that makes it easy for them to run those meetings over and over again.
Topics: meeting design
The Story Behind Our Meeting Flow Model for Pilot Programs
Dec 9, 2019 by Elise Keith in meeting design, case studies, strategy (12 minute read)
It doesn't matter what kind of team you work on or what you're trying to do - if you can't get that team to all agree and do their part, you fail.
Teamwork is the practice of agreeing on a shared goal and then dividing the work required to achieve that goal amongst the team members. To get that agreement and coordinate all that doing, you've got to communicate.
We're coming up on our 10th anniversary here at Lucid, and over all those years, we've done our fair share of failing. One of our more painful failures came about through a failure to effectively communicate.
Topics: meeting design, case studies, strategy
How to Create a Useful Meeting Flow Model for Your Team
Dec 3, 2019 by Elise Keith in meeting design (10 minute read)
A Meeting Flow Model is a form of process documentation that highlights the main meetings used to achieve a business result. In the previous article, I introduced the Meeting Flow Model (MFM) concept and described some of the benefits enjoyed by teams that use a defined MFM. Meeting Flow Models are super sweet.
You and your team can get these benefits too, but only after you start using an MFM and then work to refine it for your unique needs.
How do you get a useful Meeting Flow Model for your team?
By doing some Meeting Flow Modeling.
Meeting Flow Modeling is a multi-step process that takes teams several days–and often longer–to complete. In our Quickstart program, we walk teams through this process over the course of several weeks. I'm sharing this in case you think the process below looks a little complicated at first glance. Please keep in mind that this isn't something you're going to knock out in an afternoon.
Topics: meeting design
Why Meeting Flow Models are the Key to Unlocking Your Team's Meeting Success
Dec 1, 2019 by Elise Keith in meeting design (14 minute read)
For every significant goal your company needs to achieve, your team meets. In most companies, these meetings get very little forethought. They're just part of what happens as you do the work.
In other companies, teams plan out the meetings they'll use to achieve their goals. They design each meeting, just like they design the forms they use for capturing data and the reports they'll use to measure progress.
This meeting design work is a critical but often neglected aspect of successful business process design.
Here at Lucid, we call the design of a series of meetings related to a specific business process Meeting Flow Modeling. If you've ever heard me talk about the three parts of an effective Meeting Operating System, you may recognize this term.
- Meeting Flow Model
- A Meeting Flow Model is a form of process documentation that highlights the main meetings used to achieve a business result.
Topics: meeting design
How do you meet respectfully with people you don't understand or agree with?
As we go into the holidays and strategic planning season, we have so many opportunities to bridge the chasms between us. But how?
Topics: tips & techniques
The 7 Most Frequently Asked Questions about Leading Engaging Meetings
Sep 30, 2019 by Elise Keith in tips & techniques, training (18 minute read)
Last week we launched Barbara MacKay's new Meeting School course on How to Lead Engaging Meetings. It's sweet. I took it and learned a bunch of handy new tips, and I had fun too. Barbara's a dynamic, warm presenter and a joy to watch.
Topics: tips & techniques, training
How To Establish an Effective Decision-Making Process for Your Team in 5 Simple Steps
Sep 16, 2019 by Elise Keith in leadership & facilitation, meeting design, strategy (24 minute read)
Many teams lack a clear process for making decisions. Others create decision-making processes that are plenty clear, but take forever. Most employ a confused mix, running some decisions through an agonizing gauntlet of analysis but leaving others up to the leader-of-the-day's whims.
These teams waste money and time. They also undermine the group's confidence and trust.
Who wants to work on a team where nothing gets done, because no one ever makes a decision without first checking and re-analyzing 97,000 times? Not me. Not you, I'm guessing.
None of us wants to work with a leader who makes arbitrary decisions based on secret criteria, either. While executive mandate sounds powerful, in reality it means that the leader couldn't get anyone else to back that decision with them, so they chose to bully it into being instead.
What works? And if your team doesn't have great decision making habits, how do you get started?
Topics: leadership & facilitation, meeting design, strategy