Meetings galore or meetings no more? We obviously need meetings to do meaningful work together, but we can definitely do a better job of identifying when we should and shouldn’t have them. That’s right, there are unnecessary times to host a meeting; they’re not always needed.

Unnecessary meetings waste both time and money.

It is not obvious how quickly the cost of ineffective meetings compound. Take a 1-hour meeting with 8 executives or creatives: you aren’t just wasting 1-hour of the company. Squandering those 60 minutes means also wasting the collective total of 8 hours of the people in the room’s time. You take away the potential for other strategies and creative work they could have been doing within that hour. And the terrible meeting interruption may ruin the other individuals’ deep workflow for the rest of the day. They might need an entire day to recover and get back to the flow state they were in prior to the pointless meeting.

A terribly planned meeting can also lead to unnecessary decision fatigue–or the inability to make sound decisions due to scattered thinking and/or a forced decision-making process. So, it is important to be damn sure why you are having a meeting before you gather people together. Just like a surgeon ensures that the surgery is necessary and well thought out, your meeting should have a clear purpose, the right people in attendance, and all the resources you need to have a productive and effective meeting. 

One easy route to take the magic immediately out of a meeting is to have a meeting that is just a status update. Think through the objective of the meeting ahead of time before spending any more resources or wasting people’s time. If there isn’t a clear purpose and work to be done in the meeting, then it would be like scheduling a surgery without having anything to fix. 

We recommend creating your own Should We Even Have a Meeting Test that is simple and shared across your organization. To pass the test, ask yourself the following questions:

1. Is there a clear purpose for gathering people to meet? 
2. Is there an artifact/prototype to review? 
3. Is there going to be an artifact /prototype that we create after workshopping in the meeting? 
4. Is there going to be a series of decisions made that alter the direction of the project?
5. Is this essentially a status update in disguise? 

If you answer ‘yes’ on question #5, then your meeting is better off as an asynchronous email or a write-up in your company’s project management software. If you answer ‘yes’ to any of (or combinations of) questions #1-4, then your meeting is likely worthy of an official team gathering and it’s time to move forward with planning. 

Another pro-tip is that once you elaborate on the questions of the test, you can share the answers (Questions #1- #4 for example) with all of the attendees of the meeting prior to the meeting so they know what to expect. You can again mention this information at the start of your meeting to ensure that everyone is on the same page before you dive in. Clarity is comfort and your attendees will understand why this meeting is necessary, and hopefully, they look forward to contributing.

Before you schedule your next meeting, pause, take the Should We Even Have a Meeting Test, and identify the meeting’s objective and trajectory. Then and only then should you move forward with planning an effective meeting. 

Want to learn more about how to have Magical Meetings?

Check out Douglas Ferguson and John Fitch’s upcoming book: The Non-Obvious Guide to Magical Meetings (No Matter Who is in the Room) and our online Magical Meetings Course.

The post Wait, We Actually Don’t Need a Meeting appeared first on Voltage Control.

Lumos Pharma is a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on developing new therapies for people with rare diseases. Its focus is prioritized in areas where the pathophysiology is clear and medical need is highest. Lumos Pharma’s mission and strategy are to deliver safe and effective therapies to patients via time and cost-efficient drug development. 

In light of a recent merger, their human resources team wanted to explore a way to combine the two company cultures and build team unity across departments in the new virtual landscape.

“These sessions really helped us learn quite a bit about ourselves, our co-workers, and who we are as a team…we feel energized, excited, and impassioned about our work.” —Maggi Gentle, Senior Director of Human Resources at Lumos Pharma 

The Workshop

Lumos Pharma participated in a two-day teamwork dynamics workshop centered around the Clifton StrengthsFinder framework: an evaluation of 34 CliftonStrengths themes that reflect a person’s natural way of thinking, feeling, and behaving. The team completed the StrengthsFinder assessment to identify each team members’ core strengths and how they can be combined to form a healthy, productive company work dynamic. 

Identified goal: Focus on a way to help build our team unity in the virtual world we have found ourselves in. 

Day 1

We spent the first day diving deep into all aspects of the CliftonStrengths assessment results at an individual level and team level. 

The Process:

The team began with a team-building activity before diving into the work. Each team member added a picture of their favorite book in a “collective bookshelf” constructed in a MURAL template and we discussed our choices. 

Then, we observed a Macro View of the company’s Strengths dynamics—across teams and different organizations—among the four different CliftonStrengths domains: Executing, Influencing, Relationship Building, and Strategic Thinking. 

Team members then created personal profiles, based on their individual results, in a collective Mural board. Each person included self-reflection stickies with helpful mindsets and things to be aware of moving forward. They placed the profiles into one of three sections that corresponded to their main CliftonStrengths theme: Execution, Influencing, Relationships, or Strategy. The Mural board serves as an evergreen, transparent resource to get to know other team members and their strengths and refer back to when needed.  

Day 2

We worked through individual and company-wide blindspots and eventually looked at all company 2020 goals through the lens of what strengths could be leveraged to best achieve those goals. 

The Process:

The workshop narrative was set up so that each person could first appreciate themselves, then others, and eventually the entire team. We identified and worked through individual and collective blindspots to ideate unique strengths recipes for company success. The team first talked about the blindspots of each person’s strengths to be more mindful of. This knowledge was then used to workshop strategic strengths combinations within teams to create effective and productive team dynamics. We were challenged to appreciate people and teams through the lens of their strengths rather than only focusing on a person’s work title.

Next, we broke into four teams to 1) Look at identified 2020 company goals 2) Ask important, high-level questions surrounding those goals. To better understand the information, we organized the questions by color-coding stickies in a Mural board in accordance with the domain they most gravitated towards. 

The Outcome:

The Lumos Pharma team gained valuable insight into their individual strengths and their co-workers’ strengths, and by extension, they better understand who they are as a team. They have been able to assess their team dynamic more thoroughly and accurately based on who possesses which strengths.

“Are we utilizing our employees to their strengths or forcing them to work in other areas?” That is something Maggi Gentle, Senior Director of Human Resources at Lumos Pharma, says she continues to discuss with management. “I believe that the workshop helped us learn more about one another. We engaged with team members we don’t normally engage with and the discussion around goals was very inclusive. I also feel that the work around strengths was very enlightening for our management team, specifically our CEO.”

Lumos Pharma’s next step is to continue to work on company goals and the development of its mission statement and values—now better informed by team members’ strengths. 

“We learned about the strengths of our co-workers and how we might be able to collaborate with others to complement our own strength make-up. Many leaders are able to identify the strengths of their team members and play to them well. It is a very powerful tool for us as individuals to identify our own strengths. It is very empowering and affirming to name our strengths and embrace them. It is my hope that the two afternoons spent getting to know our own strengths and those of our team help in some of our exciting upcoming projects.” 

Looking for an Expert Facilitator?

Voltage Control offers a range of options for innovation training, design sprints, and design thinking facilitation. Please reach out to us at info@voltagecontrol.co if you want to talk.

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Many of us have adopted the mantra “work hard, play hard,” as a method to construct our work and social lives around; “the harder I work, the harder I get to play.” While this can be an effective way to find balance in our lives and motivate us to get our work done so we can then enjoy ourselves, it lends itself to only allowing fun when we aren’t at work.

What if you could collaborate with your inner child to bring a playful mindset to work?

We argue that not only can you, but you should.

Not only do these examples serve as reminders to not take ourselves too seriously, but they also wake us up to the realization that we have lost touch with the genius found within our inner child. Why is this important?

To make the most of our creativity, we need to unlock our sense of playfulness again.

We all still have the inner child, we just need to access it. Luckily, there is a shortcut to do so: focus on verbs rather than nouns in our thinking and while we work.

Work in Verbs

As professionals, we usually focus on nouns more than we do verbs. In other words, we tend to assign tasks and work expectations with rigid words and concepts (adult brain) that limit our creativity and productivity (child brain). It can be difficult to keep our adult-minds from taking over more than they should. But with a seemingly simple change of language, we open ourselves up to more possibilities and overall success.

Let’s consider a few noun-centered ways of being vs. verb-centered ways of being:

• “We need to focus on [insert industry jargon and acronym].” vs. “Let’s imagine what is possible.”
• “We need the best product ASAP.” vs. “Let’s prototype together.”
• “This is what the user wants.” vs. “I am going to listen to the user’s needs.”
• “That will never work” vs. “I’m curious. Time to gather feedback!”
• “What about our competitors?” vs. “Let’s create magic for the customer.”
• “Our company needs better design.” vs. “Let’s all take 5-minutes to sketch a concept.”

Kids are masters at living in the verb. Just watch a few of them doing arts and crafts or playing on a playground. They are verbing more than they are nouning. They care less about being an official “artist,” and they don’t seem to even care about the final product of their creations. They are just “making art” or “building something.” There is an emphasis on the joy of the process, rather than obtaining a specific title or end result.

Kids at Work

I observed the child’s mind at play while briefly babysitting a friend’s child, James, while he went out to run errands. James simply sat for an hour doodling — emphasis on the verb, “doodling.” He did not care about a noun like “the final sketch,” or “the design,” which we as professionals seem to focus on too much. There he was, “doodling.” I could have hung his doodles on the wall or burned them in the fireplace — it would have all been the same to him.

For James, art and creation is a form of play. When we are playing, it is something we do for its own sake, rather than the purpose of praise, results, or politics. Kids are like monks in this way. They can focus solely on the activity at hand and become a more open channel for ideas and creativity. This beginner’s mind is unlocked. They are in the verb rather than obsessing on the noun on constraining themselves.

Play Increases Success

Just like children learn best when they’re playing, so do adults. According to a study by the journal Procedia–Social and Behavioral Sciences, “Fun and enjoyment could prove to be as beneficial and important as it is currently considered in children’s learning.” When we enjoy the task we are doing, we are then in a more relaxed mood and more receptive to the information we are learning or retaining. This directly translates to more achievement in the workplace.

Studies show that when you have fun at your job, you are more successful. Happier employees are 12–20% more productive in the workplace, according to a research by University of Warwick’s Centre for Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy. Having fun also improves communication and collaboration, according to Dimensional Research.

So how do we incorporate more of the child’s mind at work?

Quieting the Adult Mind

When leading meetings or facilitating workshops, I have found that the adult mind’s over-emphasis on nouns is what causes us to spin into arguments that prevent us from designing new solutions or innovating.

There is a time and a place for locking in our adult mind, but so much of our work deserves boundless creativity. We break down the walls when we embody a verb instead of holding tight to a noun.

If each person in the room brings their child’s mind when we do creative work, we are all able to explore ideas freely, without obsessing on how “perfect” the results might be. We are ready to go on a journey to find the right idea instead of trying to get the idea just right.

I start my innovation or design meetings with those images of kid’s homework because the point is to detach ourselves from the results. We can all take it a step further and have fun with the verbs we all love so much. Designing, making, collaborating, dreaming, laughing, caring, and playing like we are kids again.

Don’t we want these verbs in more of our meetings?

Want to learn more about incorporating the child’s mind in meetings?

Voltage Control facilitates design thinking workshops, innovation sessions, and Design Sprints. Please reach out at info@voltagecontrol.com for a consultation.

The post Bring your inner child’s mind to your next meeting appeared first on Voltage Control.

How many work meetings do we fondly remember?

This was a thought I had after attending yet another meeting that felt pointless. An hour went by, some people were there in person but not really there (they were on their phones), we weren’t sure who was facilitating the meeting, and the agenda was loose. We didn’t get any work done.

These memes do a great job of explaining how I felt:

I think it is safe to say that most work meetings are like this. If you are lucky, your meeting has a clear agenda and involves a small group of participants who aren’t distracted. If you are really fortunate, the meeting has an excellent facilitator who keeps everyone in the room enthusiastic, and you all focus on getting work done in the meeting.

But let’s be real here, a lot of the meetings we attend are pointless. How common is this problem? Ready to have your mind blown?

Pointless meetings will cost companies $541B in 2019.

$541B…What!? When I first looked at these numbers, I just about spit out my coffee. I read into the report put together by Doodle, and it was clear that the magnitude of the problem was real. I haven’t been looking at meetings the same.

I have been pondering on how the cost of terrible meetings could accumulate to such an enormous amount. On a recent walk, I thought through some basic math on how the cost of a useless 1-hour meeting can add up so quickly.

We might think of a 1-hour meeting as a 1-hour cost to our company, but that isn’t true unless there is only 1 person there, which doesn’t make it a meeting.

If it is an 8-person meeting, it is really an 8-hour meeting because it is using up an hour of each person’s quality attention. If it is a pointless meeting without a facilitator helping everyone get work done, that is 8-hours of quality work taken from the organization. One pointless meeting can add up to an entire workday wasted.

Considering the cost of just a single 8 person, 1-hour meeting, it is no longer a shock to me that ~24 billion hours will be lost to pointless meetings in the next year. We all have felt the pain of a meeting where no quality work was accomplished. I was intrigued that the Doodle report discovered that 100% of the report’s participants (a combination of 6,528 professionals and analysis of over 19 million meeting responses) described poorly organized meetings as a waste of time or money.

So what is the solution to a poorly organized meeting that ends up feeling pointless?

A facilitator who knows how to conduct room intelligence.

The business meetings that I still feel fond of involved a facilitator who helped us all get work done in the meeting. We didn’t feel like we had our time stolen from us, but that we had jumped ahead on our progress. A facilitator who has the skills to control a room is essential for a meeting to be progressive rather than painful.

I feel one of the few good reasons to hold a meeting is that the collective intelligence in a room is stronger than one participant. No single person is smarter or more creative than the whole room, and this is why we have meetings. We want to gather to harness that collective intelligence and get work done. But another gathering without a facilitator will likely end up feeling pointless.

A great meeting facilitator conducts a room of specialists just like a conductor holds a symphony together. They both control the room. A meeting without a facilitator is like a symphony without a conductor.

A facilitator who conducts a room well is competent at:

• Protecting the room from distractions
• Guiding everyone through a clear and timely set of discussions and activities
• Controlling the room by conducting everyone around the same focal point
• Creating an even playing field so that they can extract the wisdom from all participants, regardless of personality type
• Holding space for people to feel psychologically safe as participants
• Using an array of exercises that keep everyone engaged and entertained
• Ensures the meeting ends with accomplishment and limited ambiguity

To help rid us of shitty meetings that waste our time, we need better facilitators.

A meeting without a facilitator is like a symphony without a conductor.

Our ability to facilitate meetings, both virtual and in-person, is a vital skill for the dynamic, decentralized, autonomous work we all participate in today. Can we imagine if we start doing quality work in the meetings? Can we imagine looking forward to a meeting because we feel assured there is a facilitator who will help foster room intelligence to get alignment, direction, and progress on the project our team is enthusiastic about?

Paul Axtell, author of Meetings Matter shares that,

“Any collective that masters the art of leading (and participating in) effective meetings will see an array of tangible benefits in completing projects to time and budget, achieving their specific strategic aims, and doing all of this with less human resource — which are all directly related to successful communication..”

The companies and people who become facilitators of effective meetings will thrive and preserve positive work cultures.

As a facilitator myself, I have been successful in using several methods and principles to control a room and run more effective meetings.

• I use the “Note and Vote” from Design Sprints to prevent groupthink.
• I deploy Liberating Structures for helping a team make entertaining, collaborative decisions. They enable tiny shifts in the way we meet, plan, decide and relate to one another.
• I lead with a “Do the work in the meeting, not after” viewpoint
• I follow the “No Prototype No Meeting” philosophy from Dennis Boyle.
• On calendar invites, I replace the word “meeting” with titles like “prototype review”, “make [something you need to make] session”, or “pivot or persevere decision”. The reason is to prevent us from just having a meeting where we semi-update each other and instead come to the meeting with something to review, make, or decide on — which in theory should lead to less “meetings.

I am constantly learning and trying out new methods for running effective meetings because I want to be a great facilitator. A great facilitator helps prevent a meeting from procreating — one meeting leading to another meeting leading to yet another meeting. A great facilitator extracts room intelligence and makes the most of the group in the room.

A great facilitator helps prevent a meeting from procreating.

There isn’t one way to control a room and run an effective meeting. In fact, there are hundreds of proven methods and frameworks that any leader can benefit from.

I realized that I am not alone in wanting to save us from yet another pointless meeting. It is why we started Control The Room. Control The Room is a Facilitator Summit with the goal of bringing together facilitators of all kinds to build rapport, learn, and grow together. An intimate gathering for people to actively upgrade their facilitation skills so they can get quality work done in their meetings.

I will be there sharing facilitation skills and learning from other facilitators so that we can all help reduce the enormous cost associated with ineffective meetings. I hope you will attend and take your learnings back to your meetings.

The post Conducting Room Intelligence appeared first on Voltage Control.

My mother often said that before I marry someone, I should embark on an extensive, non-luxurious trip into a developing country with my potential spouse. Her reasoning is that within the challenging moments we would encounter, they will reveal their true nature.

I haven’t found my future wife yet, but I do believe challenging situations allow you to observe a meaningful relationship — especially people you are working with.

I have had a lot of talented teammates on my projects, and I have found that character trumps talent.

Talents are hard to acquire if the person doesn’t have the right values and discipline. You can have a “crazy talented” designer or engineer that can produce a product in record time, but if they don’t embrace empathy, they are unlikely to create something people want to buy. 

I want to highlight what good character is by sharing my appreciations for a former teammate named Douglas Ferguson. I sincerely enjoyed working alongside him and it is because of his character. Hopefully, you can look for these same characteristics in your next business relationship.

Douglas and I have worked on a few technology projects, and we both are deeply obsessed with the early stages of a venture. We have led design sprints, conducted innovation workshops, and released a lot of product features together. The start of any venture is challenging and they can fail quickly, so having a foundational team built on good character is vital to successful traction. Douglas and I leaned on each others strengths to best collaborate, and from his strengths he has a few essential traits that I now look for when recruiting teammates.

Douglas embraces continuous improvement.

On a frequent basis, Douglas would ask me what I believed he could do better. After I had given feedback, he took it a step further by involving me in the ideation of methods of approaching those improvements.

Douglas is able to continuously improve because he is aware of his ego and not afraid to admit when it gets in the way.

Self-awareness is a high form of intelligence, and he is not afraid to admit when his ego is getting in the way. We are all guilty of thinking we are perfect, and it is admirable when someone can acknowledge when they need to shut the ego off to make progress.

Douglas thinks more about the system than his role.

Douglas has a high enough IQ to regularly be the strongest contributor in the room, and instead of exploiting this to get a lot of credit or dominate the discussion, he spends his mental energy thinking about the entire system and how everyone in the project can be optimized to reach the best product/service. Having a wholistic thinker like Douglas on your team is important to prevent an unhealthy collection of separate agendas.

Douglas puts in the work and discipline powers his approach.

I trained boxing at 6:30am with Douglas for over a year. He was consistently the first person at the gym and had the highest attendance out of anyone. Many in the class were sore and tired when their alarms sounded, and they would skip a few sessions for more time with their pillow. I am guilty of it myself, but Douglas was always there. Discipline is key because there are many moments in a project that are less enjoyable, and you need teammates you can power through the moments that aren’t so fun.

Sure, Douglas is a talented engineer who can lead a company into rapid feature development, but that isn’t what makes him a great teammate. Coding, running project management software, and rapidly solving problems are hard, technical skills. The excellent characteristics I reference above are what I consider “real skills.” While getting my altMBA, we learned that culture will always defeat strategy, and the characters on your team is what makes up your culture.

I hope in your search for future teammates you spend more time looking at their character rather than the list of technical skills they have. With a teammate like Douglas who has excellent values, any journey you take with them will lead to greatness.

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