End Tedious and Unproductive Meetings

We have all been in meetings where we have a meaty topic to discuss and then enthusiasm wanes as a few, then many, pile on their good ideas. You feel frustrated. They barely listen to one another or build on what’s offered. People start to shut down. Look at their watches. Worse, consensus does not happen. Somehow decisions get made—usually by the loudest, smartest, most extroverted, stubborn and/or highest in power. As one leader put it…

We had a meeting. A lot was said. Much was decided. I fear most of it will not get done. I’m in charge. How did this happen?

How To Change This?

One step towards change is to create a different start to a meeting. By intentionally asking questions designed to open up new neural pathways, you can get people out of their head. This reduces the pervasive workplace anxiety and leads to…YES! a more fun and effective discussion.

Why? It’s a Head vs. Heart issue. The head seeks to solves problems quickly. Although we need solid logical thinking, it is overdone in most settings. The heart is more emotionally based and big-picture and gives us more access to our vision and our values—our Why. We need a balance.

Appreciative Inquiry

Change the head/heart equilibrium with questions from the playbook of Appreciative Inquiry. Developed in the 1980s, David Cooperrider defines the tool like this.

Appreciative Inquiry is the co-operative search for the best in people, their organizations, and the world around them.

David Cooperrider, a doctoral student at the Department of Organizational Behavior at Case Western University, was working on his dissertation.

The thesis analyzed the Cleveland Clinic, one of our country’s leading medical centers. He was ready to use the traditional consultative approach: Identify what’s working, what’s wrong, find root causes and propose solutions to reach higher levels of desired outcomes.

However, he got stumped. There was a surprising level of staff morale, motivation and overall positivity. Plus they had great results with high innovation and cooperative relationships.

How do you create a meaningful thesis when there is minimal areas of need or weakness?

Fortunately, David’s advisor encouraged him to take a different approach by making his thesis topic a rigorous analysis of success—a case study in what works, how they achieved this and what others can learn from them.

With this, Appreciative Inquiry was born and has since helped countless organizations. Here are some applications to try out.

Methods to Try

Team Meeting Warm Up

At your next team meeting. Try these warm up questions.

• Share something you have most appreciated about our teamwork lately.
• What are you seeing?
• How has it impacted you?
• How has it increased our results?

Allow for some silence if people don’t jump in quickly. Some leaders like to allow for a few moments to write down thoughts before sharing. It tends to bring richer dialog. Listen and affirm all you hear. There are no right answers here.

Retreat Opening

You could start out a retreat with the following:

• What makes it important for you to be here at this gathering?
• At this time in our company’s history?
• At this time in the world?
• What are you here to help in the world?

It works well for leaders to write their answers privately, then share in triads for greater vulnerability rather than in the larger group of what might be 8-12 or more. Then triads share with the whole group. Inspiration becomes present. Hearts are opened.

Build Trust

If a team would like to more build trust, a dialog could be sequenced like this.

• When did you experience the greatest trust on a team?
• What was important to you about that experience?
• What factors made that team exceptional?
• What factors make it easier for you to trust others on a team?
• What reduces your ability to trust?

Again, it’s advisable to have individuals write down their answers privately, share it with 3-4 others, then facilitate a whole group discussion. Notice it directs the energy towards the positive and leads to increasingly more transparent disclosure, which is what has people bond and ultimately trust one another!

Create the Future Together

For a goal setting session, you can start out with a dreaming phase.

• What is your positive image for the future?
• What will it be like?
• What does it feel like?
• What exciting things are happening in our organization?
• How are our lives different?
• What are we impacting in the world?

Build Resilience In Tough Times

When a team is facing an obstacle, impending failure and fear is heightened or even paralyzing, you can develop emotional resilience and further the team’s united strength to face it with questions like these.

• What is a time when you overcame an important challenge?
• What unfolded as you moved through it?
• What did you learn?
• How did it change you?
• How can we apply all our experiences and learnings to our current situation?
• What are you taking away from all this?

And when a team is ready to discuss plans and implementation, Appreciative Inquiry can also lead the way.

• What ideas could lead us closer to that vision?
• Who might be involved?
• How might we start?

What Questions Are You Asking?

I’d love to hear your thoughts about this! What would you like to more positively impact? What help would you like with challenges you are facing?