boardroom table, effective meeting, Joe Girard, table and chairsMore meetings? Hooray! Oh wait, you’re NOT saying that? Okay, well hopefully this post will help you out. Remember in my previous post I talked about:

Two things that kill productivity?

M & Ms.

Managers and Meetings.

You’ve been there before…you are sitting in a meeting and everyone is throwing ideas around the table and it seems like nothing is getting done?  People are saying;

  • “Well I think we should do this…”
  • “We should stop doing this…”
  • “I think we should change these things…”

I am 100% behind new ideas and challenging the normal ways, but…

 

The three little words for effective meetings are:

“BASED ON WHAT?”

Ask yourself and your team, “Based on what?”  Let’s get some data, insights, and some proof behind the idea to give it some legs and a chance to succeed.  When new suggestions come flying at us, it’s easy to get excited to start changing direction.  But to create more effective meetings, our teams should come prepared with a game plan of why this idea makes sense, what supporting info they have to back it up, and a plan on how to execute it.  Otherwise, you end up in a back-and-forth discussion that is based on opinions.  And it’s very hard to create a strategy based on opinions.  Accountability is the key to driving your teams forward.

[Tweet “It’s very hard to create a strategy based on opinions.”]

So next time you and your team gets together, have a more effective meeting by writing the three words BASED ON WHAT on the whiteboard, a piece of paper, or right on the table.  Adopt a culture around this idea so people come a bit more prepared.  Have everyone challenge each other to back up what they are saying.  But to be clear, this should never be in a confrontational way.  Just to hold our teams to a high standard of thinking ideas through completely.

  • Want to explore a new product offering?  Do some research on competitors products.  Look at how it would complement your current offerings.  Think about potential ROI and timelines to make it happen.  Look at what similar products are succeeding and the ways you could replicate that success.
  • Contemplating making changes to your website to increase conversions?  Do some A/B testing to see what works and doesn’t.  Use sites like Optimizely to test your ideas.
  • Thinking about changing up some of your sales process?  Pilot the new idea first, then present the findings at your meeting.  Explain how this could be scaled and how much time and resources you would need to accomplish the goal.
  • Looking at new technology?  Read some whitepapers and participate in webinars to get some data around best practices and usage.  Then map out how you could take advantage of it in your business.

We should always be reading, researching, and looking for insights in all sorts of places so we can leverage the power of information that’s out there!  Make sure you take the information one step further and map out how you would actually apply these new ideas.

And of course, always encourage brainstorming in a free flowing way, just not at every meeting.  Schedule a time for new ideas and opinions, but make sure that you take those ideas away and then build the data to support them afterwards.  You will start to get more out of your meetings and empower your teams to take charge and own their new initiatives.

Boardroom, effective meeting, chairs, Joe Girard

I hope this helps you have more effective meetings and I would love to hear your comments below on other ways you get more out of your meetings.

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    5 replies to "3 Little Words to Use for Effective Meetings"

    • […] other day I wrote about the three little words to use in your meetings – “BASED ON WHAT” and explained that we need to make sure that decisions should be […]

    • […] we wonder why it’s “not working.”  Remember those three little words – BASED ON WHAT?  If you aren’t spending time each week putting your eyes on your business, you might as […]

    • […] have said it before, and I will say it again: Two things kills productivity. M & Ms – Managers and Meetings. I have sat through countless meetings with managers who all want to “discuss” the […]

    • […] Become better scientists. Be okay with taking the time to look at the truth of everything you do. I constantly work on building frameworks into all of my activities and for my teams. When you have the right steps to a process and areas you can zero-in on, you then have something to test and you can be much more creative within a framework. For example, I use a three part conversation in all of my sales calls which allows me to decrease the mental activity and be more present and authentic. Don’t simply do the same stuff over and over without testing and learning. Remember these words: Based on What? […]

    • […] provide data that backs up your idea and helps others decide more easily. Check out business coach Joe Girard’s page for more […]

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