Are your meetings draining? Are you tired of how little they accomplish? Are they a Petri dish for conflict? Do people bring up past decisions to disagree with them?
Most meetings siphon off valuable time. They sap energy and erode positive relationships. They trigger fight-flight-flee responses: people either argue, dominate, don’t show up, or attend half-present by multi-tasking.That’s why, too often, they’re as dreaded and uncomfortable as a surgical procedure.
Despite this, we keep meeting, poorly and painfully, to try to get to decisions that will stick while thinking, “I’m dying here.”
“I’m off to yet another meeting that will waste my time.”
Is that what people say about meetings you lead? Yes, if you use group time to tell people about decisions you’ve already made. Yes, if you act as if you want their opinions, but your true motive is to convince them to “buy in” to what you’ve already decided. Yes, if you do most of the talking and none of the asking. Think of the cynicism, disengagement, and resentment you feel when you attend meetings led like that.
There is a better way.
Meetings can be a powerful place for making decisions that stick. When you invite others to offer their valuable perspectives, wisdom, and experience, you get Midas gold.
When you’re genuinely curious and open to what others want to say, they can help you see how what you think will work actually won’t. That saves you time and effort.
When others can reveal significant must-haves that didn’t occur to you, those new realizations lead to higher quality decisions.
When you discuss decisions rather than announce them, others can connect their underlying motivations (the ones you don’t know about!) to them. That fuels their engagement to help make those decisions stick.
Have meetings that energize people. Stop the painful waste of their time and energy and generate decisions that stick. Want to talk about how to do that in your team? Contact us.
