The document provides tips for effectively planning and running meetings. It recommends determining if a meeting is necessary, choosing the appropriate meeting type, planning the agenda and logistics, using a meeting canvas to engage attendees and document decisions, and following up with meeting notes and feedback. The key is putting in upfront work to define goals, attendees, agenda, and format to make meetings more productive and less of a waste of time.
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Meetings Done Right
1. | XPLANE 1XPLANE-IFY YOUR NEXT MEETING
XPLANE-IFY YOUR NEXT MEETING
MAY 2014
By Kathryn Jarrell, VP of Operations
2. | XPLANE 2XPLANE-IFY YOUR NEXT MEETING
Late or inattentive attendees, endless recapping and talking
in circles with little or no progress made, a waste of
everyone’s time. It’s enough to make you ask — Should we
abandon meetings altogether?
At XPLANE we believe meetings, when done correctly, can
be a valuable tool. The key is in how you plan and execute
your meetings. Here’s how XPLANE approaches them.
Meetings get a bad rap
3. | XPLANE 3XPLANE-IFY YOUR NEXT MEETING
First, do you even need to have a meeting? Stop and ask
yourself, what am I trying to achieve? Can it be achieved
faster or more effectively without calling the meeting?
If you need a meeting, what kind of meeting do you need
to have? This will influence everything from meeting
location to duration. Most meetings fall within the following
categories:
Decision Making / Problem Solving
Planning
Learning / Sharing
Brainstorming / Co-Creation
DECIDE
4. | XPLANE 4XPLANE-IFY YOUR NEXT MEETING
Meetings are generally won or lost before they even start.
It’s essential to think through the details of what, who,
when, where, and how. For a bulletproof meeting plan –
ask yourself these questions:
• What result are you trying to achieve? (This is your
goal)
• What decisions will be required?
• What information is needed to support or inform this
meeting?
• Who should have input? (These are your attendees)
• When is the best time (day/month/year) to have this
meeting?
• Where should we have this conversation (boss’ office?
a coffee shop? any old meeting room?)
• How much time is required to do this correctly?
• How can you engage the attendees in an effective way?
(framing questions, post up exercise, visual
presentation)?
PLAN
5. | XPLANE 5XPLANE-IFY YOUR NEXT MEETING
PLAN
Decision Making
• Purpose / Goal (the Framing
Question to answer)
• Options to Consider
• Plus / Delta those
• Discussion
• Decision
• Next Steps
• Align on end state you are trying to
achieve
• Key Milestones to get there
• Requirements / dependencies
• Risks / pitfalls
• Assign owners
• Next steps
• Framing Question to answer
• Independent idea generation
• Post up all ideas
• Sort similarities
• Have each person vote on 2-3
favorite ideas
• Next Steps
Brainstorming
Planning
Those answers will begin to inform an agenda – the key
ingredient to a successful meeting. Here are some
template agendas based on common meeting types:
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Back to the earlier question, how can you engage the attendees in an effective way? Consider creating a MEETING CANVAS. This is a
visual framework based off the meeting agenda which will help anchor and hold the meeting together.
DELIVER
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As the meeting transpires, fill out the canvas with key decisions and notes. This will focus the energy of the attendees and keep them
engaged. It also creates instant documentation of the meeting so meeting notes are already taken care of.
DELIVER
8. | XPLANE 8XPLANE-IFY YOUR NEXT MEETING
FOLLOW THROUGH
Without follow through, it’s like the meeting never
happened. Don’t forget to provide the meeting notes or
canvas to attendees with clear actions items and
corresponding deadlines. It’s also a best practice to get
feedback from attendees on how effective the meeting
was so you can continue to tweak and improve for next
time.
Doing all of this for a meeting is a lot of work, we know.
And not every meeting needs this level of effort, but for
the meetings critical to your organization, you’ll get better
results and a better experience.