5 Ways to Transform Your Meetings by Moving Past Sharing Information to Generating Insights

We’ve all attended?those meetings —the ones comprised of a sequential stream of updates. After each presentation and perfunctory call for questions, we slide along, poorly engaged, to the next droning update. The meeting ends—much to the relief of its participants—with a box checked for communicating, and a shared sense that not much business was conducted.

Wouldn’t it be great if the?number of insights ?gleaned paralleled the?increase in the number of meetings ?since the onset of the pandemic? Sometimes, all we need is an update, but do we really need to convene a meeting for it? Or every lightweight topic? As we look to a future of hybrid work and increasing rates of burnout, we can?maximize the yield from critical, heavy-duty meetings ?by converting time spent sharing information into an investment that harvests crucial insights instead.

Here are five ways to squeeze more out of the hours spent in meetings.

1.??????Streamline information sharing before the meeting.?Subject experts often overshare details that are less relevant to their audience. Create a template and provide guidance about what and how much presenters should share. Urge them to answer the question, “What do I want my audience to do with this information?” If there’s no concrete answer, skip that information. Then either establish an expectation that participants will pre-read, or develop a?process similar to Amazon’s , dedicating the first 15 minutes to reading a document together instead of devoting most of the meeting to information-sharing presentations.

2.??????Reduce repetition during the first round of “what” discussions.?Once information is shared, reduce the obvious reactions to a minimum by asking questions like, “Who has a different reaction?” or, “Raise your hand if you agree with what Susan said.” By streamlining the initial round of reactions, we can move on to less traversed but more important terrain.

3.??????Harvest ideas from a second round of “so what” discussions.?Often the first round comprises data-gathering questions or high-level responses such as, “Good job,” “Thank you for the work,” or, “I disagree; I don’t see an issue with topic X.” Circle back for a second round of comments to generate deeper insights. Tee up this discussion with questions like, “Now that we have enough information about the subject, how do you think it will help us achieve our strategy?” “To what extent will this idea differentiate our market position?” “What would we risk if we proceeded?” Frame questions that invite participants to think about the implications of the work, so the conversation progresses from “what” to “so what?”

4.??????Reflect during a third round of “and what else” discussions.?Powerful insights aren’t just derived from the content discussed but from?reflecting on what was said or not said . After the “so what” discussion, encourage reflection by asking, “What were common themes in our discussion?” “What are outliers?” “What was not said?” Teams often pay attention to the louder themes and miss important signals hiding behind whispers or unmentioned items. Push to think past areas of agreement to uncover diverse viewpoints, stretch beyond our own echo chambers and serve a broader set of constituents.

5.??????Close with “now what” actions.?After successive rounds of discussions on the same topic, rather than a serial procession of subjects, identify emerging action items and the appropriate process for follow through. Many meetings stir up great ideas only to have them fizzle with a lack of follow through. Capturing key points and?promoting a “now what” discussion ?and level of accountability ensures our ideas take root.?

Most meetings suck up time in step one, then rush to step five during the last few minutes, failing to?address what really needs to happen . By skipping the steps in between, they often act upon the symptom rather than cause of an issue.

Updates are important. But devoting precious meeting time solely to the dissemination of information depletes energy and divides attention. Sharing data efficiently frees meeting time to generate ideas, solutions and foresight. We can look forward to meetings as opportunities for significant accomplishment, rather than downtime to process email.

This article first appeared on Forbes in June 2021. https://www.forbes.com/sites/sabinanawaz/2021/06/22/5-ways-to-transform-your-meetings-by-moving-past-sharing-information-to-generating-insights/?sh=4ce91f8c753d

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