How to Run Superb All Hands with Senia Maymin

What would it mean to run a superb all-hands meeting? How do you get people jazzed up so that they walk out abuzz with energy? What do you need to do to make that happen?

 Watch the whole conversation here, or play the embedded video below.

If you are about to run an all-hands meeting, it means that you're in charge. You want to make sure that something beneficial happens in the meeting.

Here are some tips that are applicable whether you're running a meeting for four to six people or you’re running one for thousands.

What needs to happen?

Most meetings occur either because a decision needs to be made or because information needs to be shared. In an all hands, the leader shares information with the team. What can you do so that your people are excited to walk into the meeting and even more excited when they walk out?

Let’s look at the beginning, middle, and end. The beginning and end need to be a little fun, but the middle is the juicy part. In the middle, you need to cover at least four points:

• Whom: For whom is this relevant, and who is involved in what ways?
• Why: What is my big picture?
• What: What do we need to be doing?
• How are we going to be doing it?

Now that we’ve summarized, let’s go back to the beginning for more detail.

Beginning

Do something at the beginning that surprises people. Put a haiku up on a slide. Or ask people to answer a question, such as "What's the most surprising thing you did in the past week?" or "What's the most unlikely compliment that someone has given you recently?" Doing something that causes people to think, especially something surprising or fun, can get people warmed up. The beautiful thing about virtual meetings is that people can type their answers in as you speak, and you can call out a few examples.  

Another way to start is to recognize someone or something. This might mean checking in ahead of the meeting to see who should be recognized, for what, and in what way. Remember, different people may want to be recognized in different ways.

Sometimes a standup comedian will pepper the audience with people prepared to respond in helpful ways. You could follow that lead by having people ready to pipe up with recognition that you can then build further. Or perhaps that could be someone who can tell a funny story about something that happened to their team. You want people to have a good time at your all hands.

Exception

Here’s an aside: What if you need to deliver bad news? What if you’re announcing layoffs, for example? Then don’t be playful. Be direct. Get right to the point. Treat the information seriously, even somberly.

Middle

Back to the usual all hands meeting. Now we get to the content. The whom-why-what-how structure addresses different ways of thinking. Based on research for the Hermann Brain Dominance Indicator, different people in the group will have different ways they think about the world and take in information. Answering Whom, Why, What, and How, you are likely to hit every preference. Everyone gets satisfied by the information you're sharing.

The order is up to you. 

Many start with the Why. Leaders are by definition the visionaries for their teams, and Why is all about vision.

I like to put the Who in front, because I’ve already done recognition and calling out different parts of the group at the beginning. Who is going to be running the things you’re going to talk about?

For the What, you know your business and what you need to cover.

Make sure to cover the How. There are people who think in terms of How. If you've spoken about the What but haven't covered the How, the meeting could feel unfinished for them.

Ending

I encourage you to leave people with something that they didn't expect coming into your all hands meeting. It could be a personal story. It could be asking people to answer whimsical questions. I just came out of a meeting in which we all answered, "What's a fun thing that you're looking forward to doing between now and when we meet again in a week?"

One of the most effective and serious people that I have ever worked with sometimes ended a meeting with the question, "What is something about you that's silly?" It changed the atmosphere. You can end with something strange, a quotation, a story, a question, something that people might not expect. Remember the peak-end rule in psychology: When they leave an event, people’s memories are most colored by the peak moment and by the end.

The peak might have been your why: Why are we on this mission? Why is this important? The peak is important, but so is the ending. Make the ending fun, enjoyable, interactive. Maybe engage with other people. Do something unexpected, because that keeps people wondering, "Hey, what is that leader up to? What can we expect from the next all hands?"

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