Internal Communication 101: Make Your Meetings Effective

The all hands myth in?office meetings

“Let’s announce this at the all hands call next Friday,”?directs Anton, the Global Head Of Finance.??

“Trudy can you and the comms team pull something together by Tuesday? Is there any chance of getting a customer to say something? Oh, and let’s get Mark from marketing to do 10 minutes on the new campaign.”

“Is there a theme or specific area of focus you want to cover?”?asks Trudy, tentatively.

“The main thing is the new acquisition, some people will be freaking out about their jobs of course, and let’s also do a bit on last quarter’s performance, the update on the restructure and how we are doing on Zeus, the transformation program. Allow for 10 minutes of Q&A at the end. Thanks, everybody.”

All hands calls, also known as town hall meetings, see that gathering of the troops. The?‘all hands on deck’?event, where the executives talk to the gathered throng about what is going on.

The example above, is, sadly, not uncommon in?internal communication.

Most leaders?try and make the?all hands meeting?more relevant, engaging, and valuable than the scenario described. However, we have seen situations across the world where the?office all hands meeting?was a wasted opportunity, or worse, left employees more confused and anxious.

It is a common myth is that the all hands communicate clearly what is going on, and everyone attending will leave feeling informed, inspired, and encouraged. Some companies do this very well in their?office meetings. Here I am thinking of Zoom (as they should), Hubspot, Pixar, LinkedIn, and Atlassian.

An effective all hands meeting?takes work.?

Why does?internal communication?matter?

Many employees arrive at all hands, on-screen or in person, with an attitude called ‘premature closure’.?Already sceptical about the value or even purpose of these events.

I recall one sales manager for a large technology company, say to me, ”My job is to protect my team from all the bullshit and spin that comes from global. These?all hands meetings?are waste of time, so I tell my team to log on, turn their cameras off, and get on with other work.”

This is telling.

We have also heard of?all hands meetings?where attendees are asked to write questions or make comments in chat. This can turn ugly. Depending on the region, HR demand that employees post anonymously, and it becomes a ‘release the trolls’ experience.

This is telling.

Rather than blame the employees for their negativity or hostility regarding?office meetings, reflect on what lies underneath their scepticism or cynicism. It must be drawn from previous experience.

How can?internal communication?be improved?

Ensure you?design and deliver?an effective, engaging meeting:

1. Ask the right questions
2. Start strong – relevance, relevance, relevance
3. Keep it simple
4. Talk?with?the audience/camera (not?the PowerPoint slide)
5. Close strong

But what does that look like? Let’s step through each step, one by one.

1. Ask the right questions before?office meetings

The most important question you can ask, when preparing for an?all hands meeting, is this…

“What is the outcome from the ‘audience’ perspective?”

The word audience is important. From the Latin?audientia,?leading to the verb,?audio,?meaning ‘I hear’ or ‘I listen’, the importance of what people hear at an all hands meeting is also blended with what they see, and experience.

An audience typically experiences a performance – a concert, a show, a presentation, a play – and an effective meeting is a performance.

So, what is the outcome from the audience’s perspective?

Here are the four subsets of that question…?

At the end of the?all hands meeting…

1. What will the audience?feel??(experience)
2. What will the audience?think??(know)
3. What will they?do??(call to action)
4. What will they?commit to??(accountability)?

Make sure your agenda has been planned to get the results you want from all four of these questions. If you want support for a new sustainability initiative – you might want to inspire them with a powerful sustainability story, explain who you need specifically to help and ask them to reach out directly to their line manager if they wish to contribute.

2. Start strong in all?internal communication?– relevance, relevance, relevance

To read the rest of the 5 steps to improve communication in the workplace, you can access the full article on our website here.