IT’S IN THE CAN!
Many of us appreciate the use of metaphors in helping us to understand apparently complex and unfathomable situations – they simplify and give us a new and often fresh prospective on things.
So, let’s imagine that our meetings have certain similarities to the way in which a TV film crew operates. This analogy doesn’t necessarily apply to all types of meetings, but I believe you will find it does apply to many.
HOW MUCH IS THIS COSTING US?
Film crews don’t come cheap – they have a lot of expensive equipment which needs to be used effectively, and they all need to be together in the same place at the same time – the logistics are rarely simple if we want the ‘best’ people on the set. The quicker we can get the team in and out, the quicker they can get back to the studio for the ‘post-production’ or move on to the next assignment.
ARE WE ASKING THE RIGHT QUESTIONS?
Any Interviewer worth their salt will make sure that they ask the most on topic and incisive questions possible. There is not much point in interviewing the President about his favourite meal when there is an ongoing natural disaster. We also can’t just make up these questions on the spur of the moment, so important research needs to be done before the ‘interview’. What’s more, the way in which the questions are posed will influence the answers which are produced. What can we do to make sure that we get good, sincere contributions from everyone in the room?
HAVE THE ACTORS READ THEIR SCRIPTS?
Of course, any meeting where the participants turn up and simply recite their lines is of little use to us. However, all actors need to understand the role that they have been asked to interpret and to bring that character to life during the scenes. At the end of the day, the script should just be a platform from which the actors launch themselves to express fully the character of the person they are playing within the given scene.
ARE WE SEEING EVERYTHING?
Whenever someone, particularly someone with power (be it through their position in the organization or their status as an opinion leader) interjects into the conversation, the camera will tend to zoom in on them. If we only have the one camera operator, we will miss out on what is happening in the rest of the room. We can’t all be Camera operators all the time, but the ability to see what is going on in the room and to react to important signals of potential disagreement, unanswered questions and suppositions is vital for the understanding and alignment of a group. To do this, as well as a Director closely watching the monitors, we need awareness from the whole group – we can’t expect the Director to do everything!
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HAVE WE GOT ANY BACKGROUND NOISE?
The same also applies to the Sound engineers, as well as watching reactions, we need to listen both to what is being said, how it is being said, and what is not being said. It’s the reason why there are so many different kinds of microphone! Make sure you are getting the best quality sound possible and deal with any background noise you might be picking up!
ARE WE RECORDING THIS?
The crew is here and ready to do it’s job, set up the lighting, ask the right questions, create the right atmosphere and manage the time available of all those involved. But what happens if the crew get back to the studio and realize that nobody had slotted their SD cards into their equipment? How often do your meetings end up with individuals walking away with the notes they have taken (or not) without having shared them? Here is a little indicator to test one aspect of the quality of your meetings; if every time you go to a meeting room you see the same things written on the whiteboard or flipchart, your meeting culture is relying too much on individual perceptions rather than group alignment.
IS THIS WHAT WE HAD IN MIND?
The role of the Director is fundamental, but the final cut should not be something visible only to the Director. They need to be able to get this across to all of those involved, camera, sound, lighting, interviewers and actors, everybody needs to know what they are producing and the part that they all play in that production. It is the job of the Director to help ensure that everybody is aware of what is happening at any point of time. Are we getting the shots that we wanted? Have we got enough light at the back of the room? Is there anything missing? For some reason the Director is often perceived as the boss, and all to often it’s the boss who leads meetings, but a Director should really be seen as a Coordinator, capable of constantly zooming in and out to pick up on fine details and put them in the right place on the big picture. That’s why encouraging people other than the Team leader to manage meetings is a good practice to follow regularly.
Which of the above roles are you and your teams good at covering? Which roles do you need to improve? If there is more than one role you’d like to work on, rather than trying to deal with all of them simultaneously, choose just one and concentrate on improving it over a month or two. You may well find that the other roles improve as well.
Please share your experiences here and feel free to get in touch to bounce around a few ideas about improving your meeting culture!
LIGHTS, CAMERA, ACTION!
Thanks to J?rgen ROSSINI