Steps for successful meetings - Step 2: Pick the activities

Hi and welcome to the 15 Steps to Run Successful Meetings series. Let's take a look at step number 2, picking the activities. This is the second step while you're still preparing your meeting. You haven't even sent an invitation yet, but you do need to pick some activities. Now, the reason we do this is activities support the purpose. In step number 1, we talked about the topic, the purpose, and the output. For your meeting. Those are the 3 things that will set you up for a successful time. Now, whatever you're trying to do, you're going to have some activities that support this. This could be brainstorming. It could be choosing between different options. It might be having a presentation of information to a team. It might be having a debate. There are lots of things you can do and lots of different activities that support them, but it starts with the purpose, when you know the reason that you're bringing people together in the meeting, you've got a clear idea of what you're going to do. And then the output is what you produce. The activities help you get there. Now, if you don't do this, if you don't choose activities, you're going to really waste time for people in the meeting. It'll be less effective and you'll have a lower quality output. Knowing what you need to do, knowing your purpose and output, is not enough to make sure you're doing it in the most efficient way. If you wanted to review options but you didn't present those options, you're going to have trouble getting everyone in the room to understand what the 2 things are that they're choosing between. And you may end up taking too long, so wasting time and being less effective because you're not choosing the best way to deliver that purpose. So how do you pick? Activities for your meeting? Well, as I've mentioned a couple of times, it starts with the purpose and the output. When you know these 2 things, you can then choose the activities that best support and best deliver what you need. Now, probably the easiest way to describe this is to give you an example. So let's pretend that I was running a meeting or I was setting up a meeting in which the topic doesn't matter. You can pick your own, but the purpose is to review some options and then the output is going to be a decision. Which option are we going to use? This could be in any industry, any topic, any team, but the purpose is review those options and then the output is a decision. What are the kind of activities that I would need to have in this meeting for it to be a success? Well, there's got to be a presentation of the options. That could be a stand-up presentation with slides, it could be presenting a document for people to read, but there's still some kind of presentation of the Options. Then there's— in my meeting, I want there to be a discussion so we can make sure we understand it, talk about pros and cons and so on, decide what our decision criteria are. Then maybe there'll be a vote and a decision. These are 4 simple but important activities that will happen in the meeting. So if my purpose is to review options and the output is a decision, I know that the activities are going to be present the stuff, discuss it, vote, and then decide. Once I've got this, I now have the structure for my meeting. And when I have that, I'm far more likely to have a successful meeting, which is why step number 2 for having a successful meeting is pick the activities.