Motivating Meetings

By Doug Franklin September 19, 2013

I lead an organization of around 20 people. Mostly in their 20’s and a few in their 30’s. Meetings are the last thing these folks want to do. Many of them come from a camp or outdoor ministry background. They love adventure and hate the office. So creating good meetings is a must for me.

I craft my meeting around two ideas: people need to know why they are meeting and meetings need to be collaborative. When a meeting is really motivational both of these ideas are present.

To get the why out (I like the way that sounds), I like to spend the first five minutes casting the vision for the meeting. Especially if it’s a regular meeting that happens each week. You might think that regular meetings don’t need this but they are the ones that need this most. I try and find a creative way of re-casting the vision each time. This brings focus to the meeting, one the most important parts of having a great meeting.

Crafting collaboration requires me to get out of the way. Leading motivational meeting means I speak less and the meeting participants speak more. Don’t think that leading means speaking, it actually means asking great questions and getting out of the way. Often this will produce disagreement. Good, disagreement is part of a motivational meeting. It means people feel free to speak their minds and feel like it’s a safe place to take risks.

If your meetings are all about people listening to you and not debating the topic you are going to have a flat meeting and nothing will change. Great meetings result in change.