Three simple questions that will change your boring meetings forever.

When there’s a fire, a fire extinguisher is helpful.

But only if you know how to use it.
You usually don’t have time to read a manual.
It just has to work, and work fast.

I bought a fire extinguisher last week.
I looked for instructions in vain.
But instructions weren’t necessary.
On the fire extinguisher was a button with a bold 1.
And a second with a bold 2.
That’s it.
Without reading you know exactly what to do.

It’s often the same with meeting preparation.
No time.
Sometimes no desire to do so.
Or no idea.
This leads to bad meetings.
No results.
Without the desire to continue implementing a topic.
What many lack is what the fire extinguisher has.
A simple way that works.

And now, I’ll show you my simple but highly effective way.
Because you only need to find an answer on three questions while preparing.
But just on the right ones.

The first question is:
What should be different after this meeting?

Sounds easy to answer, but for many people it’s not.
If you struggle with this at first, don’t worry.
You’re not alone.
And more importantly, it gets easier with time.

What helps are answers from others.
Such as:
We have the same understanding of the goal.
Everyone knows what they have to do.
We know how to approach the problem.

When you have an answer to that question, the next one comes (but not until then!).
What should come out as a tangible result?

This is also a matter of practice, finding answers here.
Sample answers:
We have a sketch of the target state
All relevant tasks are recorded on the Kanban board
Ideas for next steps are developed on the whiteboard

And finally the third question.
How do we get to this result?

This is the part you can invest anywhere from 30 seconds to 300 days in.
To start with, a rough idea is enough.
Because you’ll get better with every meeting. And faster in conception.
With every idea you implement.

Sounds good, but you are not sure how to start?
Three meeting design ideas.
We invite the right people and ask them at the beginning what they expect from this meeting.
We present a draft and let feedback emerge in groups of two, which we share with everyone afterwards.
We collect ideas on the whiteboard, cluster them,….

That should be enough for now.
Try it out.

Have good meetings. And have fewer of them.
Have fun with it.
Sonja