How to plan a good meeting starts with asking ‘why?’

When you’re bringing a group of people together, if you’re not clear on why you’re doing it, you might as well not bother. Whether I’m delivering training or working with organisations, a lack of clarity about the purpose or “why” behind a meeting can be one of the biggest stumbling blocks. Without clarity about the “why”, people make assumptions, talk at cross purposes and can end up feeling like the meeting was a waste of their time.

Sometimes the problem isn’t that people haven’t thought about the purpose. It’s that they’re trying to do too much. Earlier this year, I worked with an organisation that was planning a large external workshop. The team were upfront that they had conflicting ideas about what the purpose should be.

Rather than trying to design the workshop without clarity about where we wanted to go, I started by facilitating a conversation with the team about what they actually wanted the workshop to achieve and prioritise their different ideas. They ended up with a much stronger and more cohesive idea that everyone had ownership of. It also meant we could then co-create something that was focused and achievable.

So before you start thinking about your agenda, speakers, activities or questions, ask yourself two things:

Why are we meeting, and what do we need at the end?

What is the purpose of bringing these people together, and what do you need them to leave with? If there are several possible purposes, are they complementary? Can you prioritise them? You might need to make some tough choices about what this meeting is really for.

How do we want people to experience the session?

How do you want people to feel during the session? Motivated and excited? Focused and reflective? Challenged? Connected? This is often an overlooked part of any meeting but it guides the tone, pace, activities and even the conversation.

 Your purpose guides everything else. Every decision you make about your meeting, workshop or event should come back to whether it helps or hinders you from achieving that purpose.

It helps you avoid getting carried away by fun but distracting activities or disappearing down rabbit holes, and can help you make tough decisions about how to use the time you have available.