connect, construct, clarify as a holy trinity for meetings
I love Ben’s prompt: ask yourself, if we canceled this regular meeting altogether, what would be lost? If nothing, go ahead and cancel. If something, dedicate the meeting to that thing. Design the whole meeting to deliver it.
When I’ve run this exercise myself in recent years, I’ve found that the thing I’m designing for is usually one of these three:
Connect: get people to know each other - their stories, values, interests - more deeply. Or renew existing connections.
Construct: build something together. A new plan, a prototype, an understanding of oneself and one’s work.
Clarify: make sense of current facts, needs, and decisions in light of our team’s purpose, values, and strategy
It’s hard to overdo this one. It’s easy to pretend to do it with “updates” that convey lots of facts but don’t reckon with purpose, values, and strategy.
When there are Big Meetings - defined by the number of people, the duration, and the relative infrequency - think in person weeks, annual retreats, strategy summits - I prompt my leaders to build in time and dedicated activities for each of these three. I also encourage them to call their shot on this. Tell people this is what you’re booking into the time they’re giving you and tell them why. Solicit feedback afterward on how well the time and actions you planned delivered what they were supposed to and the relative proportions of the three. Depending on your moment, your culture, your near future, you may need more of one than the other in these Big Meetings.
Something that continually surprises me, no matter how many times I see it, is the power of Constructing to unlock the other two. Folks who are thrown together to make something useful on a tight timeline build trust and reckon with what matters.
If you’re not sure what to do with your team time, make them build stuff (real stuff, not just spaghetti-marshmallow contraptions) uncomfortably fast.
-Eric
