A meeting design to make the most of our time!
A few weeks ago I posted on Twitter
that I'd had a win with a new meeting approach I'd tested with the OD group I
chair. Such was the interest, and feedback from participants, I promised I'd
share what it was all about in my first blog for a while (which I hope won't be
the last).
The background:
The OD group
is made up of volunteers and so it has constantly evolved, and sometimes
struggled with attendance as people prioritised other things - like their proper jobs! Also, as
chair, I commit to being creative about how we do our meetings so as to model
OD themes such as engagement. At the RCP we're recognised by some as a group
that gets (the nice, soft) stuff done, but a challenge we often face is not
having enough regular input from outside of ourselves and outside of our
meetings.
The purpose:
So, my idea was designed to do a few things:
- Do something we'd really not tried already, in the room
- To engage people, external to the group, in what we do
- To make it easier for the members to get OD out of the room, in a way that didn't impact their already limited time in between meetings.
The challenge:
It had to work across
multiple sites simultaneously!
The activity in brief:
The thinking how to address these
considerations resulted in the 10-3,2,1 activity described below.
Simply put, the group were given
10 mins, to ask
3 questions, in pairs, (so the)
2 people, we're to bring back what they'd learnt to the room to
share for
1 minute
Simple enough, yes, but not without
thought and the need for a little preparation*.
*Disclaimer: Possibly not even original, though I can honestly say I've not been involved in such a thing before!
The thinking:
The ten minutes was to give people
enough time to leave the room and get around our fairly large estate, to find
colleagues to talk to. This was purposefully tight as people had to energise
quickly or they'd fine themselves at the further ends of the building. Queue the
Annika Rice style dash. But I knew some of the nearest teams might be
challenging so that was a lesson there!
The three questions were so that people
were purposeful and on topic. Thus the questions in themselves had to be clear,
relevant and phrased specifically to get quick, useful insights.
Getting people to work in two's meant they were accountable to and supportive of each other. One pair came
back and suggested they needed a bodyguard(!) so I can imagine going out alone might
have been more of a challenge.
With just one minute to present
back, before a plenary looking for themes, the pairs had to work together to
agree what the key messages were that they were to bring back.
The learning application:
To do this exercise required people
to be willing to do something a little different, to trust the process (and me) to
meaningful and to know their way around the place.
The preparation was just the choosing of a meaningful topic, the right questions and documenting them, along with the
instructions.
The whole thing was easy enough to
act upon, but the purpose and design had to be intentional.
The outcome:
The result was a fun, energised
approach to hearing the employee voice in a quick (albeit limited in number)
way.
It was certainly enjoyed by the
participants who gave great feedback ("I loved it" "Great
idea" "Best meeting we've had"), and it was valuable to me in
getting feedback on a college project I've been leading on. It also gave food for thought about
how/when else the approach could be used... In fact, the CEO has suggested
walkabout Wednesdays, and IT and internal communications are thinking of ways they can
use it.
Nobody's followed up yet, but watch
this space!
Over to you:
If you do (or have done this or similar), how was that for you? If it would help with something you're doing, borrow away but do tell me how it goes!
Thanks for reading,
Denise x
For more:
- Contact me using the 'Contact form' above right
- Follow me at: @DamsonHR (Twitter)
- Call direct on: 07887 643807
- LinkedIn: Denise Sanderson-Estcourt, FCIPD
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