I hate black and white movies.

And it’s for the dumbest reason imaginable.

The thing I hate isn’t the absence of high-fidelity color, it’s that every black and white movie seems like the same movie to me. 

If I sat down to watch a black and white movie and every scene was followed by a scene from a different black and white movie, I wouldn’t even notice.

Now, I fully recognize that every era follows the same pattern. 

Most 80’s movies look and sound the same. 90’s sitcoms are doppelgangers of one another. The music on the radio sounds like the same song over and over again.

Am I being unfair to black and white movies? Certainly.

Do I care? Nope.

And neither do the people in your organization who are forced to endure the same meeting 6 times a day.

There’s this thing that I keep seeing in organization after organization:

The meetings aren’t good, but no one gets in trouble for running a terrible meeting as long as it looks and sounds like all the other terrible meetings on offer.

Making a few small tweaks to improve the meetings is actually more dangerous than just following the template that isn’t actually working.

Oof.

The thought process by those who run the meetings seems to be something like, “the people who attend these meetings are paid to be engaged in these meetings.”

And yet there is an opportunity for them to say, “I am paid to make these meetings as relevant and engaging as possible to everyone I invite.”

You wouldn’t pitch a client without a clear purpose and an understanding of what matters most to them, so don’t invite people to another meeting without complete clarity about what the meeting is for and how to help participants engage.

The best part is that improving the effectiveness of your meetings isn’t that difficult.

It just requires you to think about the purpose of each meeting, invite only the people who serve that purpose, and structure the meeting with intention. 

TRY THIS: 

Here are three ways to break the mold and make your meetings more engaging and effective.

1. If the meeting can be accomplished in 8 minutes, wrap it up and send people on their way. Don’t let the calendar dictate the length of the meeting if the work is already done.
2. Treat the people in your meeting like you would treat a client. Be prepared. Honor their time and attention. Make your delivery interesting. Consider your responsibility to engage your audience instead of demanding they engage with a boring delivery.
3. Know exactly what you want to accomplish and ensure everyone in the room understands the desired outcome. Structure the meeting accordingly. Leverage brainstorming, discussion, lecture, humor, interactivity, and verbal arm wrestling as needed. You don’t use a hammer or circular saw when trying to build a tower made of marshmallows and toothpicks, so make sure you aren’t just using the wrong tools in meetings just because you like them. Use the tools that will help you get the job done.

My free PDF, “The 5 Secrets of Impossibly Effective Teams,” will show you the simple leadership moves that help teams unlock their full potential and deliver outsized results, without burning out. Grab your copy now at geoffwelch.com/secrets