Tag: meeting

Streamline Your Workflow: Start, Stop, Change Strategy

~ jo-anngarbutt ~ Leave a comment

Feeling overwhelmed by your to-do list? It’s time for a fresh approach. Whether you’re figuring out what new tasks to start, which processes to stop, or where to make improvements—including sustainability initiatives—this simple method will help you cut waste and boost efficiency. Think of it as a game-changer for your workflow, empowering your team to work smarter, not harder, while making real progress. Change doesn’t have to be overwhelming; it’s about making strategic, impactful adjustments that lead to better results, smoother workflows, and more sustainable outcomes.

A Fresh Approach to Tackling Chaos

Ever feel like your to-do list is out of control? This simple method helps bring clarity, meaning, and direction to your tasks. Whether you’re deciding what new actions to take, which processes need tweaking, or which habits to drop, this approach will streamline your workflow, boost productivity, and make your routine more manageable.

Even the best processes lose their effectiveness over time or fail to take advantage of the improved availability of better tools and templates, signaling the need to reassess. While big changes can be costly, small adjustments often get things back on track. The method I’ll share is perfect for team brainstorming, making it easier to identify areas for improvement together.

Think of it like tidying up a familiar room. Some things need to go, while others just need a small fix. This tool helps you do the same with your work, identifying what needs to change, what new actions to start, and what habits to stop.

Importantly, it’s also about working smarter with sustainability in mind. Rethinking processes to reduce waste, conserve resources, and adopt eco-friendly practices not only improves efficiency but also builds a more sustainable work environment for the future.

What to Start

Think of yourself as a gardener, planning to refresh and revive your garden. To improve a process or outcome at work or in a volunteer setting, you need to plant new “seeds”—ideas and actions that hold the potential to bring positive change. These are the things you want to start doing to make a meaningful impact.

Ask yourself: What new tools, strategies, or approaches could help streamline work, solve problems, or improve how people experience your organization or team? It might be a fresh approach to a recurring issue or an idea that could make things more efficient. Like planting new flowers in a garden, these initiatives will need your time and attention to grow and flourish.

By starting these key actions, you create opportunities for improvement and success and build an environment that thrives on new ideas and growth.

What to stop

When we talk about what needs to stop in the workplace, we’re focusing on behaviors and habits that hold everyone back. Think of gossip—it’s like a poison that erodes trust and divides teams. Then there’s micromanagement, which stifles creativity and leaves people feeling frustrated and demotivated. And multitasking? While it might seem productive, it often leads to mistakes and burnout. By eliminating these negative behaviors, we can create a more positive, collaborative, and efficient work environment.

Stopping isn’t just about behaviors, though; it’s also about simplifying how we work. This means cutting out unnecessary steps, avoiding redundant processes, and leveraging technology to make tasks easier and faster. It’s about working smarter, not harder.

The key to success is getting everyone involved. When the team collaborates and shares insights, it becomes easier to identify which tasks or processes don’t add value—and figure out the best ways to eliminate them. This not only streamlines workflow but also helps the entire team feel more aligned, motivated, and connected.

What to change

When identifying what needs to be changed, it’s about finding those processes or tasks that work to some extent but aren’t quite hitting the mark. These are not things you want to stop completely, but they could benefit from refinement or improvement. The goal is to enhance their efficiency or effectiveness rather than overhaul them entirely.

This step is about finding out with your team where bottlenecks occur, where confusion arises, or where inefficiencies creep in. Perhaps you uncover small tweaks that make a big difference. For example, a task might be taking longer than necessary because of an outdated step, or perhaps communication between teams could be improved to streamline a handoff.

Other possible candidates for change may lie in opportunities to improve: Are there tasks that could be automated? Is there a process that could be shortened or simplified without sacrificing quality? Sometimes it’s as simple as adjusting timelines or reallocating resources to better fit the demands of a project.

The key is not to throw out processes that have potential but to fine-tune them. By making small, thoughtful adjustments, you can improve the overall flow and outcomes. Involving the entire team in identifying these areas for change ensures that the solutions are practical, realistic, and beneficial for everyone.

Setting up time with the team

To kick off improvements, start by gathering input from everyone involved in the workflow. Set up a dedicated meeting where each person can share their unique insights. By involving the whole team, you’ll gain a diverse range of perspectives, helping you identify opportunities for improvement far more effectively than if you were working alone.

To make the session productive, team up with coworkers and dedicate about an hour to look for ways to enhance how you work, the environment you work in, or how your organization delivers value—whether it’s to customers, clients, or those benefiting from your volunteer efforts.

Here’s how to structure your session for success:

  1. Define the Focus: Clearly outline what the session is about. Are you looking to improve a specific process, boost safety, streamline workflows, or enhance customer/recipient satisfaction? Make sure everyone understands the goal before diving into discussions.
  2. Encourage Open Dialogue: Create a safe space for everyone to share their ideas, frustrations, and suggestions. Emphasize that all feedback is valuable and will contribute to positive change.
  3. Brainstorm Together: Work as a group to explore ways to make things better, smarter, and safer. This could involve improving the way tasks are done, optimizing the workspace, or enhancing the delivery of value to customers or the community.
  4. Capture Ideas: Use Stop, Start, and Change flipchart pages to organize ideas. After brainstorming, categorize the suggestions:
  • Stop: What isn’t working and needs to stop?
    • Start: What new actions, processes, or tools should be introduced?
      • Change: What existing processes could be improved with a few adjustments?

5. Assign Actions: Once ideas are gathered, assign ownership for each action. Ensure there’s follow-up so the insights gained from the session translate into real improvements. Also, set up a follow-up recurring meeting to review how things are going to discuss if you need to change or improve how you are implementing actions to be more successful and avoid obstacles to success.

By following this structure, you’ll ensure that your team collaborates effectively and walks away with actionable steps to make meaningful changes.

Keep Stakeholders in the Loop

After the meeting, it’s important to keep key stakeholders, such as your supervisor or others involved in the implementation, informed about the progress. Provide them with an update on the discussions, including the proposal for items to start, stop, or change. This transparency ensures they are aware of the team’s efforts and can offer support as needed. Additionally, ask for their feedback and suggestions. This will help ensure that no key opportunities for improvement are missed and that the plan is as comprehensive as possible. Engaging others in this way enhances collaboration and strengthens the overall success of the initiative.

Now It’s Your Turn to Change the Game

Taking a structured approach to what you start, stop, and change can really improve how your team works and help you reach your sustainability goals. I encourage you to take a fresh look at your team, your environment, and how you get things done. Find ways to not only make customers happier and save money, but also to reduce waste, save resources, and lessen your impact on the planet. Involving your team in this process will help everyone work smarter and feel more motivated as they see their ideas making a difference. Whether you’re working or volunteering, these changes can lead to a more rewarding and sustainable experience. Now is the time to act—start looking for where you can make a real difference for your team and the environment.

Stir up your Review Meetings

~ jo-anngarbutt ~ Leave a comment

Have your review meetings for a process or a policy document turned into a low-value event where tons of slides are being shown and no real discussion takes place? Do you feel confident about the outcomes from your review meetings? What if you had a way to make the review meetings more structured and action-oriented, making sure everyone is engaged?

This activity will help you do that!

When your review meetings succeed they…

  • Result in improvements and updates that ensure your plan/policy is fit-for-purpose and comply with most recent business and legal requirements,
  • Make sure your plan/policy, in addition to fully complying with most recent legal and government requirements, also align with your company’s strategies,
  • Engage all stakeholders making sure every one of them has an opportunity to suggest ways to improve the policy/plan to better meet business needs and concerns, and
  • Enable you to get through internal and external audits with confidence.

The process

Divide your meeting participants into two groups and give each group a preparation assignment – Team Blue and Team Red. They are to arrive at the meeting, prepared to either defend or criticize the existing plan or policy and underpin their points with solid arguments based on research (doing homework before the meeting).

The blue team has the assignment to identify fact-based reasons why the existing plan or policy is fit-for-purpose, compliant, and good enough as it is today. While the red team has the assignment to research and come prepared to point out specific areas or aspects where the current plan or policy fails to address specific issues or factors.

Preparation

Each of the teams prepare before attending the meeting. The blue team will prepare in this way:

And preparation by the red time includes:

Members from each team bring their notes to the review meeting – prepared to substantiate their claims based on their pre-meeting homework assignments.

Meeting Agenda

After the meeting has been opened, objectives shared and the process discussed, the review process follows these steps:

  1. The Blue team summarizes the high-level benefits and explains how the current version of the document/policy is fit-for-purpose vs over-the-top in terms of mitigating, avoiding or managing risks associated with why the document/policy was originally created. (10 mins)
  2. The Red team then gets 10 minutes to summarize risks or changes to laws, which means that the current policy or document is not currently fit-for-purpose. They may comment on some aspects raised by the Blue Team too.
  3. The Blue team gets 10 – 15 mins to make their final statements: responding to anything specific that was mentioned by the Red team and also adding to any additional points related to key items they had mentioned during their opening summary. They would make specific mention of aspects that are strongly beneficial and need to remain in the policy/document.
  4. The Red team then makes their final statements in 10 – 15 mins. They would especially summarize key gaps between the current policy/document and aspects that would need to be addressed in the next version.

Path forward

The final part of the meeting consists of all meeting participants discussing and summarizing improvements that would be needed to the next version of the policy/document. In the process, they may assign various meeting participants to do additional research, align with stakeholders not present at the meeting, and/or write the updates or additional segments to add to the current policy/document.

An additional meeting may be needed to check-in on progress and finalize the updates that have been agreed upon.

Tips:

  • Do not run this with groups larger than 15 people. It would lead to a longer meeting and some people feeling less involved and engaged.
  • Be sure to state that the meeting is to take no more than 1 hour. If the process is followed for too long a period, it waters down the intent – focus – and gets more into minute details which are often best dealt with in post-meeting assignments.
  • Be sure to assign someone to be the time-keeper to keep an eye on the process – ensuring the meeting stays focused on the agreed approach and time-commitment. And be sure to note the path forward actions to help the designated coordinator with follow-up actions and close-out activities.

In general, this interactive approach to review meetings leaves participants much more energized and positive about meeting outcomes.

Transform Your Meetings with Role-Based Engagement

~ jo-anngarbutt ~ Leave a comment

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Tired of unproductive meetings? It’s time to shake things up. By assigning specific roles to participants, you can harness the collective intelligence of your team and achieve more in less time. Discover how to structure your meetings for maximum impact and engagement.

Are your meetings draining your energy without delivering results? Was there insufficient time to consider all the options available or make the best decisions following an open discussion? Perhaps it is time to consider assigning roles to those who attend your meetings.

Productive Meetings

Unleashing the Power of Effective Meetings

Meetings often suffer from a lack of focus and engagement. By assigning specific roles to participants, we can transform these gatherings into productive and collaborative sessions. When everyone has a clear purpose, discussions are more focused, decisions are made faster, and everyone feels valued.

By designating individuals as questioners, devil’s advocates, or summarizers, you encourage diverse perspectives and ensure all voices are heard. This approach fosters a more dynamic and productive meeting environment where everyone contributes meaningfully to the discussion and decision-making process.

The roles are specific and defined and it would require specific individuals to act accordingly for the duration of the meeting. Roles can vary from being the one to bring up a lot of questions about the issues on the agenda to being someone who plays devil’s advocate or being the critical one when it comes to suggestions tabled for consideration. Of course, all meeting participants continue to bring their own skills, opinions, and knowledge to the meeting and are expected to contribute those to the discussions too.

How to assign roles

Roles can be assigned before a meeting, the chairperson can ask meeting participants to volunteer for the various roles before the meeting starts or the chairperson can randomly assign roles at the start of the meeting (often done by means of handout out cards which explain the task of each role on a 2×4 inch card).

Task roles to assign

Initiator/Contributor

Contributes ideas and suggestions or proposes solutions and decisions. Proposes new ideas or reframes existing ideas in a different way.

Information Seeker

Asks for clarification related to comments – are they based on verified data? Asks for information or facts relevant to the problem. Suggests when more information may be needed before making decisions.

Opinion Seeker

Asks for clarification related to comments made by meeting participants.  Find out how people feel about ideas on the table.  Include those who have not yet been able to contribute an opinion during the discussion.

Critic

In a constructive manner, verbalize ways in which a suggestion or idea could have unforeseen negative consequences for other (internal or external) stakeholders in the implementation of such a suggestion/idea.

Process guard

Indicates decision-making errors and biases which may be skewing support towards a particular outcome. Points out departures from agreed-on agenda and discussion goals. Tries to bring the group back to the central issues and raises questions about the direction in which the group is heading

Summarizer

Summarizes what has taken place and what decisions have been made to date. Reminds the group of assumptions made along the way during discussions.

Note-taker and timekeeper

Keeps notes of decisions made, and actions agreed to. Reminds the group of an approaching break/end of the meeting.

Dysfunctional roles at meetings

Sometimes meetings are unproductive because one or more meeting participants are engaging in playing a dysfunctional role during the meeting which stifles discussion, shuts down conversations, and focuses the attention in unhelpful ways. Discussing these before the meeting starts could be another way to create awareness of unproductive meeting behaviors in order to avoid them. Sometimes it can be interesting to review a meeting in hindsight to identify if anyone engaged in any of these dysfunctional roles. This would be useful to help meeting participants develop self-awareness related to their meeting participant behaviors.

dysfunctional roles

By implementing role-based meeting structures, you can transform your gatherings from time-consuming obligations into dynamic problem-solving sessions. Not only will you achieve more in less time, but you’ll also foster a collaborative environment where everyone feels valued and engaged. Remember, it’s not just about the meeting itself; it’s about the outcomes and the impact it has on your team’s overall productivity.

Preparing to facilitate a Team Session

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The success of team events or sessions can be more predictable when facilitators gather information from invited participants and stakeholders before planning the agenda, activities, and presentations.  Knowing more about the current issues and expectations can greatly enhance your chances of ensuring the team faces what they need to focus on and deal with that in a constructive way.

The source I am sharing, is a list of pre-session interview questions which could help you get a good foundation about the team: what is working, what could be better and how each of the interviewees sees the situations faced by the team.

pre-session-interview-questionsDownload

Some important notes about pre-session interviews:

Starting right
  • If the team members do not know you (the facilitator) yet, be sure to introduce yourself to each interviewee and mention your role in the upcoming planned session. They may have additional questions about your background and experience in this area and why you are working on the planned session. Be prepared to summarize these points before you get into the interview.
  • Make sure you can explain to what degree the responses will be confidential. You would typically want to share a summary of responses with the session attendees to help set the scene on the day and perhaps use that to initiate a discussion or lead into an activity to address something that was mentioned by several participants during the interview. Will you be word-smithing the responses to protect the identity of interviewees? Or will you share the raw data? You need to be transparent about that.
  • Why are you asking? Be sure to explain how the answers and responses will be used to plan the session and help the team move forward and past any obstacles that may be holding them back.
  • Let them know upfront that their questions about the session will be answered during their time with you (the interview).
Planning your approach
  • Will you interview individuals or groups of individuals that work in a specific department or functional group? Think this through carefully with regards to the advantages and disadvantages of this choice before you make that decision.  I usually recommend that the number of session participants is no more than about 20 – 25 people and I prefer to know each individual’s responses before I finalize my planning for the session. This means I interview each person separately. But I can also imagine that the team/project culture and approach could make it useful to interview small sub-groups within the team.
  • In person or online? I prefer to do the interviews in person to allow me the opportunity to ask follow-up questions on the spot. Sitting with someone and talking through the questions gives you the opportunity to also watch their reactions or pauses after each question. This can indicate whether some topics may be sensitive to the interviewee and again you could choose to ask more questions to better understand the issues at hand.
  • The right number of questions. It is important that the interviews do not become exhausting. Accept that you will not be able to ask every single question that you may have for the planned participants before the session. Some questions are best worked out by the group at the session. Be very selective and critical – ask only questions which will help you prepare for the session. The interviews are not intended to replace the planned group/team session.

The questions in the (download available above) resource range from understanding expectations to identifying possible issues that the team needs to address. It includes some questions which may help with understanding possible issues that could pose an obstacle to team success.  Some of the questions are also specifically there to help team session participants envisage themselves being a positive contributor to the success of the session.

I do not suggest that all of the questions would be relevant to every session that you would plan, as the facilitator. Instead, I suggest that you use the ones that make the most sense for the session you are working on and feel free to add additional questions as needed in order to improve your understanding in the relevant areas that the session needs to cover.

Finally, it is important to realize that just the fact that you are asking questions and providing interviewees an opportunity to discuss their thoughts and impressions is in itself already a change management intervention. You are setting the scene for the session and helping to shape participation before the session. This could greatly enhance group dynamics and ensure the success of the planned session.

Team Exercise or Ice Breaker – This Picture Shows…

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This exercise is very popular with those who prefer working with images and pictures to express and represent their thoughts and feelings. Using images often opens up new ways of communicating, which could bring a creative element to your event and everyone typically enjoys participating in this exercise.

The set-up is simple and the exercise does not take up a lot of time. It is also very versatile in the sense that you can use it in quite a number of different ways to get feedback and input from those you are working with in your event (training, meeting, workshop etc.)  I am sharing some specific options for you as facilitator to consider, but once you start getting creative with it, I am sure you will find many more applications for this exercise.

The information you need for this group or team activity/exercise is shown below:

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Tip:

When it comes to selecting pictures get creative or brainstorm with a creative coworker or friend to create or find pictures that may “speak” to your participants given the context of the event or session(s) where this exercise is to be used. If you often facilitate sessions you will probably build up a good set of images to use for an exercise such as this one. More  “out of the box” (unusual) images could potentially lead to richer feedback from individuals to start group/team discussions. This could lead to vastly increased understanding of issues by participants.

Change Management – Getting senior management onboard

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Before any organizational change is launched there has to be meetings with executives and senior leaders to ensure alignment around the reason(s) and main principles of the change initiative. Meeting objectives would also typically include getting their support for executing change activities and to help them understand expectations of them as executives and senior leaders during the change period and beyond.

change-management-overview-slidesDownload

The downloadable slide deck (above) can be used as a basis for creating your messages to senior leaders and executives. The slides helps to explain how change will likely impact the organization and the people plus explaining how leaders can help by being role models and also by actively addressing resistance and other signs of low engagement in those around them.

Use this resource as optional examples to help communicate the specific messages that makes sense for the change management initiative that you may be leading and the meeting participants/audience that you will be facing.

Here are the steps I would suggest you follow:

  1. Be clear on the reasons that your change initiative need to be implemented and how the changes will improve on status quo. (Business case or burning platform)
  2. Did you get executive buy-in from one or more sponsors before your presentation? (Highly recommended – in fact, do not proceed until you have it!)
  3. Consider the presentation you will be doing – who will be there? What do they know and what do you need them to know, understand and do once they leave the presentation?
  4. What impact will the planned changes likely have on the employees at your company and how do you think your targeted audience can help and should act/behave given the change process and desired outcomes?
  5. Review the slides in the resource I am sharing and determine if any of them could help you and support the messages that you would like to communicate to the audience that you will be facing.

Of course these slides are not going to substitute the preparation work you need to do before starting a change initiative, but they may be helpful to use as background or to explain some of the specific change management aspects that may be of particular importance to your audience.

Ice Breaker for international teams

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all hands2

In our globalized world it is very common for employees to have regular contact with people from other cultures and they may attend meetings at various international locations. When you are executing projects on a global scale it increases the importance of ensuring that communication and collaboration go as smoothly as possible in order to meet your project objectives.

Cultures and sub-cultures

You may be surprised to learn that even seemingly basic project concepts could have different interpretations across cultures and sub-cultures. This exercise that I am sharing with you focuses on intercultural aspects of international teams and can help by clarifying assumptions and expectations at an early stage of your project.

When I think of different cultures on a project team, I also include sub-cultures such as between different regions in the same country or different functional groups in the same company. (This link can provide context if you want to look at cultures more closely.)

In the exercise, participants answer questions from their own perspective being as true as possible to how things are done at the location or group that they represent in the exercise. Most people who have lived internationally for some years have already adapted to habits and ways that conform to expectations and habits for their new location and how people do things there. If your intention is to highlight the richness of different perspectives you have present at the event where you run this ice breaker – ask participants to think back to a time when they lived in location X or worked with group Y – how would they answer the question then?

ice-breaker-for-intercultural-meetingsDownload

The downloadable document above contains several project-related scenarios which can be used to explore differences in approaches and mindsets within your project team. You may also choose to use the topic of diversity and inclusion as an on-going exploration within your team where you could select one of the topics at each of your meetings instead of trying to cover all of them during a team-building event.

This ice-breaker can be a good item to include in a project kick-off meeting or when you are adding a few more people to the team from a different office/location. This exercise also works well when you have team members who are from the same country, but are from different offices. (It is not uncommon for offices/locations to have slightly different approaches).

Early exploration of different mindsets and assumptions among team members can be a valuable foundation to ensure smoother relationships and better collaboration on your project.  Feel free to suggest additional important scenarios to consider for discussion after you have reviewed the attachment I shared in this post.

Meeting Energizers – Examples

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energy

Business meetings or group events can be exhausting especially if they span several days and contain mostly sessions where presentations are made and do not have any or many interactive sessions. It can be challenging to keep meeting participants engaged and energized during such meetings and it is not uncommon to spot people struggling to keep their eyes open during long afternoon sessions. The first session after lunch can be especially tough and don’t forget the impact of jet-lag on participants from other time-zones.

one example: Making rain (see below)

energizing-exercises-for-business-meetingsDownload

The list which you can download above shows some activities that can be done with meeting participants to help them feel re-energized during a meeting. These short exercises are best done between agenda items and can take anything from 2 to 7 minutes to complete so they are not a major disruption to your planned agenda.

You would typically need an open space where participants can gather for these exercises. This space could be in the front between the projection screen and the first tables/chairs or it could be in the back of the room behind the last tables and chairs.  It is a good idea to mention that you need this space when you arrange the set-up of the room.

As the leader of the meeting or the facilitator you should always have a few of these quick energizer exercises on a sheet of paper or in the back of your mind to use on the spot. When you notice that the energy and responsiveness of the group is dropping you should be able to quickly conduct an energizing exercise to revive the energy and the alertness of the group attending your event or business meeting.

Meeting Makeover: Improve Your Meetings with this Template

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One of the most frustrating elements of many managers’ calendars are meetings. If you ask people they mostly believe there are too many participants, that meetings take too long, and that some individuals talk too much and venture off-topic. And most people are unable to remember what was decided or which actions came out of the meeting. The tool I am sharing helps a chairperson to prepare for a meeting and it helps him or her communicate the specific overall objectives for the meeting and also for every agenda item.

Some of the meeting maladies mentioned above can be cured simply by creating and distributing an agenda to participants before having the meeting. This tool goes further though – it also helps to create clarity around each agenda item’s purpose in informing participants or driving decision-making to move a project or initiatives forward.

effective-meetings-agenda-preparation-templateDownload

The template you can download above contains an example to illustrate its use. Just replace the agenda items shown with your own meeting agenda items and then complete each column as demonstrated to clarify who is responsible for each agenda item, the purpose of each item, and the allocated time and desired outcome for each of the agenda items.  Do share the objectives, time available and expected outcomes with those who are assigned to each agenda item – it helps him or her be prepared to guide the conversation and discussion accordingly.

Suggestions

  • Even with an agenda and a well-planned meeting there may be times when things need to change as it becomes clear that a critical issue requires to be solved right-away.  Give yourself the leeway to abandon the agenda for a particular meeting to deal with such a highly critical and important issue or set another meeting right after the planned meeting to address the issue.
  • Some successful chairpersons make use of meeting “agreements” or “ground rules” to further improve the quality of the meeting. Some have items such as “each speaker gets a maximum of 1 minute to make his or her point” and “we debate issues and we respect the opinions of others.”
  • To know if your meetings are getting better – get feedback from your meeting participants. Take a few minutes at the end of the meeting to ask what went well and what could be better in future – exactly how. Reviewing the feedback when you plan the next meeting can help you to be mindful of further improvements that can be included going forward.

I hope this tool helps you plan your next meeting and move closer to having productive meetings which helps you progress your project or initiative as you had hoped.