How to help make meetings better when you are NOT the facilitator. Talk by Sue Johnston of It's Understood at Gatineau-Ottawa Agile Tour, Ottawa, 2019.

1. Sue Johnston
MAKE MEETINGS
MAKE SENSE
even when you’re not the facilitator

2. PLEASE NOTE
SLIDES ≠ PRESENTATION
• These slides are designed to be viewed in conjunction
with a human being talking and interacting with you.
• They will make little sense to you if you were not at
the live session.
• But if you find them useful, I’m happy.

3. You don’t have
to be the
facilitator to
make a meeting
better!

4. Who is Sue?
• Facilitating for an Agile Workplace
• Coaching for an Agile Workplace
Coach Author Trainer Communication Specialist

5. Why are we here?
• The risks of bad meetings
• Why you must help
• Helpful stealth techniques

6. How will we explore this?
Source: Stanford d.school

7. “Half (of the meetings I attend)
are completely bizarre and
accomplish nothing except
bewildering me as to why
people don’t run out
screaming.”
Can you empathize?
Source: Survey respondent, July 2018

8. Think of two
problematic issues in
meetings you attend.
(Write them on stickies.)
What troubles you?
Solo
2 min

9. With a neighbour,
compare issues in
meetings you attend.
What troubles others?
Pair
Share
4 min

10. What’s the problem?
Source: Stanford d.school

11. • Estimated spending on unproductive meetings
in USA in 2013 - $37,000,000,000.
• 71% of people say meetings waste their time.
• 65% say it keeps them from real work.
• 64% say it inhibits deep thinking.
Source: Stop the Meeting Madness, HBR, Aug.2017
What’s the problem?

12. • There are over 3 billion meetings each year.
• Executives spend 40-50% of their working
hours in meetings.
• 25% of meetings spent discussing irrelevant
issues.
• 73% of meeting attendees say they do other
work in meetings.
• 90% admit to daydreaming in meetings.
Source: Plan a Better Meeting with Design Thinking, HBR, Aug.2017
What’s the problem?

13. What’s the problem?
“We can’t make decisions or agree on priorities.
So we have the same meeting over and over.
Literally. The. Same. Meeting.”
July 25 August 1 August 8 August 15 August 22
Source: Survey respondent, July 2018

14. Group Exercise
At your tables, take a
few minutes to review
the issues you raised.
(Keep the stickies handy.)
What’s the problem?
4 min

15. P ROCESS UNCLEAR
O BJECTIVE UNCLEAR
I NTERACTION WEAK
E N GAGEMENT POOR
TIME POORLY USED
What’s the problem?

16. Group Exercise
Using the work sheet,
place stickies in the
appropriate category.
P O I N T !
What’s the problem?
5 min

17. What might we do?
Source: Stanford d.school

18. Tools for facilitators
Source: It’s Understood. Download Facilitation Canvas at greatmeetings.ca

19. Stealth facilitation practices
Source: Ellen Gottesdiener https://www.batimes.com/articles/amplifying-collaboration-with-guerilla-facilitation.html
Offer to be the scribe
(and use the walls)

20. Stealth facilitation practices
Source: Ellen Gottesdiener https://www.batimes.com/articles/amplifying-collaboration-with-guerilla-facilitation.html
C LARIFY
A SK
R EFLECT
E XPLORE
S UMMARIZE

21. Stealth facilitation sounds like
Clarify:
• “So are you saying [whatever]?”
• “Earlier, I thought I heard we’d
decided [X]. Has that changed?”
• “How will we decide?”
• “So did we agree that [Y]?”

22. Stealth facilitation sounds like
Ask:
• “What is it we hope to achieve by the
end of the meeting?”
• “Is our intention to decide? Or are we
exploring the issue?”
• “Are we the right people to be making
this decision?”
• “How does this relate to the
meeting objective?”

23. Stealth facilitation sounds like
Reflect:
• “Are we moving in the right
direction?”
• “ Is this conversation
useful for us?”
• “Is this process working?”
This is a ‘process check.’

24. Stealth facilitation sounds like
Explore:
• “Do we all have the same
understanding here?”
• “Can you confirm the impact on [X]?”
• “How much energy do we have for
this?”
(Watch body language and
expression for signals of
unease or disagreement.)

25. Stealth facilitation sounds like
Summarize:
• “To wrap up the discussion, we
all agree that [whatever].”
• “So what is the next step?

26. Stealth facilitation
Notice:
You may have to step out of your
comfort zone.

27. Group Exercise
Choose some of your top
meeting irritants and add
some CARES questions
you could ask in those
circumstances.
Stealth facilitation practices
5 min

28. Shall we try this?
Source: Stanford d.school

29. Build a prototype
Every presentation needs a cute animal image
5 min

30. Take action!

31. Run your experiment!
(Just try it.)
Take action!

32. itsunderstood.com
sue@itsunderstood.com
@itsunderstood

33. Useful references
Ingrid Bens Roger Schwarz Dororhy Strachan Esther Derby + Thomas Kayser
Diana Larsen
David Sibbet Ellen Gottesdiener Jean Tabaka

35. Warning
You get to attend
better meetings
You get invited to
more meetings