Everyone wants a great project, but to get there, you’ve got to have great meetings.
Have you ever struggled in a meeting with people who couldn’t make up their minds? Or worse, thought you had a decision only to learn later the team changed their minds and it killed the schedule? Was there ever a “meeting after the meeting” that wound up moving the project backward so you were further behind than when you started?
Circular decisions are expensive—for clients as well as designers—[and] it takes great meetings to be able to get the decisions that move the project forward.
Circular decisions are expensive—for clients as well as designers—[and] it takes great meetings to be able to get the decisions that move the project forward.
Here are 6 meeting strategies that can make you more effective in getting decisions that stick:
1. Design your meeting around decisions rather than a topic.
Structuring a meeting around a topic such as “technology” or “interiors” doesn’t cut it. Why? Because topics are abstract. Making decisions is concrete. And here’s the thing:
Talking about a topic usually only draws out people’s preferences. Working toward decisions results in actionable intelligence to move the project forward.
Working toward decisions results in actionable intelligence to move the project forward.
So why don’t more people base meetings around decisions? Because it’s harder.
Decision-based meetings require design and planning that go way beyond content to be presented. What is the real issue? Does the client see it? What’s the best way to draw ideas out of the group? How can I get people to dialog about this? How can we draw out what is unspoken? How should we document what’s decided?
Letting people know up front what decisions they are there to make creates a unified effort as people work toward a common goal. It requires the "facilitator" to become really effective at leading meetings. (And a willingness to bring someone on board to fill the role if it isn’t in your wheelhouse.)
2. Set clear roles (and don’t make this rookie mistake).
Meetings are most effective when there are clear roles. Each person in the room needs to know what they are there to do.
Usually, there is a facilitator who leads the dialog and keeps the agenda moving in the time frame. It is also essential to have a Capturist working with a whiteboard, flipchart, laptop, or simply photojournaling. The Capturist produces the report back during and after the meeting. (It is best if this is not the Facilitator.)
Piyush Kamal in his article How to Have Amazing Meetings, reframes the Capturist as the Closer who keeps track of what transpired during the meeting, and closes it out by telling everyone the commitments and deadlines they agreed to.
A common “rookie mistake” is to confuse meeting roles with hierarchy. The person facilitating needs skill in leading groups in decision-making—regardless of their title. And as a side note, I’ve been in way too many meetings where the facilitator wastes time either pandering to the client (which immediately sets the facilitator in the “junior” position) or spending 10 minutes on credentials (which shifts participants into the “bored” position). If you feel the client doesn’t know your credentials, print them out, but don’t spend a minute of valuable meeting time on them. It works against you.
3. Don’t talk to participants. Engage them.
In her book, The Architect’s Essentials of Negotiation, Ava Abramowitz outlines three classes of communication: initiating, reacting, and clarifying.
Abramowitz writes: “Without the options, possibilities and ideas generated by Initiating behavior, your meeting won’t get very far. But ideas, however good, don’t automatically translate into decisions when you are working with other people. Initiating an idea is only the first step. Other people have to accept it or react to it in some way before any decisions can be [made]. So, you also need another class of behavior—Reacting—in order to reach decisions. However, in real life it’s hard for people to react before they fully understand what is being proposed … which brings us to the third class of behavior—Clarifying.”
Clarifying is the part where you use phrases like: “Unpack that for me.” “What do you mean by that?” “How would this piece work?”
I can’t say this strongly enough: You need all three classes of behavior to come to solutions the client and design team own. If the facilitator is the only one who initiates, the participants will not own the decisions.
If the facilitator is the only one who initiates, the participants will not own the decisions.
This piece is critical if you want to get decisions that stick.
4. Leverage the intellect in the room.
I lead a team of theatre consultants, acousticians, and technology designers. These disciplines are our areas of expertise. An architect’s area of expertise may include architectural design, site development, interiors, etc. A contractor might specialize in constructability, costing, and delivery.
To be clear, the client is the expert in their mission and delivering on that mission—which is the thing we most need to understand.
To be clear, the client is the expert in their mission and delivering on that mission—which is the thing we most need to understand.
If you want to design meetings that result in sticky decisions, then large portions of the meeting will need to be devoted to drawing out the client’s expertise. And because you will likely be dealing with introverts and extroverts, it will take a lot of pre-meeting research to grasp who you are meeting with and what their particular wiring is. The great part is, once you know this, you can design exercises to give each participant the opportunity to share the wisdom hiding inside.
5. If the group is stuck, use physical motion to break through.
Have you ever been thinking about an unsolvable problem, only to be struck by a flash of inspiration while taking a walk? As it turns out, moving is central to imagination.
As it turns out, moving is central to imagination.
David Pearl, in his book, Will There Be Donuts?, writes, “Hollywood writers (who often write in pairs) are seen walking around the lot gesticulating as they tease out a script problem. This works because: 1) any change of physical state tends to change your mental state; 2) your body has intelligence that you are not accessing if you are sitting still. For the brain, the real and imagined are much closer than we might think—and physically advancing (walking forward) seems to get the brain advancing too.”
If your group is stuck, get the participants to take a walk. Or if that feels awkward, have a separate meeting space on standby—one you can walk to as you change venue. A venue that happens to be outdoors can be even more effective in disrupting the stuck pattern. It’s a simple solution to get ideas to flow.
6. Learn to read the room. (And prepare enough so you can redirect if you’ve missed it.)
I remember a painful experience watching a facilitator completely miss what mattered to the people he was supposed to be leading. He confused physical presence with emotional engagement. (As we all know through having attended meetings, there is a world of difference.)
When leading a meeting, it is 100% our responsibility to know the participants well enough to tailor the agenda to what they care about. And let’s face it. Sometimes we miss the mark. But when we do, we have to be able to adapt fast, so we can redirect to what they care about.
When leading a meeting, it is 100% our responsibility to know the participants well enough to tailor the agenda to what they care about.
This is partially about emotional intelligence (EQ), but it is even more about preparation. If you are meeting with 12 people, spending 45 minutes in a Google search [beforehand] to figure out each person’s role, background, and interest, is time well spent. You will design your meeting from the research, then spend a few more hours preparing additional content and exercises to keep on the back burner “just in case."
If you are a designer who has been leading meetings by “winging it” you are likely losing money through circular decision-making and redesign. Not only that, but your credibility is on the line every time you lead an ineffective session.
If you are a designer who has been leading meetings by “winging it” you are likely losing money through circular decision-making and redesign.
The good news is there are things you can do to get better. You can get training in facilitation. You can work to improve your EQ. And most importantly, you can invest more time in preparation (which is usually only a quarter of what you lose on the back end when a meeting doesn’t result in effective decisions).
