Transform Your Meetings for Maximum Productivity!

“We have too many meetings!”

“Our meetings are a waste of time.”

“Why do we meet at all?”

Sound familiar? In less than an hour you can learn about innovative ways to maximize impact and productivity in your meetings by transforming the way people show up and engage each other.

We at Mindful Innovation want to share with you a complementary overview of our Designing Effective Meetings: 10 Essential Elements^SM model. This self-directed PowerPoint overview reflects the integration of our work over the past three years and introduces the next phase on our Guiding Innovation Journey. This no cost offer reflects our belief in the power and potential of our Designing Effective Meetings model and our desire to have as many people as possible experience these practices.

Our goal is to make it easy for you to know what to do BEFORE, DURING and AFTER your meetings to improve meeting efficiency and effectiveness.

In three self-directed PowerPoint presentations (less than 20 minutes each) we’ll provide you with tools you can use immediately. You will receive:

• Module 1: LEARN. Discover the Ten Essential Elements  of an effective meeting
• Module 2: PRACTICE. Understand how to apply the Ten Essential Elements to any meeting
• Module 3: DESIGN. Experience how using the Ten Essential Elements work together as you design a meeting of your choice

To receive Module 1: LEARN, register below.

 

 

At the end of each Module you will receive a link to the next one in the series. Again there is no fee for participating in this professional development opportunity.

We appreciate your interest in this important topic and look forward to supporting your “better meeting” discovery process.

Design the Meeting Everyone is Eager to Attend – Insights to Element 2: CARE

Effective meeting design is a multilayered approach. Leading a great meeting requires planning and intentionality – true. Just showing up with an agenda in hand is a step in the right direction, but ultimately may not insure full engagement and maximum team performance.

Smart meeting designers understand the importance of balancing task and relationship, which includes taking time to focus on what really matters to the human beings who will be attending. Design meetings that work for everyone by   showing what matters through CARE strategies.

Try something new!

From our Designing Effective Meetings: 10 Essential Elements^SM program you will learn and experience ten vital elements fundamental to designing effective meetings.

From Element 2: CARE

The focus of the second element creates a connection that inspires and moves your team into responsible action for greater success.

The essence of CARE is to get connected to what matters for full participation.

Ask yourself these critical questions:

1. What is important to you about this meeting/event?
2. What is the potential positive impact for those who may be attending?
3. How will we create a welcoming environment that invites everyone to engage?

Margaret Wheatley management consultant and thought leader in organizational development says, “People act responsibly when they care.” People on our teams are motivated when we take the time to nurture a sense of caring and create a caring place to meet. When members authentically care about the meeting or event they show up with an open mind,

Design the Meeting Everyone is Eager to Attend – Insights to Element 1: PREPARE

Effective meeting design is the artful expression of today’s creative leader. Thoughtful preparation is key to generating the results you want to create within your team, project, department, and organization.

Reports show that the average worker loses at much as 31 hours a month to unproductive meetings. That’s four work days each month.  Half of all meetings are unnecessary.

The multitasking environment of today often leaves little room for focusing on what’s important in organizing, designing, and leading effective meetings. Meeting leaders are often stymied in the land of overwhelm spinning on the hamster wheel of too many meetings, too little time, too little attention, and too few meaningful results. Futility and frustration permeate the collective response to meetings.

Ultimately inefficient meetings cost organizations billions of dollars each year in otherwise productive employee work time!

Sound familiar?

It doesn’t have to be this way.

You can make a difference. Try something new!

From our Designing Effective Meetings: Ten Essential Elements^SM program you will learn and experience ten vital elements fundamental to designing effective meetings.

From Element 1: PREPARE:

There’s an old saying that “folks don’t plan to fail, they fail to plan” which relates to the 5P’s for success:  Prior Planning Prevents Poor Performance. The focus of this first element set you and your team up for success.

The essence of PREPARE is to make ready beforehand for a specific purpose.

Ask yourself these critical questions:

1. What is at stake for the team/organization?
2. Is the meeting necessary?
3. Who should attend and what are their roles/responsibilities

In complex and stressful situations, intention meeting design creates an environment that engages participants for greater impact.

It’s About Time

Five Simple Time-Making Strategies

 

When you’re feeling the proverbial stress of time (e.g. not enough!) and the negative consequences to your mental, emotional and physical well being, consider these strategies to build time adaptability and resiliency:

1. Question if it is truly the RIGHT TIME…recognizing it may not be!  One saying “There’s your plan and the universe’s plan suggests that sometimes we are part of a much bigger story that is in the process of unfolding and if so, our challenge/opportunity is to let go for the moment and trust the higher powers that be.
2. BE IN THE MOMENT.  Being in the moment means letting go of the past and the future…even if for just a moment…to experience the peace, freedom and timelessness that is available to you at any time.  Try it now, but before you do, take off your watch and hide your cell phone.
3. Question your ASSUMPTIONS about how much time your task at hand will actually take.  Once you decide how much time you need, challenge yourself to do it in half or a quarter of the time.  Challenging your assumptions will probably get your creative juices flowing to find a more efficient (and possibly more effective!) path to your goal.
4. RIGHT TIMING is another perspective to explore (which is different than right time).  Sometimes there is the perfect confluence of people and events that allows for the maximum potential of all the separate elements.  Perhaps in your situation this is true, so postponing your task and delaying gratification may be the way to go.
5. PRIORITIZING, especially when your to do list seems daunting is one more way to buy more time.  After you delegate tasks to others and push out deadlines that can wait (see number 1 and 4) focus only on the top two or three priorities at a time.  Over time, this practice will expand your sense of time.

Self-Efficacy

I just watch David Kelley’s TED talk on “How to build your creative confidence.”  I think we are all working on building a system of guided mastery and to our own self-efficacy.

The Divided Brain: What was forgotten

In this new RSAnimate, renowned psychiatrist and writer Iain McGilchrist explains how our ‘divided brain’ has profoundly altered human behavior, culture and society.

This gives us an insight to what we have forgotten.

Born to Learn

Born to Learn is the first animation in a fascinating series aimed to provide easy-access to the exciting new discoveries constantly being made about how humans learn!

Born to Learn from Born to Learn on Vimeo.

Stories Are Telling!

“I’m having a hard time getting support, buy-in and commitment because people don’t understand what I’m trying to do!”

If this is a familiar story line, you may be one of the many who have not yet realized that your communications have not been effective and that providing data is not really communicating.  Perhaps now is the time to abandon your familiar “story” and start telling a real story!

We know that telling your story is an effective and fun way to inform others and get the support, buy-in and commitment you truly desire.  Because story telling is PERSONAL, it is easy to ENGAGE and to be ENGAGED.  Chip and Dan Heath in Made to Stick speak to the power of stories in providing simulation (knowledge about how to act) and inspiration (motivation to act) and how the “right stories” make people act.

Stories are important because they:

• Help people grasp the bigger picture – the “Whys and Hows”
• Make it easier to expand the breadth and depth of discussion
• Simplify complex ideas and information
• Help shift perspectives
• Connect people from diverse backgrounds around shared purpose and meaning
• Create community

What is the story you can tell that will really WORK for you?

Fear IS the #1 INNOVATION KILLER!

Think of a time you said “NO” and did not take action to try something new because you were afraid.  “Afraid I’ll fail.  Afraid I’ll look silly.  or Afraid of the unknown” may have been some of the reasons that allowed you to talk yourself out of it.  Knowing you’re not alone (everyone has a “fright-flight“ experience!), think about what might have been different if you stepped over your fear into the YES!  As author Paulo Coelho said “The magic moment is when a “YES” or “NO” can change the whole of our existence.”

If we consider FEAR as “False Expectations Appearing Real” it may be easier to let go of what we THINK may be high risk and/or inevitable in terms of failure, embarrassment et al to experience the magic moment where innovation IS possible.

So for the sake of “keeping innovation alive,” know that the REAL FEAR is NOT meeting a challenge, taking a risk, or taking action and that NOW may be the perfect time to say YES!

by Natasha Tong

Shifting Mindsets: The Choice is Up to YOU!

What do you get with “YEH.. BUT”?

A FIXED mindset

…and sense you have some CONTROL (an illusion) in order to protect YOUR IMPORTANT PERSPECTIVE for the sake of LOOKING GOOD and PLAYING IT SAFE to maintain CONTROL (an illusion)….

Unless you’re on a mega roller coaster, HOLDING TIGHT is not usually all that productive.  The more you try to hold on, the more INFLEXIBLE you may become, which could lead to the perception that your perspective is actually RIGID and way too predictable if not limited and LIMITING.

Bottom line, “YEH…BUT” is a FEAR-based perspective which leads to “more of the same” (aka THE STATUS QUO).

THE ALTERNATIVE:  “YES…AND!”

An OPEN or GROWTH mindset

…a place of TRUST where DISCOVERY is a core value and we find ourselves asking each other to “Say more about that…” especially in situations where we may totally disagree.  Because of our “YES…AND!” mindset we are natural collaborators who believe there is strength our connection and that together we truly are better!

CREATIVITY abounds as we find it EASY to LET GO and to CHALLENGE each other for the sake of achieving our COLLECTIVE VISION.  Our FLEXIBILITY allows us to create an INCLUSIVE context for working, learning and growing together where everyone feels VALUED and able to CONTRIBUTE their gifts and talents.

NO FEAR is our motto because we have learned to TRUST ourselves and each other as we COLLABORATE  for the greater good.  Bottom line…we are all HAPPIER and way more productive!

The choice is up to you:  “YEH…BUT” or “YES…AND!” – What will it be?

by Jackie Levin