Healthcare Leadership
with Dan Nielsen dan@americashealthcareleaders.com
In a recent Harvard Business Review article, Bob Frisch and Cary Greene provide 3 outstanding recommendations for significantly more effective, efficient, and productive ending of meetings. I highly recommend you read these 3 excellent strategies and the article itself at https://hbr.org/2016/04/dont-end-a-meeting-without-doing-these-3-things.
- “Confirm key decisions and next steps. Recap what was decided in the meeting, who is accountable for following through, when implementation will occur, and how it will be communicated. You want every attendee to leave the meeting with the same understanding of what was agreed, so there’s little chance of anyone reopening the issues later.”
- “Develop communication points.If a colleague not at the meeting asks an attendee ‘What happened?’ he or she should know what to say. So before you wrap up, put the question to the group. ‘What are the most important things we accomplished in our time here together?’ As the group responds, capture the key points on a flip chart or whiteboard and briefly summarize them … The goal of this exercise is not to give people a script to read from. It’s to provide guidance on the key messages they should convey, and what they should keep to themselves, if asked, so the rest of the organization gets a consistent picture of what went on.”
- “Gather session feedback. Especially if your group will meet regularly, ask attendees for feedback on the session while it’s fresh in their minds… Instead of asking a broad question like ‘What feedback do you have?’, which often yields equally vague and unhelpful responses, break the discussion into what we call ‘roses’ (positives) and ‘thorns’ (negatives). Start with the latter… ask, ‘What could be improved?’ Avoid debating the suggestions raised, but do ask questions to clarify what’s being said. Finally, turn to roses. Ask the group ‘What went well? What should we be sure to do again in the future?’ Coming on top of the recap of decisions, next steps and talking points, this last discussion helps you end the session on a positive note.”
Based on 40-plus years of successful leadership, I believe these are 3 of the best recommendations I have read in terms of improving productivity and results of hundreds and hundreds of meetings most senior leaders participate in each year!
- Confirm key decisions and next steps
- Develop communication points
- Gather session feedback
Copyright © 2016 by Dan Nielsen – www.americashealthcareleaders.com
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