Meetings. What does that word evoke for you? Do you feel your soul drain from your body as you sit in meetings? Do the faces in your meetings look like zombies from The Walking Dead? Are meetings preventing you from getting work done?

It doesn’t have to be this way. You have the power to change it. 

Today.  

At your next meeting. 

Even if you are not the meeting organizer.

This is one of my favorite quotes. It's a reminder that you have the power to influence the energy in any interaction you have - either positively or negatively. Your actions matter. If a meeting is lifeless, and you’re a participant, you are contributing to the problem. The good news is that you have the power to change it!

You may wonder how to do that. My work is always about connecting the soulful and the practical.  Here are five practical ways you can bring soul to your next meeting.

1. Clarify the meeting objective. Meandering meetings suck the life out of the participants. If people spend the meeting wondering why they’re there, energy is leaking into unproductive time.“But I don’t own the invite.” Ask the organizer to clarify the meeting objective. A great question is “What question are we seeking to answer in this meeting?” Framing a meeting around a question is a powerful way to focus the group’s energy.Ideally ask before the meeting, and encourage the organizer to include an objective in the invite. This gives people a chance to prepare. If you don’t have an objective in advance, ask at the start of the meeting.  Don’t wait for the meeting to go sideways before asking.
   

2. Climb out of rabbit holes.  A clear objective sets a foundation to recover from rabbit holes. But it’s not always evident whether a rabbit hole will yield value until you dip into it. Remember, what you deem as a rabbit hole is important to the person who raised it. They will feel shut down if you say, “This is a rabbit hole” or “Let’s take this offline.”  Instead, ask “How does this discussion impact the objective of this meeting?” This question will either create a linkage to the objective or clarify a better place for the discussion to live.
   

3. Visually track the discussion. Ten people can leave a meeting with 10 different interpretations of what was agreed to. A visual anchor helps bring back people who got distracted, and let’s face it, that’s all of us.Visual tracking can be very simple, a text document will do; mind maps are even better. Here’s a simple model:
   

• Meeting Objective: What question are we answering?

• Ideas/Topics - As each person raises a point, track it as a bullet

• For / Against / Factors to Consider

• Decisions

• Actions
  

This technique will also keep you out of circular conversations because when points are revisited, you simply run your cursor along the idea already discussed and ask “Does this capture it?”

Tracking the conversation visually helps. if possible, share your screen so others can make corrections and ask questions along the way.

1. Stop revisiting old decisions.  It’s frustrating when the same conversations happen over and over. There are four main reasons this happens: 1) new people who weren’t in the previous conversation 2) we forget 3) someone didn’t like the decision 4) new information emerged / something changed.A simple decision log can mitigate the first two problems. All you need is a shared document with the date and decision.The second two problems are solved with curiosity.  Ask, “What new information have we learned since we made this decision?” This is respectful to the people that don’t like the decision and want to revisit it. It opens up the conversation to re-litigate if when information emerges, and everyone is clear why the decision is re-opened for discussion.
   

2. Set an intention. Focus your energy. Energy Coach Mona Campbell calls it the “2 second shift to presence.” Take just 2 seconds before your next meeting to breathe and decide how you want to show up in this meeting.  What energy do you want to bring?

Every meeting has the possibility of being soulful and productive. And soulless meetings have the possibility of turning around at any point. Every person in a meeting has the opportunity to impact the outcome of the meeting. Be the one that exercises that option.

Your cheat sheet:

1. Clarify the meeting objective. Ask “What question are we seeking to answer in this meeting”

2. Climb out of rabbit holes. Ask “How does this discussion impact the objective of this meeting?”

3. Visually track the discussion. Objective, Points raised, Decisions, Actions.

4. Stop revisiting old decisions.  Use a decision log.  Ask “What new information have we learned since we made this decision?”

5. Set an intention. How do you want to show up in this meeting?