Pre-loading a Meeting

You have a very important meeting coming up. It could be a large town hall or maybe a senior leadership kick off. You want everyone engaged and fully participating. In short, you want something back for this large investment you will be making.

One way we have found helpful is to “pre-load the meeting.” Give the participants something engaging to work on prior to the meeting to grab their attention and peek their interest. I am not talking about sending out a large attachment in an email as pre-work. This would be way too predictable and way too boring. Better to have an on-line library they can access, and contribute to as well. Here are some things we do.

1.    Send out a survey that asks for their input on the most important decisions you will make at the meeting. Make this information public before the meeting. The best would be in real time. After they enter their comments, participants should be a button they can click to see their comments and all the comments of the other participants. This makes it sticky. They will keep coming back to the survey to see who else contributed, and what they had to say. Tell them we will open up this information at the session and work it. Have a “theme team” look over this information and pull out what is core common and consistent.

 2.    Create an on-line discussion prior to the meeting, and make sure your top team keeps adding to it and responding to it. Have the discussion identify by name those contributing. This helps to create a norm of “owning your own words.”

 3.    Host a brainstorm asking for innovative ideas about a sticky issue. These ideas can be the start of a brainstorming breakout group later in the meeting.

 4.    Send out a short slide show that allows your participants to add their comments to it. Keep the words to a minimum, use visuals wherever possible.

   5.    Have a place where the participants can add something personal about themselves. This is how like folks can connect with each other. Work to facilitate these connections whenever possible at the meeting.

Energy follows attention. Make sure you get a decent return on your investment by finding creative and innovative ways to engage your participants prior to the meeting. It will make you meeting more meaningful, more enjoyable and your participants will thank for it - in many ways!