A Friday tip from Greenland regarding meeting structure
The theme is (still) effective meetings, and today you'll learn a 4-step meeting structure to help you get started and create the foundation for a great feedback culture.
Hi it's Danni here and welcome to Friday Feedback.
From Greenland?
It's simply too cold here!
**** that's great, man!
It's cold here too! -19 degrees or so. But it's just great to shoot out here!
UNICEF, Government of Greenland & True North
I'm in Ilulissat, Greenland with a colleague from True North, where over the course of 3 days we're delivering a variety of workshops to teenagers from all over Greenland. They've flown in, just like we are, and it's a collaboration between UNICEF and the Greenlandic government. BUT!
While that's great, in the nerdiest way possible, I'd like to take the opportunity to give you a little insight into how my colleague and I have been working on the culture and feedback culture we want to create in the team we're part of.
And here's a little break, because after I got back into the swing of things, I realized there were a few pieces missing before the next one makes sense. What I'd like to share with you are the traditions and structure we follow, which in a short period of time contribute immensely to the quality of our collaboration and the atmosphere in the team.
See if you can apply the next things I share in our daily short meeting to your everyday life. You don't have to do it every day or at 9 o'clock at night, but I promise you it can work for you too.
One of the first things we did, as we always do when we hold these camps that I do with True North a few times a year, is that we articulate as a team, what have we done well today? In other words, what are the things we want to point out that have worked during the day. Of course, this creates a good atmosphere, but it also gives us the opportunity to acknowledge the behaviors we would like to see more of; both from ourselves and the rest of the team. This isn't individual. It's as a team.
Sospecifically, I'm asking the question to the whole group (there are about 12 of us):
How to start the meeting in a positive direction:
Ask the team:
"What is something we did well today as a team?
- that we need to keep doing tomorrow.
- that ensures [participants in these workshops get the most out of it]."
Note: You can change the frequency and purpose in the square brackets above and use it in your team.
Oncea few people have shared some of the things we do well as a team, we move on to talk about tomorrow's program, so everyone is clear on what's going to happen. It's very traditional.
And then there's the last point, which is recognition. Here you have the opportunity, as part of this team, to say: "I want to recognize you for something you did today. I noticed you talking to someone and handling it this way and that way. It inspired me to do some of the same things."
It's little things like that, but the fact that we set aside 5 minutes for it in this meeting every night creates a culture of: "We have each other's backs", "We praise each other".
That's how we ran the meeting on the first day.
When we arrived in Greenland, we didn't know the culture or any of the people we would be working with beforehand. So we waited until the next day to start talking about development opportunities: "What is something we can do better?"
The process is exactly the same for the meeting. Below is our meeting structure:
Feedback on the meeting with 4 simple steps:
- What worked?
Whatare some of the things we did well as a team? - What can be optimized?
Herewe added the opportunities: What is something we can do differently tomorrow that will make us even more successful? - The actual agenda of the meeting
(For us it was the program for the next day). - Finally, a few personal recognitions.
It's a short, structured meeting with little input on each point.
But the simple meeting structure works because we do it again and again.
It may seem a little difficult to bring into a daily routine where you meet every day. After all, this is "just" an eight-day project.
- Oh, it must have been the cold that made me say that! My point is that it's the meeting structure that works: by creating the fixed rhythm and the fixed framework with: "What's working, what needs to be adjusted?" that we start to influence the culture. And we do! Even outside the meetings.
So start with the frame and the regular rhythm. And if that sounds difficult, give us a call. We'd love to help you make this work. Because we know it can be done.
I hope you could use some of the considerations, thoughts and reflections, and the things we do here to make a short collaboration work really well.
You might not work with Greenlanders or other cultures in that way, but it's the same things we're going to do again.
Thank you for reading about simple meeting structure at Feedwork
Thank you for taking a look at the meeting structure. We look forward to seeing you again.
I want to go inside and get warm. (I have snow in my beard...)
Hello hello!
Contact Feedwork and let us help you as a professional or organization to become better at meeting structure and feedback.
#Fridayfeedback are short videos with tips for better performance and well-being through feedback.
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