How to Structure Meetings that Don’t Suck
By: Lindsey Fuller
How many times have you been in a meeting that dragged on and on for hours with no breaks, or spent 15 minutes in an ice-breaker talking about “if I were a zoo animal, what would I be”? Or better yet, how about that meeting that just could have been an email. With looming deadlines, clients that need our attention, and task lists to tackle, it can often feel like we do not have the luxury to hold spacious meetings.
Yet, could you imagine what would be possible if we took these precious moments and used them to amplify connection, enhance communication and collaboration, and truly embed wellness in the culture of our organization?
As a non-profit leader working towards a big mission on a finite budget, efficiency remains central to our success and is directly related to how our team structures their time. While there is some benefit to having “light” moments to create connections between colleagues, none of the scenarios above bring us closer to efficiency, worse yet, they are meetings that we don’t actually want to be in.
The truth is, they pull us further away from our purpose, our colleagues, and our desired impact.
Just as your budget reflects your values, how you structure your staff’s time should also reflect this. In our partnerships across the nation, we have seen organizations struggle internally with their adult culture–navigating ruptures between team members who do not know how to communicate with each other, stalled projects because folks can’t work together, etc. However, even in realizing these challenges, their team meetings and structures do not actually support members in developing and strengthening their interpersonal skills.
If communication is the lifeblood of collaboration, we have to be intentional about creating opportunities to flex this muscle together. Further, if staff wellbeing is a priority, meetings should walk hand-in-hand with this commitment.
Don’t get us wrong THIS IS NOT EASY. As an organization that prioritizes wellbeing at the collective level, we have had to work intentionally to restructure our default orientation to “getting all the things done” in order to walk-the-walk internally and model the way for our partners. Some of the ways that we have integrated our values within meeting structures include:
Revisiting community agreements
Intentional bio breaks
Honoring time boundaries
Somatic exercises to stabilize our nervous systems
Authentic check-ins
Movement opportunities
Integrating different ways of processing and learning (visual, auditory, kinesthetic, experiential, aided by a resource, etc.)
Embedded work bursts to knock”to-do’s” off the list during the meeting, combat procrastination, and boost productivity and morale simultaneously
Great Staff Meetings That Embed Wellness
If you truly want to center wellness for your whole team, it will require an intentional effort and practice to build this into your work culture. This might mean adjusting your meeting flow and resetting productivity expectations around what you can actually accomplish. Please note that it will not take the same amount of time to do your regular load work if you integrate new wellness practices–you have to allow for more time. You can also lighten the load by pre-assigning support roles. See an example of this in our Meeting Agenda Downloadable.
Trauma Informed Hot tip! Sharing the agenda in advance is a great practice and offers containment for all those participating in the meeting. It is especially appreciated by teammates that need additional processing time or benefit from knowing what comes next. This lowers anxiety and also puts everyone on the same page for greater productivity. Creating an agenda in advance, and linking this along with resources and a pre-established notes document in your calendar invite will save in-meeting time and allow for greater efficiency. At The Teaching Well “Integrity” is one of our core values, so honoring time boundaries is one important way that we live our values through our day-to-day operations.
1 Hour Meeting Agenda
Opener: (5 min) Framing the meeting, offering context, reviewing agenda.
Authentic Check in / Somatic Exercise: (10 min) Inviting powerful questions that help your team know each other more deeply in service of collaboration. Grounding exercises to self and co-regulate prior to dropping in.
Topic 1: (15 min) Your choice
Break: (5 min) Encourage a bio break, water bottle refill, or simply get up and touch four walls
Topic 2: (15 min) Your choice
Wrap Up / Next Steps / Announcements: (5 min) Time to share any odds and ends
Closing Check Out or Somatic: (5 min) An intentional closing that helps tie a bow on your time together, it's like saying “goodbye, take care” before you run off to other duties
Your meetings CAN feel connected, efficient, and joyful WHILE getting business done. Before your next team meeting, ask yourself (or your team!)... What is one “collective care” move that would make our meetings feel more nourishing, connected and meaningful?
Want a model agenda to help guide the way?
Download a PDF version of the actual meeting agenda framework that we use at The Teaching Well.
*This is a sample agenda based on how we would break up the flow of a meeting to embed wellness. If you need more than 15 minutes per topic, which is likely! simply extend the meeting to allow ample time for each major item you would like to discuss. We’ve found that 90 mins is a sweet spot that honors wellness and the need to dive deeper into core topics.