How to turn a meeting into a decision session
Meetings that end with a decision made are marvelous.
Some meetings are to share. The goal is to be a clear meeting presenter.
Other meetings are to discuss and decide.
The goal is to be an effective meeting facilitator.
After 10 years of agency life and 5 years of corporate life, here is the wisdom of (I mean, probably) 500+ sessions I’ve facilitated to lead to decisions made.
Define choices for the team to consider. Starting from a metaphorical blank page is hard. Prime the group with possibilities.
Ask each person what factors they’re considering. Ask tailored questions to individuals to encourage the needed voices to speak up.
Two examples:
“Ken, in your role as head of operations, what’s top of mind that this decision will affect?”
“Darlene, as the sales leader, what are we missing from a customer’s point of view?”
Allow time in your meeting agenda for live conversations and live mental processing time. Decision makers don’t get to be in the same (virtual) room as much as you might think so holding space for them to talk things out is gold.