Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Good Morning, This is Laura, Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Speaker 1: Today's tip is to double plan your meetings. That is,
Speaker 1: to plan meetings with your attendees in mind, and not
Speaker 1: just plan what you'll do at the head of the
Speaker 1: table or is the speaker on your zoom call. In
Speaker 1: his book Teach Like a Champion Superstar, educator Doug Leamoff
Speaker 1: advises teachers to do this double planning in their classrooms.
Speaker 1: As he puts it, it's as important a plan for
Speaker 1: what your students will be doing during each phase of
Speaker 1: your lesson as it is to plan for what you'll
Speaker 1: be doing and saying. When teachers double planned lessons, they're
Speaker 1: less likely to plan a class or students are expected
Speaker 1: to just sit and listen the whole period. When kids
Speaker 1: listen to a teacher drone on and on, well, it's
Speaker 1: no wonder that their minds wander. Not surprisingly, the same
Speaker 1: thing happens in meetings, both in person ones and virtual ones.
Speaker 1: The amount of multitasking that goes on during conference calls
Speaker 1: is almost comical. But if you double plan a meeting
Speaker 1: focusing on what you and any other presenters will be
Speaker 1: doing and what the other participants will be doing. Everyone
Speaker 1: will be more engaged. So as you plan a meeting,
Speaker 1: consider what every participant does during every minute. Do you
Speaker 1: want them just to listen or to weigh in? And
Speaker 1: if so, how do you want them to think about
Speaker 1: how they'll implement your ideas? Do you want them to
Speaker 1: critique your ideas? Do you want them to come up
Speaker 1: with new ideas? Frame each section by indicating the participant's role,
Speaker 1: and make sure you share this with the people in
Speaker 1: the room or on your zoom session. I'd like to
Speaker 1: share my ideas for potential partners for our new program
Speaker 1: and then get your feedback on who might be best
Speaker 1: and how to reach them. Or here's the proposal for
Speaker 1: the launch of the new website. I want you to
Speaker 1: identify any potential issues you see. Double planned meetings are
Speaker 1: a lot less boring. They're also better for the bottom line.
Speaker 1: If you think about the monetary cost of an hour
Speaker 1: long meeting with eight people who make an average of
Speaker 1: a hundred thousand dollars, that meeting costs four dollars in
Speaker 1: salaries alone, not including benefits or overhead, and given that
Speaker 1: people often stop other work a bit before a meeting
Speaker 1: and take time to resume work after we're really talking
Speaker 1: more like eight hundred dollars. Is it worth eight hundred
Speaker 1: dollars to have seven people smiling and nodding at you
Speaker 1: for an hour? If you do this once a week,
Speaker 1: the costs really start to add up. Is it worth
Speaker 1: forty dollars to have people just sit there? Wouldn't you
Speaker 1: rather have ways for people to contribute ideas and suggestions.
Speaker 1: If a meeting is just for sharing information, circulating a
Speaker 1: memo could be a more efficient alternative. Now, some people
Speaker 1: may object that meetings, whether virtual or in person, are
Speaker 1: preferable to memos because they build relationships among colleagues. And
Speaker 1: I get that relationships are definitely important, But sitting passively
Speaker 1: beside someone isn't really a prime community building activity. If
Speaker 1: you want your meetings to foster relationships, all the more
Speaker 1: reason to double plan and incorporate interaction among participants to
Speaker 1: advance that goal. If you're convinced that double planning may
Speaker 1: be valuable, here's how Doug lemof Advise is going about it.
Speaker 1: Create a two column plan with what you will be
Speaker 1: doing in the left column and what participants are doing
Speaker 1: in the right column. So for each section of the meeting,
Speaker 1: you can see side by side what you're doing and
Speaker 1: what participants are doing. After you've finished planning, scan down
Speaker 1: the right column. Do participants engage in a variety of
Speaker 1: activities over the course of the meeting or are there
Speaker 1: stretches when there's a lot of passive listening? If so,
Speaker 1: can you add more interaction? After planning a few meetings
Speaker 1: this way, you'll grow accustomed to thinking about what everyone
Speaker 1: in the room or on the call should be doing
Speaker 1: with every minute that they're there, and you won't be
Speaker 1: able to believe how much time everyone wasted in the past.
Speaker 1: If you try double planning your meetings, I'd love to
Speaker 1: hear how it does, and if you have great tips
Speaker 1: for making meetings more engaging in general, I invite you
Speaker 1: to send those my way to You can reach me
Speaker 1: at Before Breakfast Podcast at iHeartMedia dot com. In the meantime,
Speaker 1: this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to making
Speaker 1: the most of our time. Hey, everybody, I'd love to
Speaker 1: hear from you. You can send me your tips, your questions,
Speaker 1: or anything else. Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook
Speaker 1: and Instagram at Before Breakfast Pod. That's b E then
Speaker 1: number four then Breakfast p O D. You can also
Speaker 1: shoot me an email at before Breakfast podcast at iHeartMedia
Speaker 1: dot com that before Breakfast is spelled out with all
Speaker 1: the letters. Thanks so much, should I look forward to
Speaker 1: staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a production of I
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