After sitting through some roadmap planning exercises with colleagues recently, I tuned into the subtle differences that can take one of these sessions from good to great. And it’s not rocket science.
Start strong
As the organiser of a meeting, whether in person or virtual, you are expected to lead the session. There’s nothing worse than walking into a room or connecting to a call when the organiser is just as confused as everyone else as to why we are here.
When attending a recent workshop, I observed three key ingredients to the intro that set it up for great success:
It was stated what will be covered
It confirmed what will not be covered
What was needed from the audience
Being very clear and very explicit on these points immediately sets the expectation of those in the meeting and gives you a reference to point back to and say “remember, we are not covering X in this session”.
Starting strong commands the attention of people and aligns them with the purpose of the meeting, leading to more fruitful outcomes.
Being very explicit from the start about what will not be covered helps to proactively remove any derailing discussions and helps to keep folks focused on the goal. Even if this is all laid out in your agenda, be sure to repeat it.
Use effective tools
In this particular session, the organiser created a matrix to review the roadmap topics that were up for discussion.
This could have been a list of items or a typical roadmap visualisation. What helped here was that there were some hard trade-offs to make. When you drop topics on a matrix, alongside other items, it allows you to more objectively reason which is more important.
In this instance, the axes plotted impact and effort and it was amazing to see how quickly decisions could be made when viewing topics through these lenses. In other contexts, this could have easily led to derailed conversations based on subjectivity.
Find the narrative
We’ve all seen those movies where halfway through a connection is made between characters that leave you mind-blown. Can you create that same a-ha moment with your audience?
It’s very rare that the work we do exists in a vacuum yet many of us will come to meetings or workshops only to see the world through our lens. The reality is though that great ideas are ones which connect the needs of different teams, and customers. Look for ways to help others see the bigger picture and look for that change in mindset.
We could all benefit from thinking more broadly at times and telling stories is a great way to achieve this.
Hi, my name is…
Apologies if I just got Eminem stuck in your head for the rest of the day, but if it helps to land the message, maybe it’s worth it.
Remember, those first impressions that we know are so important should not be limited to new encounters.
Next time you are going to lead any type of discussion, be mindful of your introduction and the first impressions that you are creating. Whether it be that next meeting, that workshop, an interview with a candidate or your 1:1. The way you choose to start that conversation can make more of a difference than you think.
Powering this week’s thoughts
Music plays such an important role when I am thinking, working, and reflecting. I also find it interesting to see what others are listening to. It's a gateway into an aspect of their personality. That's why I'd like to share, with each article, an artist or playlist that I have been listening to that week. Here's this weeks: