How Improv Can Make Meetings Suck Less
It’s 9am and you’re kicking off a meeting with your bleary-eyed colleagues. All of you fantasising about still being tucked up in bed, or better still, being the sudden beneficiary of a distant aunt’s Canadian maple syrup fortune. You start to talk and the best you get are some grunts of acknowledgement and a brief peek away from scrolling on the work mobile.
Meetings suck, honestly, I know. As a leader, however, they are essential for gathering input, sharing ideas and getting buy-in. The format . . . who actually came up with that sweet hell? Slide after slide, presenter reciting content that could be simply popped over on an email.
It needn’t be that way, though. I’ve always seen meetings as moments of performance. Content is key, of course, but delivery is what is going to make it stick.
Improvisation as a performance style relies on a foundation of important rules which create a special kind of dynamic that draws the best out of people, invites them into a world of your making which you then build together.
So what’s this got to do with a financial performance meeting? Well, in my opinion, the problem with meetings is that nobody wants to be there.
The tools of improvisation can reverse this. By practicing and applying some simple techniques, you can make your meetings stick. In my career I have always had one objective for myself at every meeting I lead:
Make it the most interesting and memorable thing your attendees do all day.
A bold aim! Not actually that difficult with a bit of improv magic. Nothing I can write here will replace signing up for a improv course - getting stuck into creating deep and and engaging connections with others, learning to speak with gravitas and developing an empathetic and joyful style. These three tips, though, borrowed from improv, might just shake up your next meeting enough to convince you to release your inner performer and get improvising.
What’s the ‘game’ of your meeting?
In improv we hunt for the game - the central idea that makes a scene work. You need to decide what the most important/interesting thing about your meeting is. Decide what it is you want people to take away with them and build your content around that. Make it fun and tell them why they should care about it.
Create a dialogue
Try leading with some open questions in your meeting, rather than just making statements. Ask specific people specific questions if you feel able. Respond to answers in a way that ties back to your ‘game’ and always thank folks for input.
Accept and build
Whatever is said, accept and build on it. Don’t block any questions or comments as this will put people off engaging. Don’t worry about not knowing the answer to a question - we simply can’t know everything. Accept and build works nicely here, for example:
Big boss: you’ve got the Q2 forecast here. What can we expect for Q4?
You (doesn’t have Q4 numbers for whatever reason): Thank you for that question - one of the main purposes of this meeting was for me to understand what the leadership team need further clarity on. I will follow up with an email covering this - does anyone else require any additional information?
If you want to make your meetings suck less, improv can help. Be the most interesting thing about your colleague’s day, and have lots of fun doing it!