OK, so I am Lynn Kelso, and I am a critical care nurse practitioner at the University of Kentucky. Also, my one disclosure I will give has nothing to do with SCCM, but I am a ridiculously huge football fan, and it is now 3-0 Ravens over Houston. So anybody who is interested. I am also a college basketball fan in Kansas and West Virginia, or tie at halftime. Any other scores I will help you out with. So one of the things we want to talk about in the next 15 minutes or so is really how to, now that you're looking at going into a leadership position, how do you really want to organize and put together an effective meeting? I can probably guess you can all raise your hands if you have sat in a meeting that you sat there and thought, why did we not just get an email about this? Why are we here? There is no reason for us to have a meeting. So really, it's really important to think about what we're doing and how do we put it together so that we're having something that's very effective and useful for people. So we're going to talk about, that's why this thing keeps rolling down there, why the little mouse goes. So things to prepare, how do you prepare for an effective meeting and then really strategies that you can use to organize your meeting so that it is something that is useful for people who are participating. It is going to be helpful for them. And that's the eagles nest up in the Alps somewhere. So I didn't have to worry about getting references for any pictures if I put my own in there, so you could look at that. So again, related to this, I have nothing to disclose. That is me rowing on Lake Bled in Slovenia this summer. So effective meetings. When we're looking at meetings, if you really look at some of the research that talks about meetings that we all go to, meetings that maybe we run, only about 50% of the time that we have meetings are they actually effective and are they really engaging. So that's really wasting a lot of our time. We are all busy people. We know that we would want a better work-life balance. So we've got a lot better things that we can do than sit in a meeting that really isn't being effective for us. So we really want to make sure that when we have a meeting that we have people who are being brought together, and we are working as a team within that meeting, and we're really being productive. We're doing something with the meeting that we are trying to have. And we want it to be effective, not just efficient. We really want effectivity and be able to come up with some type of product or goal or solution through this. So one of the first things you really have to do, if you are going to put together a meeting, you need to figure out what your objectives are. What are you looking to present to people that you are going to have at this meeting so that you know, how am I going to put this together? It can also help you figure out, do I need to have this in person? Can I do this over Zoom since we have all become Zoom efficient through COVID? Or can I just send out a message to people? Can I just send out an email? Because I really just want to update a few things. So what is the purpose of the meeting that you are trying to put together? What do we need to really be able to convey the information that I want people to have who are going to be there? You want it to be results oriented. If I'm going to have a meeting, I want to be able to have some kind of result at the end, because why else do we need to bring the people together? If we don't have any kind of result to come out with, I probably could have sent an email and just updated people on the information they had. And if you're going to have goals, you want them to be actionable. We want to be able to see that if we have a goal, are we going to be able to figure out when we reached that goal? So what do we need to do to finish that or complete it? Then you want to create your agenda. That's going to be the next step. And that's extremely important, particularly if you want people to come to the meeting and figure out, do I really want to be there, or am I going to find something else to do on my calendar? So you want to know, in your agenda, you want to be able to meet your objectives. You want to be able to figure out, when I have the objectives, what are the pieces of that that are going to allow me to meet those objectives so that we can come up with that goal at the end, so that we have a results-oriented ending to the meeting? We also want to make sure, or you want to make sure that your agenda is sent out to any of the participants you want there prior to the meeting. Unless you're just planning on standing up there and telling people stuff, you want interaction, and you want them to be able to participate in the meeting. And it's going to be much more effective if they know what the information is going in. If they have time that they can think about it, if they can come up with some comments or some concerns that they might have related to your agenda. You also want to make sure that you have some flexibility. Someone might come up with a problem or a process that's completely different than what you had in mind. And you want to make sure that you are flexible enough that you can discuss that, that you are not so rigid that you are stopping anybody from bringing up any other type of information that might be helpful for what we're trying to achieve as we go forward. The other thing is you want to make sure that any meeting that you have, that the people who are at that meeting feel like it's a safe space for them to come and a safe space for them to participate in that meeting. You don't want somebody who is sitting back and thinking, I really shouldn't say anything. I am afraid to say anything because there might be some repercussion or someone's going to think this is really dumb and I shouldn't, why did you even say that? So you want to make sure that there is some type of process in place to make sure that your meeting space is safe for everybody who's participating. Set ground rules. Everybody should be able to have a voice. You also, though, want to make sure that we've all been in meetings, too, where you have one person who tends to take over the whole meeting. And every comment comes from one person. So you want to make sure that everybody has the opportunity to speak, has the opportunity to provide their thoughts, their input, ask questions if they have questions, and make sure that they feel like they aren't being put down because they have a question. Make sure that people can hear each other. It is very easy to be in a meeting of multiple people and there are five or six different conversations going on all at the same time. You want to make sure that we can pay attention to the person who is really bringing up the information or who really has the floor. Make sure that we are courteous to people who are talking and that we're not cutting down somebody else. Again, make them feel like they are safe in their being able to discuss any comments or concerns that they have. You do want to ask for some feedback, also. You want to find out, how are we doing? What did you think you came out with at this meeting? Do you think that this was appropriate? Do you think we really accomplished what we set out to accomplish? Find out, were you doing something that was worthwhile to the people that you had there? Because if you don't do that, if you don't make attempts to make the meeting more worthwhile, the next time you have one, you're going to find a lot of people who have something better to do. You're going to find something else that's on their schedule and they're not going to be there. So you want to make sure you're asking for the feedback that they can help with. And then positive reinforcement. You want to make sure, again, that you thank the people who are attending the meeting, that you are thankful for their input, that they can really be helpful in going forward and moving in the direction where we really want to go. Knock, knock, who's there? So you want to make sure you're looking at your agenda, looking at the purpose of your meeting. You want to make sure that the players who need to be there are there. You want to make sure that you are inviting the appropriate people, because you don't want to talk about how we're going to get this piece of equipment that we are going to do all this with, but no one who can actually tell you that there's no room in the budget for that is at the meeting. And the next time you come to the meeting, you say, well, we couldn't do that because we have no money to do that. You want to make sure everybody who is important to the process or who has a stake in your agenda and in the output that you want to produce is able to come to the meeting, or at least sends a representative to the meeting. So know who's there. You want to have a creative potential of the group. You want to think about, just like we talked about earlier today, what are the strengths of the people who are in your group? What is their creative potential for what you're trying to accomplish? And that creative potential there, that's my alumni band from West Virginia University, and we actually did concerts over in Europe this past summer. So we had a lot of creative potential, and we used that to the best of our ability to do that. But you want to know where your strengths are within the group, who you can kind of hit up for certain tasks, who can really work well, who can work well together. One of the last things we all want to hear about is we're going to form committees. How many meetings have you gone to? And this is the fifth meeting I've gone to, and we're forming committees from every meeting I've been to this week. I'm not going to have time to do my work. So you really want to pull people who are interested in working on the goal that you have set forth there. You also want to have diverse perspectives. You want multiple people to be able to bring in those ideas so that you can produce an output, and you can have good outcomes without always thinking in one direction. I've been at meetings where somebody, the person went in there, this is the goal, this is what we're doing, I don't want to hear anything about it, and this is how it's going to go. And you lose people halfway through. So you want to make sure you bring in different perspectives because somebody else might have a better way to do something. You won't have all of the ideas. So make sure you're listening to other people. But once you determine what needs to be done and what steps we're going to take, make sure you have defined roles so that people do know what are they going to be responsible for when they leave the meeting. That's the way you're going to be able to continue to work toward that goal that you have in mind or what you want. You also, when you're in a meeting, you want to make sure that you stay on track. We don't want to come to a meeting and sit there for 20 minutes waiting for it to start when it was supposed to start 20 minutes ago. Most of us are always waiting for lunch. So you'd never want to go over when it's time for lunch. And everybody wants to be done when we're supposed to be done. If you can finish early, you get bonus points. So you don't want people just to continue to talk all the time. Set time limits for your agenda. Now, again, you might need to have some flexibility. If you get into a really great discussion about things, you might want to continue that. You don't want to just stop that discussion because we hit that time point. But you don't want people, you don't want every person in a meeting to say the exact same thing. Everybody thinks they should have a say, but they're all saying the same thing. No one is bringing up anything new. Call the question, set a time limit on that, and let's move on to the next topic. You can have a timekeeper. If you have a group of people at your meeting who tend to talk forever, and we had that in our college, particularly when we finally had in-person meetings again, and we had more time with people, we're trying to catch up with people, do all these other things when they were in person, and you really had to bring people back to task. Bring them back to where we need to be. Set a timekeeper. A timekeeper is a great job for the one person in your meeting who tends to take over all the time. If you have that one person who is always making comments, who is always the one who is speaking first for everything that comes up, put them in charge of the time. Give them a task to do because that can help. Again, start and end on time. It's extremely important, and it really helps people to feel like you value their time because, again, we are all really busy, and we don't want to waste our time just sitting there doing nothing. And then keep them engaged. You know, figure out what else you need to do. What are some different things that you can do to engage them in the conversation? Make sure that they are interested in what's happening. Make sure that they understand what we're talking about so that they aren't off on different conversations within the entire group. As you go forward, once you complete your meeting and once you are getting to the end point of that, you want to make sure you summarize what happened. Summarize the important points so that people know what was going on so that we know, okay, where are we right now? What did we accomplish during this meeting so I know what am I going to be taking forward? What kind of actions are we going to do? Did we determine actions that needed to be completed after this meeting is over? What are they? When do we expect them to be completed? Who owns those actions? Who is responsible for them? So, and you want to make sure that the person who is responsible for them knows they're responsible for them. You know, we go out of meetings at different times and people say, well, I thought you were doing that piece. You want to make sure that the person who you think is responsible for an action actually knows that that's what they're supposed to be doing. And you want to know when should they have a time. What timeline are we following? When are we going to have some type of a follow-up that we can provide to the people who are at the meeting so that you give them a deadline to keep them on task? Because again, being busy, other things can get in the way, and then we don't get things accomplished that we want to get done. So in summary for this, you want to have a plan. Know what your objectives are. Make sure that you have that agenda in place and that people know what the agenda is before you get to your meeting. Make sure you create a safe space in your meeting environment. Make sure you keep the meeting on track. And that can be really hard to do when we're still doing Zoom meetings too because you really don't know who's there. Putting your name in a little square doesn't mean that anybody is actually paying attention to you at all. So figuring out ways that you can try to engage people through that little screen can be really important. But keep it on track, keep it on time, and have a plan going forward. Make sure you figure out what are our next steps and when can they anticipate hearing a follow-up or having a follow-up meeting so that people can be thinking ahead to what needs to go on. And that's it. There you go. Thank you.

Lynn Kelso

effective meetings

meeting organization

engagement strategies

meeting productivity