10: Effective Meetings with Elise Keith

Jul 24, 2018

Elise Keith, co-founder of Lucid Meetings, discusses the negative cycle of bad meetings and the importance of reframing their purpose. She identifies 16 types of meetings and highlights the significance of separating them by their work purpose. Keith also explains that the frequency of meetings affects their productivity, with more frequent meetings being shorter and more productive. Lastly, she emphasizes the need to define the purpose and desired outcome of meetings.

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Introduction

00:00 • 2min

The Bad Meetings Doom Loop

01:50 • 4min

Redefining Meetings and the Power of Language

05:39 • 13min

The Importance of Purpose and Outcome in Effective Meetings

18:36 • 6min

The Importance of Including New Employees and Leadership Team Meetings

24:18 • 4min

Meetings have a bad rap, but they're critical to how work gets done. Today's guest, Elise Keith is the co-Founder of Lucid Meetings, which helps organizations run day-to-day meetings to power their organizational success. Elise and I discuss the 'bad meeting doom loop', different types of meetings and how to string together a series to optimize how the team collaborates, and the most important thing to do when planning a meeting.

Key Takeaways:

Stop the bad meetings doom loop in which we expect meetings to be a waste of time so we don't prepare for them properly which leads them to being unproductive which reinforces our belief that meetings are a waste of time.
Try this mindset instead: Meetings are a place where people come together to get work done.
The word meeting is loaded. Try reframing your meetings by calling them something else like a weekly huddle or team crush.
Keith identifies 16 types of meetings which she discusses in depth in her book.
Separate meetings by their work purpose. Rather than compound meeting types, create a sequence of meetings that work together.
In general, the more frequently you meet, the shorter the meetings can be and they are likely to be more productive. In contrast, the less frequent you meet, the longer the meetings need to be, and the less productive they typically are.

Read the article based on this episode: Effective Meetings = Effective Business

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Get my book, Momentum: Creating Effective, Engaging, and Enjoyable Meetings at: www.meeteor.com/momentum

KEEP UP WITH ELISE

Where the Action Is: https://www.lucidmeetings.com/book

Website: www.lucidmeetings.com

Twitter: @lucidmeetings

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elisekeith/

Goodreads Booklist on Improving Meetings: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/117713.Better_Meetings_Better_Business

Check out Episode 21 - Managing Meeting Follow-Through - for more on effective meetings.

Get the free mini-guide for episode 21 to help improve your meeting follow-through.