Proven Techniques for Productive Meetings with Elise Keith (ep. 204)

Did you know that almost three-quarters of us find meetings ineffective or unproductive, and they waste more than $37 billion dollars every year?

Elise Keith, CEO and co-founder of Lucid Meetings, joins us to share about her expertise and her mission to make it easy for teams to run successful meetings every day, in the business world + in life outside of work.

Whether you’re leading a meeting at your child's school or an executive at a Fortune 500 boardroom, Elise is here to share real-life examples + practical methods that will lead to more productive + effective meetings and happier participants.

SHOW NOTES:

• "Every meeting is walking into another room with another group of individuals that aren't the same as you, and hopefully having a moment to connect and create something great."
• Get curious: Productive meetings happen when individuals can treat each other with respect, let their voices be heard and their opinions valued without judgment.
• Meetings aren't just transactional. It's about being successful with people.
• "Bad" meetings are always a reflection of something deeper going on in the culture. 
• Many leaders are leading bad meetings because that's what's always been done.
• Doing a job their not trained to do: Leaders are spending 70-80% of their workweek in meetings, and fewer than 25% of them have any training on how to lead effective meetings.
• Look at how high-performing organizations meet successfully to drive performance. In an effort to improve employee engagement at the technology company Cisco, teams regularly touch-base in a positive way.
• Frequency of care: How often do you show interest in what your team members are working on, say thank you, recognize others for bringing meaning + value to our work?
• Breaking the doom loop: You can't get a positive result when you start with a negative belief.
• "Every meeting is an opportunity to bring people together and achieve something that you can't achieve on your own."
• Get clear on your "why": Use this Lucid Meeting resource to define which of the 16 types your meeting is, and design it to be most productive.
• Elise shares a strategic technique on how to use silence to increase critical feedback to be shared + heard by all members of the meeting.
• Organizations that design meetings with a clear end goal in mind meet far less and waste fewer resources.
• Start meetings with icebreaker techniques to create bonds between team members and combat loneliness.
  • Live Inspired office: Share an experience from the past week on how our individual work ties to the overall mission.
  • Starbucks: Share a coffee tasting together.
  • Lululemon: Clearing to be present before a Vibes Watcher.
• Elise shares 4 practical tips to have better meetings starting today:
  1. Take a moment before every meeting to create a clear vision of the purpose + desired outcomes of the meeting.
  2. Connect with each other as people first.
  3. Close the meeting by getting clear on your promises.
  4. Say "thank you."
• Get a copy of Elise Keith's book Where the Action Is.

Elise Keith shared that she practices Hal Elrod's Miracle Morning principals every morning. On Live Inspired Podcast ep. 77 my dear friend Hal Elrod shares the techniques of his international bestselling book The Miracle Morning and how those practices helped him overcome two near-death experiences + build a highly successful business. Listen to Hal's Live Inspired Podcast episode today.

ELISE KEITH'S LIVE INSPIRED 7

1. What is the best book you’ve ever read? Don Miguel's Four Agreements.

2. What is a characteristic or trait that you possessed as a child that you wish you still exhibited today? Sit still and not be fretting about everything I need to do.

3. Your house is on fire, all living things and people are out. You have the opportunity to run in and grab one item. What would it be? My laptop + a box of my kids' precious school pictures.

4. You are sitting on a bench overlooking a gorgeous beach. You have the opportunity to have a long conversation with anyone living or dead. Who would it be? My great, great grandfather Jake Patrick Aldridge. There are all types of family legends about him and I'd love to hear them come straight from the source.

5. What is the best advice you’ve ever received? Eat all the chocolate while you can.

6. What advice would you give your 20-year-old self? Just do the work.

7. It’s been said that all great people can have their lives summed up in one sentence. How do you want yours to read? Well, that was fun!

***

Did you enjoy today's episode? Share it with your friends! Then subscribe, rate + review on Apple Podcasts.

Live Inspired with John daily on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram + get his Monday Motivation email.