“Yes, but what are the outcomes?”
If you’ve ever worked with me (sorry) you’ll be very aware of my favourite refrain:
“What are the outcomes?”
And the reason I ask this question so much is because it’s Really Important. It’s important when creating learning, or planning an event, or for meetings.
And I ask it because often outcomes haven’t been thought about. What usually comes first is the content, or a format idea, or, in the case of meetings… nothing – just a routine scheduled in the diary.
Let me elucidate (wanted to use that word, sounds fancy, doesn’t it?).
What is an outcome?
An outcome is the result of a thing. You could see it as the change that will happen as a result of an intervention. And it can apply to anything – a report, a project, a meeting, an event, a learning programme.
If you’re writing a report, I implore you to consider what the outcomes will be, not just the output (the physical/digital report itself).
Anyway, back to my safe-zone – learning, events, meetings etc.
Starting with outcomes
The reason for starting with outcomes is that they provide the basis for how you design and run your learning, event or meeting.
By having the end in mind (outcomes) you can develop content or exercises that help people head towards those outcomes. In my view, without this starting point you’re designing blind.
Think, feel, do
One of the approaches I like to use with clients is the Think, Feel, Do model, often used in marketing.
This asks: what do we want our audience to think, feel and do as a result of this thing?
Think: What do we want our audience to know, understand or believe?
Feel: What emotion do we want them to leave with?
Do: What action do we want them to take?
I work through these with the team, and from there I then craft some outcome statements.
Focus on meetings
Let’s focus in on meetings for now, since most people spend a lot of time in them, and generally they’re not great.
Let me back that up with some stats:
The typical employee spends ~11.3 hours per week in meetings (~30% of a 37.5-hour week)
In a Harvard Business Review survey, 71% of senior managers said meetings are unproductive and inefficient.
54% of employees often leave meetings without a clear idea of next steps
Need I go on? Yes? Oooh okay, one more:
77% of employees reported being in meetings that simply led to scheduling another meeting
(stats grabbed from here: https://www.noota.io/en/meeting-statistics-guide - thanks noota, whoever you are).
So, I think we can all agree that meetings could be improved. And I think having clear outcomes would make a huge difference.
Developing and using outcomes in meetings
Creating outcomes doesn’t need to be time-consuming or difficult, and they can be fairly formulaic. Here are a few examples for meetings I’ve been part of:
Discuss and agree on strategic priorities for next quarter
Reflect on lessons learned and identify improvements
Reconnect after the summer break and update on upcoming projects.
I would say that all these outcomes provide purpose and focus to a meeting – agree?
And they don’t have to be all about ‘making’ stuff – outcomes can be about team and relationship building, connection and the like.
Using outcomes
Here’s my approach to using outcomes to improve (or remove) meetings:
Develop some outcomes ahead of the session. If the outcomes aren’t strong, or could be solved another way (email, Teams chat etc.): cancel the meeting.
Ensure that you have the people, resources, materials, time and technologies needed to meet the outcomes of the meeting. If you don’t, cancel and reschedule the meeting.
Share the outcomes with participants ahead of the meeting – this help people prepare for the meeting, and shows that it’s got a clear purpose.
When the meeting starts, state the outcomes for the session and ensure agreement amongst the attendees.
Facilitate using the outcomes: when the conversation inevitably rambles on to topics that are unrelated to the outcomes, bring it back by reminding delegates of the outcomes.
Wrap up the session by reflecting on the outcomes and your progress towards achieving them.
So, there you go – how to improve your meetings one outcome at a time.
Give it a go and let me know how it went.