How to start and end meetings with participation
(Better Meetings video 1)

What you do with the first couple of minutes and the last couple of minutes of a meeting is crucial to the effectiveness, the mood and the participation. Here’s how I start and end meetings every time.

Two fundamentals literally every meeting needs
(Better Meetings video 2)

There is no point thinking about high fallutin’ group dynamics principles if your meeting is missing the literally ground floor fundamentals. And *so many* meetings are, I’ve found to my dismay. Here’s how to fix it and it’s not hard.

Rapidly get quality discussion, even in big meetings.
(Better Meetings video 3)

Open discussion is one of the least inclusive, least productive ways of running a meeting. Here’s a pattern you can use in so many situations, even if you have little facilitation experience, even if you have a conservative group, especially if the group is big. You can do it in Zoom meetings too.

Safely encourage open dissent in your meeting
(Better Meetings 4)

Silence or begrudging ‘consent’ can be a sign you haven’t uncovered people’s real concerns. Here’s a way to reveal what people are genuinely feeling, without feeling like you’re opening Pandora’s box.

Survive the meeting groan zone
(Better Meetings video 5)

Losing your way in the middle of a complex meeting is not a dysfunction, but likely to be a functional group thinking its way out of its normal patterns. Even just having a label for this phase of meetings can help to survive it. Ladies, gentlemen and people wise enough to live outside of the gender binary, I give you: The Groan Zone.