We all know how hard it is at times to run a successful Brand or Product meeting. To engage with the audience and come out with useful results (and not more work for you on top of what you already have) requires a thoughtful approach.
Here are 7 easy tips on how to make your brand meetings better.
- Articulate meeting purpose and benefits: Make sure you have defined a clear purpose for your meeting and the benefits for the team members in participating fully. Today’s work places are incredibly busy, so acknowledged what is happening outside the meeting that may be affecting the attitudes and behaviours of brand team members. Ask for full participation.
- Tell a story: A great way to start a meeting is to tell an Anecdote or Story that you can connect with the topic or the actions people need to take. Make sure you connect with each team member using your eyes, body gestures, empathy and tone of voice.
- Avoid data dumping: Deliver in a way that your audience will understand. Stay away from data dumping unless the specific data is required to foster good understanding. Reconsider the need for status updates which can be done before the meeting.
- Spark dialogue through pre-prepared thought provoking questions: It is always better to have a rich discussion as against a one way talk. Prepare two or three good questions to start the thinking and draw out the points of view.
- Monitor participation. Look out for ‘the quiet’, ‘the distracted’, ‘the compulsive talker’, and other non-participatory behaviours. Intervene by drawing in the quiet, calling out the distracted, and requesting all team members to ‘be present’.
- Anticipate objections: Think through the objections and other challenging situations which may present themselves at the brand meeting. Invest time in rehearsing a response to objections that starts with empathically understanding their point of view. Consider alternative approaches to potential challenging situations which may come up.
- Facilitate, don’t present: Our obsession with presenting a perfect solution in isolation to our audience ignores the basic human principle that each person arrives at the conclusions independently, Something they have to do in their own way to really understand it, to buy-in to it, and to be prepared to put effort in to execute it. A better way is to design your presentation in a way that draws out insight and discussion by including questions for discussion to keep your audience thinking critically and participating in a discussion about the issues in play. Allow them to arrive at your recommendations and ideas in their own way. It is never about us shining at the expense of others.
“The new leader is a facilitator, not an order giver” John Naisbitt
We encourage you to come to our SPECIAL FREE SYDNEY KEYNOTE on FACILITATING HIGH VALUE BRAND MEETINGS on 6th September 2016. Please have a look at this link http://www.sagelearning.net.au/brand-meetings-keynote/
Additionally, we will be supplying you with tips, tools, and assessments over the next few weeks to make your brand meetings anxiety free and highly effective. Next week look out for a video tip on authentic participation.