What can Mare of Easttown teach us about closing a meeting?

At KJ Consulting Group, we’re all about coaching teams to work better together. One piece of our formula - whether we’re training a room full of educators, working with a hiring committee, or coaching leaders - is that we are ALL constantly learning. Today’s blog invites you to consider the ways you are closing your team meetings and invite you, in the spirit of learning, to make a few adjustments. 

If you know me, you know I love movies and TV shows that make me think, challenge the world as I see it, and reflect about how I might apply a new perspective to my own life. One recent show that I became obsessed with was Mare of Easttown, starring an amazing cast including Kate Winslet. The show involved a central mystery, but it had a more lasting impact because of the exploration of the characters’ difficult family dynamics and long-lasting grief. The show didn’t stop at the climax —when we discovered who the killer was - but instead included a few final scenes of falling action and a resolution. The arc of the show and those final scenes have stuck with me, as my brain ponders Mare and her family’s journeys, my key takeaways from the show, and how I might apply them to my own life. 

Thinking about the show and its resolution prompted me to consider the arc of a standard team meeting. Most of us are pretty familiar with icebreakers to START meetings (we recently wrote about it here), but a carefully crafted meeting CLOSING can ensure participants leave with a stronger sense of what they’ve learned and a commitment to making change moving forward. 

We can draw a comparison between shows like Mare and collaborative meetings. As humans we like to draw conclusions and apply them to our own lives. However, to get to the application (or “now what?”) phase, we need to give ourselves time for reflection. How many times have you been in a meeting that never gets to the end? How often have you left a meeting without a clear idea of what to do next? We tend to get stuck in the heart of the content to ensure we meet objectives, when we need to save time for an intentional close, even if we don’t get through all of the content. Even when things aren’t going completely on schedule, saving time for a closing reflection will allow our teams to apply their learning, either as a shift in perspective or to plan action steps for their future work. 

Closings are an important part of all trainings we lead, so that the content we share and the dialogue we engage in during a session are not lost. I urge you to consider how closings might add value to your team meetings in a similar way. Whether you have 5 minutes or 20, saving intentional time in an agenda to allow participants to extract key learning points from the experience builds a culture of ongoing learning. Coming soon - a few of our favorite closing activities that only take a few minutes, while allowing for valuable reflection. Try one out, and let us know what closings you frequently use!

From the Classroom to the Boardroom: 4 Ways to Check for Understanding

How often have you been in a meeting when, after a quick icebreaker (if there was “time for one), the presenter ran through a deck of new information and sent the team on its way without pausing for anyone to take a breath? I have left meetings like this feeling overwhelmed and often unclear of my own next steps, much less how to communicate the information to the rest of my team. 

In our fast-paced workplaces, we must all tune in to take in new information, and many of us are responsible for quickly turning around that information to share with teammates. However, so often the focus is on getting the next thing done, rather than ensuring that all team members understand the new information and expectations on how to implement it. To make a shift, let’s turn to education. 

In the classroom, most teachers build in “checks for understanding” throughout their lessons to collect quick data snapshots around which students comprehend the key takeaways, who is struggling, and why. These moments ensure that learning is taking place and support the teacher in making decisions about what to do next instructionally (e.g. which concepts do they need to reteach and to whom, how can they present the information in a different way to support learners, and which students are ready for more of a challenge). We can all learn from this practice. Whether we are teaching young people or facilitating a meeting for adults, checking for understanding can be done quickly and will lead to more impactful outcomes, while guiding our work for the future.

Here are a few ways to check for understanding, regardless of your audience:

1. Fist to Five. Ask the group how they feel about new information by a show of hands. 

   • Holding up 0 (fist) or 1 finger = not super confident. 

   • Holding up all 5 fingers = I’ve got this! 

   • Skim the room to see if most people are in the 3-5 range. If not, pause for clarifying questions.

2. Thumbs up/ side/ down. Similar to “Fist to Five.” 

   • Ask the group how they feel about new information by giving a thumbs up / thumb to the side / or thumbs down. 

   • Scan the group to see where people are and follow up as needed.

3. Mentimeter. When you want to integrate technology, use a free, easy tool like this!

   • Mentimeter is one way to nab feedback and create a safe space for team members to ask questions anonymously.

   • As a presenter, you can prepopulate questions before the meeting and share a code with participants at various points to check for understanding. 

   • Participants can use Mentimeter on any device for virtual, hybrid, or in-person meetings.

   • As the results come in, you can share and respond to feedback in real-time.

4. Ask open ended questions. 

   • Instead of asking the group “Do you have any questions” at a pause point, ask instead: “What questions do you have?” Framing matters!

If the end goal is retaining information, we can’t blindly assume it will just happen. Embedding a check for understanding moment into an upcoming meeting agenda or presentation will build stronger team chemistry, clarify outcomes, and give you valuable information as the leader. The cost is low (less than a minute for most named above) and the gains are high. Try it out, and let us know your favorite CFUs!

Icebreakers & Type: Introverted Guest Post!

Check out these reflections from one of our amazing Introverted KJCG team members

Meeting icebreakers are ubiquitous these days. And I get it- they’re meant to “warm us up” before we dive into the true content of a meeting. But for an Introvert like me, they can sometimes fill me with dread.  “What IS a hobby I picked up during the pandemic?” Read: Nothing. I tried to stay sane. “Get up and run around the room to find 3 other people who have two siblings and who grew up in a different state.” Read: Why???? 

But for others- potentially E’s (Extraverts) who are more action oriented than me; those who prefer to communicate by talking and are both sociable and expressive- my dread may be their vitality. So in my continual journey to better understand other perspectives and MBTI® Types in the workplace, I’m trying to be more open minded about the utility of the icebreaker. I know a good icebreaker can be a game changer to start a meeting on the right foot. It can create a common, light experience for a team to work from; it can generate needed laughter, and it can truly “warm up” a hesitant group before jumping in. (And even for an Introvert like me- once the process has actually started, and I have had a moment to think through how I want to share or respond, it often brings me energy as well.)

Our team recently led a Myers Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI®) session for 40 teachers and administrators at a new charter school in South Carolina. Our objective was to help build a trusting, communicative team that understands each other, and we rooted our dialogue in our individual MBTI® “Types.”  The school team took their MBTI assessment before the session, so we knew coming in that about 55% of the group identified as Extraverts. We used that data point to select an icebreaker that would call in the majority, but followed it up quickly with time for individual reflection before we dove into the agenda content. As outside facilitators, we knew that the group would need different ways to move into our day together. Integrating activities early in our session that met the needs of both Extraverts and Introverts allowed for everyone to participate in a way that matched their MBTI® preferences. 

If you seek to build a meeting culture that is inclusive of all Types, we recommend incorporating a variety of icebreakers in your agendas- those that your Type is drawn to, as well as others that may push you a bit. To take it to the next level, set up a rotation of who is leading each meeting icebreaker for distributed leadership and variety. What caters more towards your I’s one week can be balanced by an activity that caters more towards E’s the next- and over time a more inclusive team culture is built.

Check out this free resource: a few of our favorite icebreakers for Introverts and Extraverts!