5 Tips for More Positive Meetings

Hi there and welcome. It’s Kerstin Jatho here, a transformational coach who helps people shift from languishing to flourishing. In this video, I want to talk to you about how to have positive work meetings. I’m sure you’ve all experienced meetings at work where you have attended and it’s gone on about what you haven’t done, what you’re late at, what was not delivered, where there were complaints, customer complaints, and so on and so forth.

Can you feel the energy just dropping? How engaged are you? How interested are you in really solving this? Unfortunately, most company meetings work that way. We focus on what’s not working and then what needs to be fixed. I’m not saying that isn’t important and priority, but it is important to start meetings on a positive note.

Why? Because it actually increases creativity and innovation. Going down the fix it road really closes down people’s mindsets and brings up a lot of negative emotions. Hence you are asking them after that straightaway for positive brainstorming solutions, which is not going to happen because the environment and the energy has just not been provided for.

So, I want to leave you with five tips on how to start positively. Which in the end saves a lot more time and enhances creativity, performance, productivity, and team commitment.

Step 1. Positive quotes

The first one is start with a positive quote or an inspiring aspect of gratitude that you want to have.

Step 2. What’s going well

The second one is ask every team member what’s really going well for them. That’s quite a challenging question because we often don’t know what’s not going well and can answer that instantaneously. But if you ask somebody what’s going well, they actually often have to pause and think about that.

Step 3. Team member recognition

The third one is ask each team member to acknowledge or recognise another team member. They can be in the team, but they don’t have to be here. Sharing how somebody has impacted them during the week. All their work is always a nice, positive way of recognising, giving recognition, praise and acknowledgement. And that’s from peer to peer, not even from leader top down, but it’s knowing that I’ve made a difference in somebody else’s life for the week in their work.

Step 4. Positive environment

The fourth one. Drop the formal meeting room style. The foremost square table creates so much blockage on energy and conversation. Create circles, sit around the table, a round table, or if the weather is amazing, go sit under a tree. Just create an environment that enhances way more positivity than the standard all old boardroom.

Step 5. Thinking space

The fifth one is bringing in silence into your meetings. People need time and space to think. Continuously talking and continuously having something to say without people having the chance to think about things or ponder on things doesn’t always foster positivity because it means we need to function like machines and have the answers available immediately.

So, these are five very simple, very practical steps. We’ll start increasing the positivity in your meetings, have fun with them, experiment with them, share with your team that this is your new way of that. You’re going to start with meetings. Otherwise they’re going to be caught off guard and don’t know what’s happening.

So always communicate with them and you will see an immediate increase in commitment, performance, communication, and satisfaction. People are going to walk out with a higher buzz and level of energy after a meeting. That’s what you want. Isn’t it?

Thank you for listening. I look forward to connecting with you in the next one.

Over to you for sharing your comments and experiences.

What methods have you used with your team to have positive meetings?