How five minutes invested upfront leads to hours of productivity

Meeting agreements make a difference.

Board or staff members not listening to one another? A technique for productive conversations is to solicit meeting agreements. Spending a few minutes upfront with a new group pays off in trust and ability to work productively together: 

The board and staff retreat began at 9:30 am on a weekend morning.

There were more than ten of us: the Executive Director of a local nonprofit, a few staff members, and seven board members.

The purpose of the retreat was to make board meetings more productive.  They were all good people but they were busy. Board members had gotten into the habit of attending meetings by phone so that almost no one was actually in the room. Communication between board members and staff was sporadic. Board members often weren’t showing up at important events.

So we met for a day to change the direction of things.

How we generated meeting agreements

At a little after ten, we sat in a circle and got down to business. The executive director welcomed everyone and shared some logistics. Members of the retreat Design Team, board members who had helped me to create the day’s agenda, also welcomed everyone and explained what they hoped to get out of the day.

I stood in front of the group. I gave some background on our process, then opened with a question. “How do you want to be with each other today?”

For a moment, there was silence. I could feel my own anxiety. “Can they do this? Will they be able to get this?”

“You mean, how do we want to treat each other?” someone asked.

“Yes,” I said.

And then the floodgates opened, almost faster than I could take notes.

“Be honest.”

“Be transparent, open and direct.”

“Get to the point, and resolve it.”

“Be positive and non-judgmental.”

“Be creative.”

“I’d say courtesy and respect…”

One man thought out loud. “I’m new to this group, and I don’t really know people too well. So I hope people are open to getting to know me.”

“You mean ‘friendly’?” I asked.

“Yeah,” he said. And it felt like something in the room had shifted.  Some space had been created for being vulnerable, for caring about each other.

We continued with the list, adding “constructive”, “open minded”, “collaborative”, and “think outside the box”.

The page was full. We stood back to admire our work. “This is a great list for the planet,” I said.

The rest of the day exceeded expectations. This group was open, productive, and moved to a new level of functioning.

In those first few moments, we set the tone for all of the positive work that came out of the day.

Three steps to create meeting agreements

Try this at your next board meeting:

• Spend a few minutes creating agreements to build trust.

• Write the agreements on a large sheet on paper and post them on the wall at future meetings to hold on to these guidelines.

• Revisit the agreements from time to time to insure that the trust continues.

Meeting agreements are powerful.