Workplace Meetings And The Big Takeaway
People who join the conference are often curious about the takeaway. In workplace meetings, leaders are interested in the key points. What you takeaway is as important at what you bring.
The hope is that you enter the meeting prepared to be engaged. You’re curious about the key points, what you should remember, and why.
Most people attending are thinking about the information that they are about to receive. They’re sizing up the mood, the feeling, and the intensity.
There may be a joke, some laughter, and some anxiety. A sense of urgency, seriousness, or concern.
Retention Rate
Knowledge transfer has a retention rate. The rate is greater only three hours after the meeting as compared with three days. When it comes to weeks, months, or even years, the retention grows even smaller.
Worse, sometimes the retention is changed. It is the big fish story. The embellished version of what was really said.
If you are present and contributing what do you want people to remember about the meeting? Does it matter what color of shirt you wore? Will your behavior, gestures, or body language leave a lasting impression?
Sometimes what we have to offer, the information or the learning we intend to exchange, gets lost. It gets lost because our focus is on what we want to share instead of what we want to be remembered.
Workplace Meetings
Creating the big takeaway requires appropriate planning. It is suggested in the beginning, compelling during the middle, and reiterated at the end.
The best thing about workplace meetings is not when they are over. The best thing is about the opportunity you have to create or inspire change.
If your meeting reads like a dictionary not much will be remembered. Not because it is not valuable but because the expectation is that you’ll always have a place to look it up.
Information exchange is not about blurting it out, it is about the craft of creating retention.
-DEG
Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSPTM), and culture expert. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.
