This Meeting Sucks

No matter your skill at leading meetings, there are some occasions when hiring a facilitator is in your best interest. This episode goes over considerations to help you recognize when it's time to bring in a third-party facilitator and gives you a guide of questions to consider when searching for the right person to lead your meeting.

Organization leaders and meeting sponsors carry a large influence on the meetings they attend, and how they show up can affect the group as a whole and the success of a session. This episode provides guidance for what leaders should be doing before, during, and after a meeting to help achieve outcomes and harness the wisdom of their team.

Whether your team needs help remembering information or navigating the complexities of virtual meetings, you can take on a meeting support role to level up the effectiveness of your team's meeting. In this episode, Lauren breaks down the need for meeting notes and tips for taking them effectively, and guest Heather Martinez discusses the rold of tech host.

Sometimes, the best way to deal with conflict, is to stop and listen. In this episode, we'll reframe our understanding of conflict and explore practical strategies for managing it effectively, whether you're the facilitator or a participant.

By identifying patterns in the conversation of your meeting, you can take action to keep things balanced and productive. In this episode, we go over the Kantor model, a tool you can use to track conversations and gain insight into group dynamics.

Get ready to test your knowledge in this Jeopardy-style episode inspired by the Not Past It podcast. In this episode, we unpack a facilitator's toolkit of simple verbal tools that anyone in a meeting can use to improve communication, encourage diverse voices, and enhance the meeting experience.

Participant etiquette can make or break the success of a meeting. In this episode, we challenge you to rethink your approach to meetings with suggestions on mindset, being present, dealing with dominating personalities, and more.

Group and team dynamics can have a huge impact on the success of a meeting. In this episode, we discuss power dynamics, the role of conflict styles and groupthink, and introduce you to the Team Dimensions Profile, a tool for assessing team roles. 

In today's hectic work environment, where back-to-back meetings and unexpected challenges are the norm, managing yourself is the key to success. In this episode, we cover three tools for understanding how people work and interact in different situations: Myers-Briggs Type Theory, DiSC Work Styles Assessment, and the Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument (TKI).

Welcome to Season 3, MeetingMakers! This season is for anyone who participates in meetings with a desire to make them suck less. In this episode, we'll give you an overview of what to expect in Season 3—focused on improving meetings through modeling etiquette, making space for others, and playing a support role when needed.

You don't need a three-day offsite in the woods to improve your team's performance. It's much easier (and more effective) to bake debrief meetings into your team meeting rhythms so you can learn and grow from setbacks and successes. This episode covers an easy process you can use to start building a learning team.

Most presentations are boring and unmemorable, but there are techniques you can pull from meeting facilitation to make your presentations more engaging and effective. In this episode, we dive into tips for planning your presentation, telling a story, engaging your audience and utilizing visuals.

Conflict in meetings is normal, but that doesn't mean it's easy. In this special guest episode, certified meditator Gina Weatherup offers her top tips for managing conflict at work. Plus, Lauren gives her suggestions for giving feedback in the moment rather than waiting for a performance review.⭐️ Connect with Gina Weatherup ⭐️

This bonus episode is a companion to the Coaching 101 episode. We recommend listening to that episode before checking out this live coaching demonstration.Support the Show.

Coaching is a buzzword these days, but what exactly is coaching? And why is it important for managers to have basic coaching skills? This episode breaks down essential skills for coaching and why we all need them and ends with a live coaching demo to demonstrate those skills in action. Check out the BONUS EPISODE for a live coaching demo with Lauren and Vickie.

When someone ducks their head in, do you wish you could hide under your desk? In this episode, we give you healthy options for responding to unexpected conversations and change, and tips to help you have a productive conversation and get back to work.

Tired from standing around in your morning standup? If your daily tag-ups are running long, it's time to get essential. In this episode, we'll give you ways to start your stand-up strong and prompts to keep the conversation quick and productive.

Weekly meetings are meant to kick off the week with momentum. If you're going in without a plan or fighting to keep your team on task, it's time to make a change. In this episode, we'll walk you through what might not be working and give you an agenda template you can use right away.⭐️ Download our free weekly meeting agenda template ⭐️

Established meeting rhythms are the best-kept secret to high-performing teams… until now. Meeting rhythms help teams work more effectively. In this episode, we review a process you can use to establish new meeting rhythms or revise existing rhythms with your team.

Sometimes it's easiest to send a quick text or email, but that puts us at risk of being misunderstood and misinterpreted. In this episode, we'll discuss factors to consider when choosing how to communicate with a co-worker or team and provide a short quiz you can use to find a good option each time.

Welcome to Season 2, MeetingMakers! This season is for the managers out there who want their teams to meet more efficiently, not longer. This episode gives you an overview of the season and the skills you'll learn to improve your work life.

You've done the prep, you've gone through your agenda; now, all that's left is to wrap things up in a bow. In this last episode of This Meeting Suck season one, we'll walk you through closing the conversation, recapping next steps and sending participants on their way.

No matter how detailed your outline is or how much you prepped, you can never guarantee your meeting will go exactly as planned. This episode includes tips for navigating conflict, managing time and ensuring inclusion during your meeting.

Kicking off the meeting and each activity is critical for un-sucky meetings. This episode will give you tips and reminders for each, with a bonus focus on open-ended questions.

If you've been following along this season, you probably have a great meeting planned. But before you kick off your meeting, there are some important final preparations you should take to ensure your meeting runs smoothly. It's time to connect with co-planners, collect your materials, communicate with participants and more.

No plan for your meeting? Participants resisting your agenda at every turn? Open Space is your friend. Open Space Technology is a meeting method that ensures that topics that the participants care about the most are covered. In this episode, learn how to use Open Space to collaboratively plan your agenda with participants.

If you've been following along with the season so far, then you've made in through prepping your meeting and developing an agenda outline. Now it's time to create a facilitation guide: a detailed version of your agenda with talking points, reflection questions, tech host instructions and more. We'll also cover the importance of additions like affinity clustering and breakouts for ensuring a smooth and productive meeting.

You've decided to meet and you've prepped for your meeting. It's time to outline your meeting. In this episode, we'll take you through all the steps of creating your outline including choosing a medium, establishing outcomes, creating flow, timing and energy shifts, and how to open and close the meeting.

Successful meetings have a design. If you're just showing up and meeting and wondering why it's not working, it's because no one is taking time to plan out your meetings beforehand. By the end of this episode, you'll know who needs to be a part of planning, why you are meeting and the 10 questions you need to answer to start your outline. 

No, your meeting could not have been an email. There's a reason that meeting is on your calendar and there are changes that can make meetings suck less and even worthwhile. In this episode, we'll discuss all the reasons why we meet and the 1-out-of-100 scenario when it makes sense not to. 

This episode breaks down the first season—just-in-time meeting tools—aimed to help you plan an inclusive, engaging and purposeful meeting.  Listen to find out what to expect from this season and get ready to make your meetings work.

Welcome to This Meeting Sucks, the podcast providing tangible tools to “un-suck” your meetings. In this episode, host Lauren Green tells you the secret skill missing from your most boring meetings (spoiler alert: it's facilitation). We'll tell you what to expect from this podcast and how to be the first to know when a new episode drops. If you like the podcast, don't forget to follow, rate and review on your favorite podcast platform.Support the Show.