Three Keys to Meetings That Create Value

After years of facilitating meetings as part of our consulting work, I have noticed something consistent. When a meeting is carefully designed and truly participatory, the people who attended often leave with more energy than they arrived with. At the close of these meetings, participants reflect on how much they accomplished together – and on how worthwhile the time was.

This is the opposite of what we so often hear about meetings in popular culture. “That could have been an email” has become a familiar description of how meetings feel – draining, inefficient, and not worth the time. And often, that description is accurate. Not because meetings are inherently wasteful, but because so many of them are never designed at all.

Three things shift when leaders begin to approach meetings differently: they have fewer of them, they design the ones they keep with care and intention, and they use participatory methods that allow everyone present to contribute meaningfully. When all three are in place, people stop dreading meetings. They know that when they attend, it will be a worthwhile use of their time – that there will be real opportunities to contribute, and that those contributions will make a difference.

When you keep quality and value creation in mind as you consider whether to schedule a meeting, you will probably find that you have fewer meetings than before. This is a good outcome.

I can imagine that you want meetings of quality, for the well-being of all involved, and for real value creation. Not every communication needs a meeting to achieve that. Many things that end up in meeting rooms could be shared through email, through recorded audio, or through a short video. When you ask the question – does this need a meeting? – the answer is often no. And choosing not to meet, when a meeting is not truly needed, is itself a form of leadership.

For the meetings that do warrant everyone’s time and presence, put real planning and design into them. Develop a theme for the meeting. Get clear on the objectives you want to achieve.

Ask yourself: Is there something you want people to learn? Is there something you want people to do differently? Are there challenges that people can help find solutions for? Do you want people to work with new opportunities? Be as specific as possible with the objectives you want to accomplish. The clarity you bring to the design will shape what becomes possible in the room.

The design phase is also where you consider who needs to be present. Not everyone needs to be in every meeting. Inviting only the people whose presence is essential is a form of respect – for the people who are there, and for those who are not.

A meeting with a clear theme and well-considered objectives creates the conditions for people to contribute with focus and intention. Without that clarity, even well-intentioned people will turn to whatever feels most pressing in the moment.

One of the reasons that highly participatory meetings can move people forward – and help break attachments to the old ways of doing things – is that they build opportunities to be heard, understood, and acknowledged into the meeting itself.

When people experience that their contributions make a difference, something changes in how they show up. They shine. And the meeting produces something meaningfully different from a meeting where some people speak and others listen.

When meetings are not participatory, they may produce decisions – but rarely commitment. Decisions without commitment are difficult to implement. Participatory design changes that relationship between meeting and action.

When meetings are carefully chosen and designed so that everyone present can be heard, understood, and acknowledged, here is what consistently emerges:

1. Leadership shows up in everyone present.
2. The vision is shared – even when it is not yet clearly articulated.
3. A strong sense of community is evident, including good communicating.
4. Within a minimal structure, people self-manage to create a useful process – and outcomes greater than initially anticipated.

Our team’s preferred participatory meeting methods are Whole Person Process Facilitation (WPPF) and Open Space Technology (OST). Both can be used in on-site and online environments, and training in each is available through Dalar International Consultancy and authorized Genuine Contact Trainers around the world.