Key takeaways
- Planning meeting participants make better contributions if they’re focused on the discussion rather than the meeting’s dynamics
- The less stressed meeting attendees are, the more accurately they’ll retain the information shared
- A better meeting experience strengthens the team and improves communication
There’s lots of solid guidance on how to optimize pull planning sessions for efficiency, accuracy, or participation. But there’s often less emphasis on improving the meeting experience than there is on improving the meeting’s output. How participants experience meeting dynamics impacts how effective their presence is, and can expand or limit the extent and quality of their contributions.
How do you create a meeting environment that encourages participants to contribute? In past videos, I’ve talked about the importance of ensuring objectivity in performance feedback, and that plays a role here too. But sometimes even simpler things can help, things that put participants at ease and keep them focused on the substance of the discussion.
One way to reduce anxiety during in-person planning meetings is to avoid putting people on the spot by having them place sticky notes on the board one by one. If the team is simultaneously adding tasks using a digital planning platform, they’re working together instead of watching each other. And because people don’t retain information as well when they’re stressed, changes like this have a clear impact on performance in addition to jobsite culture.