Suppose you’re leaving a meeting with 7 people. They all go report back to their boss and peers about what happened at the meeting. You’re likely to get 7 different versions of what happened at that meeting. And then those people talk to each other and try to reconcile the different stories “Well that’s not what I heard!” Colossal time is wasted piecing together what happened in a meeting. The meeting minutes? C’mon really!?
There’s a simple tool that takes 2 minutes at the end of a meeting and can bypass all this nonsense. It was taught to me by Dr. Ahmed Sidky and it’s called “Who needs to know What, When.” Try a simple grid like the one I created below.
Who. Simply list the people that need information coming out of this meeting. My boss, your boss, finance, etc.
What. What do people need to know? Did we make a decision that people are depending on? Are we delayed or stuck? Did we kick butt and want to brag?
When. When do they need to know? Can it wait until the next staff meeting? Do they need to know asap? Should we wait until we have more information before sharing
Alignment on the message. This model gets the whole group aligned with the message coming out of the meeting. If someone heard something different this is the time to clarify.
Disagreement. If there are disagreements leaving the meeting that can be ok. Be clear on what the disagreement is and how we’re going to share it outside the group.
How have you synched communications coming out of a meeting? Let us know!
