The Three Questions to Ask After Every Meeting

“I knew the results would be confronting after you asked the first question.” This was the opening comment from a principal after she agreed to have her staff meeting observed as part of my “Happy Meetings” research.

The feedback is optional. I was not there to critique or provide guidance. The objective is to gain real insights into school meetings, be them Team Meetings, Staff meetings or Development Days. I am observing the engagement of the staff and productivity of the meeting against a set of researched criteria.

However, each leader has always asked for feedback.

Before we get to the confronting questions, let’s look at why accepting the invitation to observe the staff meeting was appealing.

1. The principal was interested in the “bang for buck” impact of the time with staff.

2. The principal understood that the “eyes are the windows to the soul, as meetings are the windows to culture.”

3. The principal wanted to support the research I was doing, while benefiting with direct improvement from the observation.

At the end of the staff meeting, I was given 5 minutes to ask the staff 3 gauging questions to determine the impact of the time spent together. The staff were each given a post it note and asked to number 1 to 3. Then to scale each question 1 to 10 where 1 represents “Not at all” and 10 represents “Absolutely” 

Question 1: Did this meeting help me improve my teaching and learning for students? (Productivity)

Question 2: During the meeting I felt comfortable to contribute to the discussion. (Engagement)

Question 3: I have a clear understanding of what actions I need to take from each discussion item. (Accountability) 

The results from the “litmus test” were enough to promote a robust discussion and to rethink the purpose and process of meetings with the principal. It is confronting to realise, with all good intentions, not everyone is engaged and not every meeting is productive. I was so happy the principal is revamping future meetings to be engaging with people and creating productive outcomes. 

During a school year over 50 hours are devoted to meetings. In a world of overwhelmed and over worked, leaders need to be more respectful of people’s time by ensuring they are better people because of the meeting the leader organised. Better people equal better outcomes.