3 Mandatory Flipcharts

3 Flipcharts that capture the essentials for keeping meetings productive and effective. 

In my current role, I attend a lot of meetings (both virtual and in person) and most of you do as well.  Keeping meetings on task and productive can be a challenge.  Here are my favorite flip-charts to keeping meetings on task.

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"VALET PARKING LOT"  

The "Valet Parking Lot" is a great place to capture assumptions and speculation about a process or project.  Have you ever participated in a meeting where terms such as "probably", "most likely", "pretty sure", "Suzi said", "they said" were used to convey information.  

In fact based organizations, you want to keep it "real" and make sure decisions and actions are based on fact and not assumptions or hypotheses.  If something isn't clear, "park" it on the flipchart and assign it to a participant to obtain clarity before action is taken.  Keep it real.

"IDEA VAULT" 

If ideation or solutioning is not the specific objective of your meeting, using an "idea vault" can be invaluable to keeping your meeting on task.  It's difficult for human beings not to solve or offer ideas during meetings.  We also don't want to squelch these ideas as they flow in.  Quickly ask the participant to write their idea on a post-it and place it on the idea vault .  Thank them and proceed with your meeting agenda.  Done!

"PLUSES AND DELTAS" 

This tool is invaluable for team engagement.  Regardless if your meeting is a "one and done" or a series of project meetings, "pluses and deltas" offer a great way to foster teamwork and engagement.  Prior to adjourning a meeting, solicit candid input from the participants of what went well during the meeting and what could have gone better (or differently).  Then ask, "... in retrospect, if we could have done one thing differently to improve the effectiveness of this meeting, what would you have chosen?".  Look for quick wins to implement at the next meeting and park the rest for "lessons learned" at project completion.  

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