“The hard truth is, bad meetings almost always lead to bad decisions, which is the best recipe for mediocrity.” —Patrick Lencioni

Effective leaders discuss the most important and difficult issues, even when they are uncomfortable due to conflict. Doing so builds trust and buy-in ... and frankly makes meetings productive and interesting! But knowing what is top of mind for meeting participants is sometimes a mystery.

It can also be difficult to gauge whether or not team members have left a meeting with the clarity they need—or if they are committed to decisions made during that time together. Good news. POPin can help!

Use the below detail to guide your POPin session Titles and Questions.

First, determine your target audience for the Session 1 question. It may be asked to everyone on the meeting invite. Or, you may ask this question company-wide so that top answers can be worked in a leadership meeting.

What's the most important topic/issue we should discuss at our upcoming [insert meeting name]?

Based on the responses from session 1: Build your meeting agenda to address only the top 1-3 voted items. What's addressed should be based on your meeting's time box plus the complexity of each agenda topic.

Host your meeting. Make sure participants can link the agenda topics back to the POPin responses. This reinforces that you asked for their input and are listening to what's most important ... to most of the team! Start the meeting with gratitude for the willingness people had to provide input so vital conversations could be had.

Tip: If it works for your setting and comfort level, you can run a session during the meeting using POPin Live to address questions and concerns real-time. This is a great way to ensure points of confusion are addressed in the moment (e.g., "What question or concern do you have based on today's discussion?"), as well as to facilitate a call for commitment (e.g., "Tell me why you can't commit to [insert the decision made in the meeting]?)

Now that you've had time to process what was discussed at our [insert meeting name]: What follow-up question or concern do you have for me?

No sessions launched. Take time to address any widespread concerns or confusion. Also, if you started by asking a company-wide question but then went 'offline' to work the top-voted items as a leadership team: Be sure to cascade key responses/messages back to the total team.

While this Success Recipe is sweet and simple, when used consistently it can boldly change your meeting hygiene—and even your culture. Specifically, the anonymous feature of POPin allows team members to comfortably speak up about the topics that require attention. Otherwise, if left silent, your workplace could struggle with innovation, experience a high number of on-the-job injuries, have high turnover, and/or grapple with low morale.

Use the live Help chat to contact our Client Success Team if you'd like help executing this Success Recipe.