Working toward a participatory working culture through changing how meetings are run

Client: Coach for Life – Duration: 6 weeks

The team has been working together for a few years. The founders of the company want to invite more active participation from their staff and create a more collaborative working environment. We suggest starting with meetings, where the team can implement the practice of shared leadership, shared responsibility, and co-creation.  

We introduce the concept of co-managed meetings, where anyone and everyone can proactively contribute to the agenda – what needs to be addressed/ discussed, and the outcomes – what needs to be achieved at the end of the meeting. Throughout 6 weeks, we run 1 session that covers the basics (the principles, roles, practices that support effective meetings), 4 practice sessions where the team took turns to practice running the co-managed meetings, and 1 reflection session to share our learnings, insights, and actions forward.

After 6 weeks of prototyping, the team finally adopted a new way of conducting meetings. They are now co-creating the agenda before every meeting, and share roles of hosting and taking notes during the meetings. The meeting culture has changed their working culture as well. The staff feel more comfortable and confident to initiate and take action. The founders extend this way of meeting beyond their weekly meetings, to community meetings, when they coach, and even in their training.