No More Flipping Meetings…Maybe?

This week’s blog is from Brent Stubbs, brain stimulator, thought generator, action initiator and James Dean of General Studies at Savannah Tech. Read on as Brent offers up a cool way to make meetings productive! FYI – – The Creative Coast’s blogspot is Savannah’s sounding board for local thinkers, innovators, wanderers and wonderers. Guest bloggers share their thoughts, opinions and creative noodling from all over the map…

 

Are you, like countless others, tired of meetings? Do you hate it when meetings feel more like press conferences? Do you crave collaboration? Do you like to solve problems? If you answered “no” to any of these questions, STOP READING NOW. However, if you are like the countless others, then you probably answered “yes” to one, if not all, of these questions. You want “us time” to produce value. But, how can we change our meeting culture? In my first foray on this site, I reminded all of us that we are teaching all of the time.  Great organizations understand that the delta between what they want to accomplish and what they actually accomplish is how well everyone inside and outside of the organization understands their value proposition. In education, teachers try to accomplish a similar thing. We need students to learn what we are teaching. One new, innovative approach is called Flipped Classrooms. Some even claim that this is turning traditional education (pun alert) on its head. Flipping the classroom involves providing the lecture on video as the homework. In theory, the classroom then becomes a laboratory of problem solving, case work, etc., in an environment guided by the educator. Say it right once, record it, and then help students to apply it. Here’s why I like it. People’s knowledge basically moves through this continuum:

(1) Unknown >>> (2) Confused >>> (3) Somewhat Confused >>> (4) Partial Knowledge >>> (5) Knowledge

Since as leaders we are all “teachers,” wouldn’t you rather spend your face-time helping people move from (3) to (5) instead of always introducing new ideas at stage (1)? I would. I recently decided to “flip” my meeting with my core staff. I found out that if I recorded what I was going to say in the meeting, the entire spiel was only 8 minutes. This meeting is typically 1-2 hours long. Try it. There are so many ways to capture a good quality video of yourself talking to your team. You can upload it to YouTube and share it with only a select group of people. So what will we do in our meeting this week? Instead of listening to me ramble, we will clarify what was confusing, address challenges, and solve problems.  In other words, the meeting will add value. Who knows, maybe the meeting won’t take as long. That’s motivation enough for me. Brent]]>