In this week's newsletter

• What do meal prepping and meeting leadership have in common?
• Warm-up and checkout questions you can use today
• Q: When am I supposed to find time to plan my meetings?
• Your weekly bird break

When I first started working, I started meal prepping, too. Every Saturday morning I’d plan my whole menu for the week and start Monday with 21 Tupperware containers and Mason jars ready to go. I needed that planning (and that effort) to stick to my budget and health goals.

Last week I made an amazing salad: arugula, sriracha ginger sauce, mango, sliced almonds, peppers, pickles, tofu.

I was proud of it while eating (because it was delicious!), but even more proud when I realized something: that salad wasn’t part of my plan at all.

After years of meal planning week in and week out, I’ve slowly stopped needing to plan the way I once did.

That same pattern has played out in my meeting design and leadership, too. The building blocks of an effective meeting are ingredients. Combine them thoughtfully, and you get a productive outcome.

A solid objective. Clear housekeeping to align on norms and the plan. A warm-up question that gets everyone participating. Thoughtfully structured content. A check-out question that reinforces what you did/decided.

When you’re learning to cook, planning and recipes help. They teach you techniques, combinations, and timing.

​Meeting design is the same. With practice, you start to know what pairs well with what—like which engagement structure supports which meeting objective, or which warm-up question works best for which topic. Like an experienced home cook who knows when to add a splash of lemon to brighten a sauce.

If you expect yourself to wing it in a meeting without spending time on the basics, don’t be surprised if your results are like baking a cake without measuring anything.

If you’re still learning the building blocks and how to put them together, set aside time to plan.

With enough practice, you’ll be running better meetings, and it will feel a lot more like improvising an incredible salad than following a rigid recipe.

Ask yourself

Meeting Minute

​Warm-up question​

Low-stakes way to build relationships. Everyone can answer, and you'll learn something new about each other.

​Check-out question​

Gives you a read on whether people felt the meeting was substantive or if it felt like it ended too soon. If you get a lot of "appetizer" answers, that's useful data. Works best with teams that have some rapport and are comfortable with levity. (Won't work in every culture!)

Q: I know I should be preparing for my meetings, but when am I supposed to find the time?

A: To answer this one, I'll keep the meal prep analogy going.

~2 weeks out: Scan and block time. Look ahead and make sure “prep time” and related tasks are on your to do list. When I do this, I’m looking out for anything that will require substantial prep so I can block separate work time (see next) vs. ones that are more business as usual commitments.

I do this during my weekly planning session on Friday afternoons. I’ve had clients do this Sunday night or Monday morning. It doesn’t matter when you do it, it matters that you do it consistently.

Meal prep equivalent: think of this like double checking exactly when you offered to host your three friends with different allergies. If that dinner party is in the next two weeks, you want to make sure it’s on your radar now.

Week before: Prep the big ones. If there are any meetings where you’re coordinating lots of inputs or really counting on the meeting to drive results, set aside dedicated time to prepare pre-reads, a slide deck, communicate with stakeholders, and prep how you’ll engage people during the meeting itself.

Meal prep equivalent: think of this like actually executing all of the tasks associated with hosting that dinner party: invitations, double checking dietary restrictions, asking people to bring appetizers and dessert, etc.

Start of the week: Batch prep the rest. Set aside one block to knock out the basics and get yourself organized. I typically do this for 30-60 minutes on Monday afternoon.

• For meetings I’m attending, but not leading I write up notes:
  • What information do I have about this meeting?
  • What do I want to get out of this meeting?
  • What documents or pre-work do I need to review/have handy? (+ block time to review)
  • What questions do I have?
• For meetings I’m leading that do not require a slide deck or detailed facilitation plan (e.g., quick 30-minute next steps chat)
  • All of the above guiding questions
  • Plan a warm-up question
  • Send everyone a note about the objective, plan, and any links they’ll need

Meal prep equivalent: this is when you cook a ton on Sunday afternoon and then put it in 20 mason jars (or more realistically, make extra dinner and save some for lunch tomorrow!)

Day-of: Get your head in the game

Before walking into the room, I review my personal objectives and ask myself:

• What is a realistic outcome for today?
• How do I need to show up to ensure this goes as well as it can?

Meal prep equivalent: don’t forget your lunch at home when you go to the office!

These meetings are taking up space on your calendar whether you prepare for them or not. Build this rhythm and you’ll set yourself up to get more out of that time. Eventually it won’t feel like extra work. It’ll just be how you move through your week.