Executive Meetings

Dave discusses why Leadership team Meetings can be difficult and suggests a simple solution to make them easier. He explains that creative problem solving requires two different cognitive processes: divergent and convergent thinking, and these processes are complementary but oppose each other. He proposes an alternative of replacing the Leadership meeting with separate Meetings: update (convergent thinking), retrospective (divergent thinking ending in convergence), and forum (divergent thinking ending in convergence) to foster the right mindset, stay connected, and find the convergence.

Anne and 24 other execs provided insight into how they run exec Meetings: Build The Foundation 1. Put On Your Designer Hat. 2. Don’t Just Wing It. 3. Consider Bringing In Reinforcements. 4. Be Strategic About Where It Falls On The Calendar. Set The Stage For Success. 5. Submit Your Homework Ahead Of Time. 6. Enforce The Pre-Reads. 7. Get Specific With Guest Speakers. 8. Avoid Surprises. Decide Who’s In The Room. 9. Be Selective From The Start. 10. Try Sticking To The Core Group. 11. Be Clear About Why You’re Scaling Back. 12. Share The Agenda Across The Org. Make The Most Of Your Time Together. 13. Start With A Check-In. 14. Rotate Your Roster Of Metrics & Dig Into The Why 15. Stir Up Healthy Conflict. 16. Focus On The Right Time Horizon. 17. Grab Your Stopwatch. 18. Ditch The Slide Decks. 19. Tie Up Loose Ends. 20. Lean On Your Async Tools. Continue Evolving 21. Take A Pulse Check. 22. Give Changes Time. 23. Write Down Your Meeting Norms, And Revisit Them Often. 24. Develop A Shared Language. 25. Look For Meeting Inspo.

Elan provides a highly-tactical breakdown of how to record executive meeting notes, along with an example template.

This is the agenda template that GitLab uses for their weekly executive team meeting and publishes publicly. The meeting process guide covers: • Purpose • Timing • Attendees • Scheduling • Meeting Details • Adding items to the agenda • Agenda structure