Leading a Meeting: Start with “Why”

Think about the last time you were leading a meeting.

Were people paying attention? Or were they distracted, quiet, and disinterested?

Did it feel like you were talking to a brick wall?

In this series, I’ll help you learn the best ways of leading a meeting so that your participants are active, engaged, and maybe even having a little fun.

This post is part of our series on “Making Your Meetings Better”. See all the related posts here.

Start with “why”

You may think leading a meeting is pretty straightforward: gather people together, either in a room or virtually, and talk about what you need to talk about.

And in theory, yes, it could be that easy.

But look at your calendar. Look at the last few meetings you attended.

Do you know why those meetings happened? Did they have a clear objective or purpose? Was it just a regularly scheduled meeting in a long list of team meetings? 

Did you even need to be there?

The idea of starting with “why” is to help identify – and clarify – why the meeting is important and why it’s happening now. 

Simon Sinek, the author of Start with Why, made this concept popular in business. He has helped millions of readers learn how important the “why” is in their business – in sales, in leading their teams, and everything else. 

The concept of starting with “why” for your meetings is an extrapolation of that idea. 

It defines what success looks like for the meeting, who’s actually necessary for the meeting to take place (as opposed to who just needs to know the outcomes), it helps keep conversations on topic, and it means that once the “why” is met, the meeting can end!

Wouldn’t it be nice for your meetings to… end?

Okay, so what is the “why”?

The “why” of your meeting can be broken down into a few pieces:

• The Key Purpose
• The Key Question
• The Expected Outcome

The Key Purpose is literally why the meeting is happening. In 1-2 sentences, detail what the meeting is about.

The Key Question is the question the team members are trying to answer within the meeting. “What needs to be included in the next release?” “What are the most important items to include in this new policy?” “What are we trying to accomplish with this marketing plan?”

The Expected Outcome is the tangible or intangible result of the meeting. Is it creating a deliverable? Is it a new idea? Is it documentation of a process? Whatever the end result of the meeting is, is the expected outcome. It’s how you know the meeting was successful – the Expected Outcome was met!

The answers to these may seem obvious. But without communicating them, you run the risk that not everyone is on the same page.

It’s a good idea to include these “why”’s in both your meeting invite and to open the meeting discussion by reiterating the “why”. This will help kickstart the conversation. It will make sure that everyone is still on the same page. And it will give the team members a chance to clarify any questions around the “why”. 

Are you really necessary?

How infuriating is it to go to a meeting and then discover you didn’t even need to be there? 

By defining the “why” of the meeting, it helps narrow down the participants. And by communicating the “why” to the invitees, it helps them decide if they even need to be there. 

To run an effective meeting, you (as the organizer/facilitator/scheduler) should always include the “why” in the meeting invite. 

And you should push back on any meeting invitation that doesn’t include some form of a “why”.

Ideally, it should at least include the Expected Outcome. Even if the meeting agenda is included, the expected outcome should also be included. Because the outcome may not be obvious from the agenda – and the agenda may not be the right approach to achieving the outcome.

Respect the Clock When Leading a Meeting

In Agile, we really recommend and appreciate face to face time.

However, we also realize that people’s time is valuable. Especially these days.

By clarifying, articulating, and communicating the “why” of your meeting, you’re allowing participants to have the information they need to make the right decision for whether or not to attend the meeting.

If team members understand why they specifically need to be there, they’re much more likely to be on time and actively participate.

Additionally, by defining the Expected Outcome at the meeting start, it means that when the outcome has been met – the ideas have been brainstormed, the process has been defined, a solution has been found – the meeting can end. No need to keep talking just to fill the time. 

Respecting the clock also means staying on track. In future posts, I’ll give you some tools to keep the conversation on track, but for now, you can use the “why” to refer back to when someone tries to go on a tangent. 

Politely remind the participant of the “why” that was articulated at the beginning of the meeting. Emphasize that you appreciate their participation and recognize the value of what they’re discussing, but then gently steer the topic back. 

This may feel awkward and pushy, but as the person in charge of running a meeting, you are responsible for respecting the clock and keeping everyone on topic. 

It gets easier the more you do it, I promise.

What does it look like?

Let’s look at some examples.

Say your team is responsible for writing a new corporate policy for social media marketing. You decide to have a team meeting to discuss what could or should be included in the policy. This is a first pass at discussing what may be included so it won’t be too detailed and no final decisions will be made.

Your Why would look like this:

The Key Purpose: To brainstorm what could possibly be included in the social media marketing policy

The Key Question: What possible items could be included in the social media marketing policy?

Expected Outcome: A list of possible items that might be included in the policy. This will not be the final list, but a list of ideas that should be investigated further and refined. 

Another example would be a meeting to plan a product launch. This meeting is for in-depth planning of timelines, personnel coverage, and any other necessary details.

Your “why” would look like this:

The Key Purpose: To create a detailed launch plan for the product

The Key Question: How exactly will this product launch successfully?

Expected Outcome: A detailed product launch plan that includes the who, when, and how. The team will hash out the details together and then the product owner will go back and document more thoroughly. 

The Key Purpose, Key Question, and Expected Outcome should be listed in the meeting invite so team members know what will be discussed and are able to come prepared. They should also be reiterated at the start of the meeting to make sure everyone is on track.

Wrap Up

Now that you understand why “why” is so important, take a look at the invites on your calendar. Do you know why they’re happening? Do you know why you, specifically, need to be there? 

Before you hold a meeting in the future, make sure you understand your “why”, and can explain it to your attendees. Include it in your invites, kick off your meeting with it, and refer back to the “why” when things get off track. 

Go start having better meetings today!