Planning Strategically for Meetings

As a leader, are you planning strategically for your meetings?

From the moment you send a meeting invite, as the meeting organizer you are responsible for setting the right tone and making the meeting a success. Here are three things you should do before people get in the room:

• Clarify the objective. Make sure people know why they're invited. If it's to make a decision, give participants the time and materials they need to prepare.
• Prep important people. Talk with key participants about agenda items ahead of time. You may hear insights that could change how you run the meeting.
• Include everyone who needs to be there.  Think carefully about who needs to be there.  Who truly cares about the topics?  Who has valuable knowledge insights?  Who might bring valuable divergent thinking to the group?
• Expect full participation. Ask attendees to do their homework, come with relevant materials, and show up ready to contribute.

Adapted from Guide to Project Management (HBR OnPoint Collection).

How do you plan for unintended outcomes?

As a leader, how do you plan for unintended outcomes? Unintended consequences are common in school/organizations. Well-meaning leaders often implement new policies or practices only to find that in addition to what they envisioned, they've also created problems. You can't predict the future, but you can help mitigate the negative with these two steps: Plan ahead as much as you can. Gather the people the change will impact and plan to see what might happen, keeping in mind that there will always be something that surprises you later. Test the waters. Conduct short, focused experiments to see how various parties will react, and use the results to adjust your plan. You can't eliminate all negative possibilities but you can get ready to deal with them. Adapted from "Be Prepared for What You Don't See Coming" by Ron Ashkenas.