How to have a mindful meeting?

Are you looking for meaningful interactions, new ideas and great results? Here are some easy tips to have a mindful meeting.

Imagine participants come prepared, listen to each other, interact, and collaborate towards a common goal? Effective reunions that energize the group and contribute to an overall improvement of your meeting culture? Here are some little, healthy habits to take into consideration:

1. Timing and purpose
   Before you plan a meeting, ask yourself: Can this topic be discussed or treated in any other (more efficient) way eg. sending a presentation, asking for feedback through a digital form, communication in an E-Mail, company podcast or similar? Once you are sure you need the meeting, choose a time slot where the team (member) is available and has the possibility (in regards to their workload) to actually focus on the meeting. Does the meeting really need to take 1 hour or are 20 minutes enough to discuss the topic? Or do you want enough time for brainstorming and creative approaches, then you need to plan a longer slot. Timing is key.
2. Preparation and place
   This concerns yourself, the content and objective(s) of the meeting, the location as well as your colleagues or clients. Chose a location or format where all participants have the chance to actively participate. If it’s a hybrid meeting with some in the office and some at home, this is particularly tricky and important to prepare technologically. Make sure you and everyone else arrives/connects a few minutes earlier or plan the slot long enough so that there are 5-10 minutes in the beginning to slow down, settle in, focus on their breath, center themselves on the meeting. Make sure the participants know the intentions and goals for the discussion ahead so they can prepare.
3. Mindful start
   Start the meeting with a healthy exercise to help participants transition from their previous tasks and be fully present in the meeting. This could be a short meditation, a few deep breaths together, encouraging everyone to slow down and have a sip of water, a moment of silence etc. For more insights on mindfulness, click here.
4. Setting intentions
   Before diving into the agenda, encourage every participant to share their intentions and ideas for the meeting to promote engagement and a healthy, diverse discussion. Share your personal intentions and formulate them in a positive and assertive way, independently of the topic.
5. Active listening
   Emphasize on the importance of active listening and encourage participants to pay full attention to the speaker, without already thinking about their response. This fosters understanding, teamwork and effective communication.
6. Clear communication
   Plan little pauses for the participants after every important topic or discussion point, to be able to collect their thoughts and make up their mind. Encourage participants to speak concisely, with clarity and intention. Remind them before the official discussion to allow space and time for everyone to contribute to the discussion.
7. Positive body language
   Remind participants of their body language. A straight, open, receptive body posture helps to concentrate better, remember the content of the meeting and also shows more interest and respect for the other participants. Eye contact and nodding is a sign of supporting others’ ideas and making this clear in the beginning or during the discussion can lead to a higher motivation to actively engage with each other.
8. Adapt to your audience
   If you see that the meeting is not going in the direction you wanted or you see participants actually have another topic they might be worried about – address it with assertiveness. Tell them you will treat this topic in the next reunion or prioritize it, if it can’t wait. If you adapt to the participants, it’s easier to get their collaboration to work on the same goal.
9. Mindful breaks
   Make sure to plan some breaks – especially if it’s a longer meeting – to breathe, stretch or get up for a moment. Motivate participants to look outside the window into nature or the sky, take a little walk, take a few breaths or have a glass of water in order to calm down the nervous system, release tension and refresh focus and attention instead of using their phone or answering E-Mails.
10. Summary and appreciation
    End the meeting by resuming the most important take-aways and ask the participants if they agree with the summary. Take time to reflect on the meeting as well as to express your gratitude for the contribution(s) of each person. A positive closure would be to tell every participant to share 1 highlight or take-away and to write them down, to share them afterwards with the group.

To sum up: Meetings are great when they bring together different opinions, encourage creative approaches and foster effective results. When your team remembers the meeting content in the afternoon, even if you had the reunion in the morning, you know you had a meaningful interaction.
You have it in your hand to change the meeting culture for your team.

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