Your most common All-Hands questions answered (Part 2)

Attendance is down as are responses in the Zoom chat. Participation feels like pulling teeth. Agendas only get longer to try to appeal to more people. And attempts to make the gathering more engaging yield few results. What can we do?

Whether in client work, curated events, or in conversation, I’ve compiled the most frequently asked questions I’ve received in regard to gatherings. Specifically, an organization's most expensive meeting: All Hands. (Check out Part 1, here).

Have a question I’ve missed? Send me a note at hello@gatheringeffect.com and I'd be happy to help! 

Question: What is the appropriate cadence and length for an All-Hands? Should we fill the time with "stuff" or if the meeting lasts only 20 minutes, then is that okay?

I know of different organizations that have different All Hands cadences: weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, or quarterly. At the very least I’d recommend having a monthly rhythm - especially if you’re a remote-first company. This is one of the only (and sometimes, indeed the only) opportunities to bring the organization together. 

Consider these two other factors:

1. The pace of change in your business - and if these changes are sensitive and emotionally charged then employees need to hear from you more often.

2. How many other communication levers do you have and use (ex: Loom videos, weekly emails, slack updates)? If All Hands is the only mechanism for communicating with employees (PS I don’t recommend this) then they need to hear from you more often. 

A meeting that ends up being shorter than originally scheduled? Sign me up! No need to fill the time - it’s like thinking we need to eat as much as possible just because we have stomachs. Please avoid what I call, stuffing the suitcase.

Question: What’s your position about pre-recording monthly All Hands for staff to watch on their own time?

I always appreciate having recordings available for employees to watch or reference asynchronously. These recordings can be especially useful for new hires to catch up on previous meetings and quickly gain context on how their organization operates. However, this isn’t possible for all organizations depending on their legal and compliance obligations. 

Pre-recording All Hands and distributing asynchronously can be an efficient way to push information, especially in a distributed and global organization.

It begs the question, what is the value of being together, synchronously?

The value of a live, synchronous all-hands isn’t in the pushing of information but in the pull of a conversation, dialogue, feedback, back and forth, and barometer for how the information is landing. If you choose this pre-recorded approach, find and implement opportunities for employees to still connect with the information, and with you, in this way.

Question: How can and should we effectively appreciate team members and celebrate each other in All-Hands? 

I consider appreciation and celebration a must-have agenda item. All Hands are a communication tool we use not just to share information - but to teach and signal employees how to feel about something, and in turn how to behave at our organization. 

Who, and why we share appreciation is one of these important signals. I know, it may be easier to focus on what’s not working and what problems to solve. But organizational and social science research tells us that focusing on the positive, otherwise known as appreciative inquiry, can have profound benefits such as innovation and learning. 

Each organization will have its criteria and rituals on All Hands appreciation. Ask yourself these questions:

1. Are we showcasing a diverse set of employees?

2. Are we focusing on team achievements instead of just individual ones?

3. Are the stories we tell clarifying how the work was done, or just the output?

4. How do these stories tie back to our values?

5. Do these stories share learnings that teams can extrapolate for their day-to-day life?

Question: What are some key ways to improve meetings so that we have actionable takeaways and content employees remember?

Be sure to land the plane, aka bring the gathering home. Our job when we gather isn't just to share content. It's to close the gap between the info we share and someone's ability (and motivation) to do something with it. Here are some ways to land the plane.  

1. Chunk takeaways: It’s common to see calls-to-action scattered throughout the meeting (ex) sign up for open enrollment, share feedback on this product feature, complete this training). Instead, summarize calls to action and takeaways on one of your final slides and in a follow-up email and/or slack post-meeting.

2. Leverage your speakers: Helping employees remember content starts with helping your presenters communicate effectively. Add in submission or speaker guidelines that ask presenters to include some or all of the below: 

   • Please tell us the main take-away of your section:

   • Please tell us what you hope employees will know or do differently because of your section:

   • Please tell us the call-to-action of your section: 

   • Please link any materials (e.g. confluence page, slide deck, slack channel, etc.) employees can reference related to your section (we’ll use this for a pre-read as well as a follow-up 

3. Use a worksheet: Here’s an example from a recent workshop from the marketing company, Splash. Worksheets put participants in the driver's seat by asking for their input, ideas, and main takeaways from each content section. Putting material in our own words helps the content stick and is also a sign of understanding. 

4. Include in your pre-comms: In addition to sharing the logistics of the meeting, answer, “what is the one thing you want attendees to walk away with?”. If you aren’t clear - attendees won’t be either - especially when they can take a lesser risk with their time and simply watch the recording.

Question: How can we ensure employees are getting value out of the meeting? What are effective methods for measuring engagement during all staff meetings?

Ask! But be wary of how we ask.

A typical feedback conversation sounds a lot like this: Eager organizer (either through a feedback form or conversation): “What did you think of the All Hands”. Pleasing audience member: “Yeah (pause). I liked it ''. This description is about as helpful as telling a mechanic that your car “doesn't run well.” This happens in part because we don’t know the right language to use or what to look for.

Just like a mechanic looks for cues and signals to diagnose the current state, so can we. Fancy tools and forms can help, but the best diagnostic tool we have at our disposal is our own: curiosity and empathy. It comes from paying attention to the people you’ve gathered during, but more importantly, after your gathering. Here are some clues and signals: 

The cues and signals that provide the most definitive diagnosis are ones based on actions and behaviors instead of simply words. The old saying applies here: actions speak louder. That’s because words-only diagnoses can be deceiving. 

Remember, positive reactions are nice, but lasting transformational success is measured and diagnosed less in the immediate reaction and more in what people did or didn’t do afterward. 

For more on measurement, check out Part One of this series.

Question What’s the best way to brainstorm and create desired outcomes for our all-hands? What are the best questions to ask? 

First, I love that this question recognizes the importance of starting with outcomes, not agenda. 

The first step is to get clear on what problem this meeting solves, aka what is its desired effect. For LaunchDarkly, the goal of their All Hands meeting was to align the organization on its mission and its progress towards it.

Ask yourself and a small group of stakeholders:

• What does success look like? Can you tell a story about the before and after?

• What specific outcomes do you want to see?

• What do you want participants to think, do, say, and feel at the end

Narrow down to 2-3 objectives maximum. Or, ask yourself what is the one problem we most want to solve in this offsite or all-hands, or the central question you want to answer. 

These questions remind us that underneath the request for a gathering is a change request, for something to be new or different.  Even if we lead with the content, it’s the effect we’re ultimately after. And if we’re not clear on what this need is and why it matters, those we’ve gathered won’t be clear either.

Lindsey Caplan is a screenwriter turned organizational psychologist who helps HR & business leaders create experiences that boost motivation, engagement, and performance

Say hello@gatheringeffect.com