Your 90-Minute Game-Changer

About three years ago, a CEO Forum member challenged me to create a learning and development environment for 26 business unit leaders who were located in remote areas across the US. Aside from formal business meetings held under the watchful eyes of the senior leadership team, they had little interaction, even though they largely do the same work and face similar challenges.

The CEO believed that if we could create forums within the company that afforded these business unit leaders the space to learn from one another and grow together, it could positively impact individual and organizational performance. The challenge here is that the CEO’s experience with forums involved monthly full-day, in-person meetings with 12-16 members, all of whom are CEOs of non-competing organizations. This fact begged us to answer the following questions:

1. How would such a construct work if we can’t bring everyone together in person every month?
2. If we can’t carve out an entire day for these busy leaders, what could we realistically accomplish in just a few hours?
3. How would it work when all of these business unit leaders work for the same company and compete against one another to climb the corporate ladder?

Virtual Meetings, Smaller Groups 

Since in-person monthly meetings were out of the question, we were tasked with creating a virtual meeting environment that was visually distinct and provided the necessary conversation tools to enhance the overall experience. While Zoom, Teams, and Google Meet are commonly used platforms, we wanted to send a clear message to the participants that this forum was NOT your typical meeting. The rules of engagement are different, and the expected outcomes depend on everyone bringing their best self to every meeting. This is why we employed the use of The Circles System, creating a meeting experience that was ideal for what we were trying to accomplish.

Additionally, we concluded that 12-16 members per group was too many for such a short session. Instead of dividing the business unit leaders into two groups of 13, we formed three groups of 8-9, where everyone was expected to actively participate. The smaller the group (without becoming too small), the more we could accomplish, and it would be harder for any member to fade into the background. It also helped to divide the groups by region to align with common time zones and geographic-specific topics.

Eight Hours to 90 Minutes   

Maximizing our time together became our top priority. It involved bringing the elements of a full-day forum meeting by building a tight agenda that achieved our learning and development objectives and ensured equal time and participation from group members. A sample 90-minute agenda is provided below:

Agenda

• Welcome! (1 min)
• Rules of the Road (1 min)
• Check-In – One Word and Significant Event (12 min)
• Inclusion Exercise or Content Block (15 min)
• Shared Opportunities and Challenges (15 min)
• Break (5 min)
• Business Unit Specific Opportunities and Challenges (15 min)
• Living and Reinforcing Company Values (10 min)
• Takeaways (8 min)
• Housekeeping & Close (8 min)

Total Meeting Time: *90 minutes

*We ask each member to block out two hours for the meeting. That way, if the group needs to delve deeper into a weighty topic, we have the flexibility to do so. If we finish in 90 minutes, the member essentially gains 30 minutes of flex time back on their calendar.

After a Welcome, we reaffirm the Rules of the Road for each meeting, which include being prepared, present, and engaged. We also trust intent, acknowledge that everyone matters, and encourage listening, openness, and asking questions. Finally, we agree that what happens in the meeting stays in the meeting.

Next, we meet people where they are with a brief, yet meaningful, “How are you feeling in one word?” Check in and give them a chance to share a Significant Business or Personal Event from the past month. We use the next block for Inclusion Exercises (especially when the group is forming), and Content Blocks that tap into the group’s unique ability to operationalize learning.

We discuss the Shared Challenges they are facing, and after a short break, provide space for members to present Business Unit-specific Challenges or Opportunities to their peers for conversation. Because each leader is responsible for living and reinforcing Company Values to their teams, they share best practices of how to do so most effectively. Each member offers their major Takeaway/Action items from the meeting, and we close it out.

Leadership Bonding and Belonging 

There is something about the nature of these meetings that promotes abundance rather than scarcity, generosity instead of selfishness, and a spirit of collaboration that renders competition and gamesmanship unnecessary. While what happens during the meetings is impactful, it’s what takes place between meetings that produces the greatest benefits. Their generosity extends beyond the virtual environment. They build close relationships, learn from one another, and come to realize that although their work is challenging, they are not alone.

Summary 

I led these groups for the first 18 months, and as planned, I helped them transition to a self-facilitation model, and they continue to flourish today. In addition to seeing all of the business-specific and personal performance outcomes we had always hoped for, I felt most gratified by what happened in one form or another in each of the final meetings I facilitated. In each case, a member addressed their colleagues to say, “You were just names on an email list to me 18 months ago. Now you’re my brothers and sisters.”

It’s Peernovation at its finest. It’s what happens when a group of people with a common purpose and shared values work together to create something larger than themselves. Not bad for an investment of 90 minutes a month. And for this company, it was a game-changer.

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