Breaking the Ice for Good
So, you’ve sent the invitations, coordinated calendars, and picked a meeting location—now what? Setting up your meeting to effectively connect and transition into action items helps establish focus, build relationships, and offer a unique opportunity for culture development.
Consider the meeting topic to determine the appropriate tone for a check-in. Here are some options to get you started.
Relationship building—If the tone is friendly and personal, you might consider bringing a bit of personality and reflecting on what feels authentic to your strengths. For example, if Humor is one of your signature strengths, consider a work-appropriate version of two truths and a lie. Or maybe Love is your signature strength. Consider asking, “What was the best part of your weekend?” Another option is some version of “What’s on the horizon for you?”
Strengths-based culture— if you’re trying to deepen strengths integration into your organizational norms, consider discussing what strength you’d like to bring to the conversation. That might look like identifying one or two strengths to lean into as a group or asking everyone to name a strength they want to amplify for the focus of the meeting. For example, “I’m going to dial up my Honesty for today’s conversation because we’re editing this concept. I’ll try to pair it with Kindness to be sure I’m being direct and demonstrating care.”
Learning opportunity—If your meeting's focus is information, you might build in a shared learning opportunity, whether you share information before the meeting or have everyone read an article or watch a video together. Give participants time to reflect on the content and provide a discussion prompt. The question can be as simple as, “What information was new to you?”
Another prompt to help focus attention might be, “What has your attention?”
Body reflection—Facilitate or listen to a brief grounding meditation to help the group settle their minds and turn inward. Invite the group to notice any sensations they experience in their bodies. After everyone has reflected, you can use the check-in, “What has your attention today?”
Emotional reflection—Depending on your group's psychological safety level, you can invite the group to use an emotion wheel or the blob tree to reference how people feel. This tool encourages people to feel comfortable being honest and open about how they’re doing.
Collaborative focus—If the purpose of your meeting is active teamwork, you can ask a few questions to help set shared intentions. “What do you hope to walk away from today’s meeting having accomplished?” " What do we need to accomplish today to stay on track?” “What would make our time together a success?”
What’s your favorite way to check in for a gathering or meeting?
