Gridcards
The humble gridcard: one idea per card, written large enough for the room to read. It gathers every view succinctly and becomes the record.
The ProMeet method
Simple tools, built on serious ideas
Four phases, five principles and a set of visual tools that help any group focus, participate fully and leave with clear actions. Participatory leadership is the engine inside.
Four phases
Effective meetings have four phases
We make your meeting productive by clarifying the objectives, then designing and facilitating a participative process to meet them. Good meetings end by agreeing the actions and learning how to make the next one better.
Clarify objectives
We turn agenda items into objectives that start with an active verb: create, plan, agree, decide.
Clear objectives imply the process. Agreement objectives need agreement processes; creative objectives need creative ones.
Design a process
We plan a sequence of discussions, tasks and activities that meets each objective in a lively, engaging way.
There are many ways a group can agree, decide, create or plan. We choose what suits the size of the group and the time available.
Clarify the actions
Every meeting ends with clear, captured actions, so people can act and progress shared goals.
Reviewing last time's actions acknowledges progress and shows what is blocking it.
Learn and grow
A few minutes learning about working together builds trust, respect and better meetings next time.
Organisations committed to learning grow fastest when they use time together to learn about working together.
Five principles
The principles of meeting excellence
Wholehearted participation, focused on clear objectives, using processes that harness energy and diversity, creates visible results and healthy, respectful teams.
The core principle
Participative
Participative beliefs, underpinned by the participatory worldview, yield intellectual, emotional and energetic engagement. Participation is the core principle.
Purposeful meetings have
Purposeful
- a compelling overarching intention
- clear, specific meeting objectives
- focus, to achieve common objectives
Process is designed to
Process
- achieve objectives and get results
- maximise energy and participation
- harness diversity
Visibility creates
Visibility
- aligned energy
- collective wisdom
- clear action and clear learning
Healthy meetings create
Healthy
- authentic human respect
- deep, multi-level learning
- an energetic, vibrant culture
The tools
ProMeet tools help meetings work brilliantly
They look simple. They focus attention on the same subject at the same time, gather views succinctly and create a record of ideas, plans, decisions, actions and team learning.
Wallcharts
Objectives on one side, the process across the top, gridcards in the grid. Everyone focuses on the same thing at the same time.
Scales of Agreement
A visible way to test real consensus, from full agreement to agreement with reservations, before a decision is made.
Focused conversation (ORID)
Objective, reflective, interpretive, decisional: a sequence of questions that moves a group from data to decision.
Open Space
Participants set the agenda and take responsibility for the conversations that matter most to them. Ideal for large groups.
LEGO® Serious Play®
Building models to think, communicate and understand complex systems together.
Live polling
Slido polls and questions show the headline opinions in the room and let people ask difficult questions anonymously.
Strategic illustration
Capturing a roadmap or strategy live as a picture people can share and remember.
Actions and learning
Every ProMeeting ends with captured actions and a short learning review. Outputs are photographed and shared within days.
The idea underneath
Effective meetings are led by participatory leaders
A bit like 'Intel inside', the key component inside ProMeet is participatory leadership.
The participatory leadership paradigm is based on respect and engagement. It constructively focuses energy in every human encounter. An advanced, democratic and effective model of leadership, it harnesses diversity, builds community and creates shared responsibility for action. Because it deepens individual and collective learning, it is particularly effective in enabling change.
Participatory leaders use time working together, often in meetings, to release potential and grow collective understanding of, and commitment to, vision, strategy and aligned action. ProMeet is a simple tool, powerful in their hands.
The idea is not new. In 1926 Mary Parker Follett argued for "power with" rather than "power over". Wise words indeed.
Influences
John Kotter on leading change; Bill Torbert and David Rooke on the seven transformations of leadership; Henryk Skolimowski's The Participatory Mind; Richard Tarnas's The Passion of the Western Mind; Lynda Gratton's Hot Spots; Harrison Owen's Open Space Technology; David Straus on making collaboration work; David Bohm and William Isaacs on dialogue; and many colleagues and clients who helped develop this body of work.
Independent evaluation
What happened when government tested it
ProMeet was evaluated as part of research into participatory meeting methods in UK central government. At the Department for Work and Pensions:
- 82%thought ProMeet is better than the traditional way of meeting
- 89%thought meeting objectives are better than a traditional agenda
- 93%thought ProMeet would be useful in their department
The wallchart and gridcard system gained near unanimous support for helping structure, focus, progress and record, and for aiding full participation.
Want your team to meet this way every week?
We facilitate, and we pass on the tools and skills so your leaders can run ProMeetings themselves.