Polle de Maagt

Meeting canvas.

By Polle de Maagt · First published · Updated · 3 min read

Design the meeting before you send the invitation.

What it does

Helps you think through the purpose, structure and elements of a meeting, from a 1:1 to a full workshop day.

Use it for
MeetingsWorkshops1:1s
You need
The canvas
Origin
Inspired by Hyper Island

The problem.

Most meetings are designed in the invitation: a title, a time and a list of attendees. What I like most about this canvas is that it forces you to think about how to open up your audience for your ideas, what the core of the session will be, and how to close it properly.

The model.

  1. Name. A proper, enticing name builds clarity and anticipation. In a workshop, choosing it together is a good creative exercise.
  2. Purpose. Two things: what you would love to get done, and which questions you want answered.
  3. Outcomes. Tangible: the concrete outcomes you need, often the best place to start designing. Intangible: how you and the participants should feel afterwards.
  4. Participants. Who are they, what do they want, what mindset do they arrive with, and what questions or objections might they have?
  5. Materials and space. What you need, where, how you arrange the room, and roughly how you invite people in.

Then the real work starts: which exercises do you need in the opening, the core and the closing to reach the outcomes you defined?

The core is the square in the middle: the work you came for. The opening leads into it. It starts small and widens, so people warm up before the real work. The closing does the opposite: it narrows everything back down, so the session ends where it logically should.

NamePurposeWhat you want done, and whichquestions answered.OutcomesTangible: what you need.Intangible: how people shouldfeel.ParticipantsWho they are, their mindset,their questions.Materials and spaceWhat you need, where, and howyou invite people.Openingwarm upCorethe workyou came forClosingland it
warm up, do the work, land it

How I use it.

Depending on the context, I use the full canvas or a quick sketch of it, to prepare a full workshop day or sometimes just a 1:1. The three parts of the session, opening, core and closing, work like breathing: breathe in, hold, breathe out.

For the fabric of each part, the five structural elements of Liberating Structures help: invitation, space and materials, participation, groups, and sequence and time.

Why it matters now.

A meeting is still where a strategy turns into what people do on Monday. The less time teams have together, the more each hour needs a design.

Try this

Before your next meeting, write down one tangible and one intangible outcome. Then cut everything from the agenda that serves neither.

Origin: inspired by Hyper Island's way of designing meetings; my own version of the canvas. First published here in April 2020. Related: before, during, after and story chapters.

Your version of this

Tried it, or thinking about it?

Let me know how it went.

Let's talk →How I work
Polle de Maagt

Keep reading

All tools →