Mindful Workplace: Mindful Meetings

Five Steps to More Mindful Meetings

Meetings are a good place to encourage mindfulness because it encourages participants to stay in the present and to not react too quickly to information. It also encourages new perspectives to be explored before making decisions. Here are five steps to foster more mindful meetings. 

  1. Encourage meeting participants to conduct a “self-check” before the meeting. Instruct all participants to ask themselves “What mental state am I in?” By becoming more aware of their mental state, they can choose the state they want to be in during the meeting.
  2. Encourage meeting leaders to conduct a group check-in. Meeting leaders can take five minutes at the start of every meeting and ask each participant to answer the question, “On a scale of 1 to 10, how present are you right now?” This will help participants reflect on where their attention is and prompt them to be in the present moment.
  3. Encourage meeting leaders to always state their intentions. This goes beyond stating the usual discussion topics. For example, one intention of a meeting may be to give team members a chance to connect with each other.
  4. Encourage meeting leaders to distinguish the meeting parts. Meetings have multiple parts, and it is helpful for participants to know which part they are in.
  5. Teach meeting leaders to always wrap the meeting up. Encourage them to take five minutes at the end of each meeting to intentionally create clear agreements about what is going to happen in the future.

(From: Kashen, D. (n.d.). 5 simple steps towards more meaningful meetings. Fast Company. Retrieved from http://www.fastcompany.com/3033897/hit-the-ground-running/5-simple-steps-towards-more-mindful-meetings.