The three stages of meetings

1. Updates

This is the most common type of meeting, perhaps also the one you hate the most. Everyone goes in a circle and gives a status update on what they’re working on. Managers seem to default to this recurring meeting type.

2. Presentation

This is when a single person presents an idea and solicits feedback from everyone in the meeting. Typically, only a few people will speak up, regardless of how they feel about the idea. Introverted, junior, and historically excluded people may not feel comfortable saying anything. Others may over-contribute and fall victim to confirmation bias.

3. Decision-making

This is when a meeting is held only to make a decision. It is the most efficient and important part of all meetings. Significant work was done to provide context prior to the decision. Trust is high, so everyone is ready to commit to the outcome decided.

What types of meetings are you in?

If you’re like me, in my career as an individual engineer, most of my meetings were updates. Sometimes we had feedback meetings, specifically for the manager’s benefit or maybe an architect. I was never empowered to feel like a leader on my team in a decision making meeting.

That’s what Brainstory solves. Brainstory helps teams make better decisions. Built into the product is the fundamental process of moving teams from Stage 1: Updates to Stage 3: Decision-making.

When teams use Brainstory, their involvement leads to commitment.