Identifying the Purpose

Building a purpose for a meeting is way harder than it sounds.

The purpose is what justifies the meeting to everyone. It needs to be something worthwhile enough to justify the time, cost, and perceived disruption. A purpose of having a chill hang might be desired but only for some folks at some specific time of day. A 4-day strategy workshop needs to have the potential of having huge benefit to justify being away for 4 days.

A purpose is a simple statement that speaks to the problem and benefit of meeting.

Do not fall for the trap of simply moving forward with whatever someone suggests.

You MUST consider:

• What EVERYONE will get out of it
• What you can do
• What you can't do
• How long you have to do it
• What support you have

The correct purpose intersects all of these points. You will need to interview the stakeholders and attendees to get this right.

If you don't have a purpose that everyone agrees on, your meeting will fall flat no matter what.

A VP may want the team to have a smooth project, but the teams may want more support from their leaders. Is there a purpose that intersects these? Yes. Is it likely to be the one someone suggests? No.

Maybe you can pull other folks in to help with support and alignment. Maybe you can't. Maybe you can take 3 months to prepare, and maybe you have to do something next week. Can you use a really big conference room or does it have to be virtual?

All of these things affect what purpose is reasonable and achievable.

A meeting without a resonant purpose will fail.