Читать книгу Meeting Design - Kevin M. Hoffman - Страница 23

During a meeting, each attendee’s brain in a meeting is either in a state of input or output. By choosing to assemble in a group, the assumption is implicit that information needs to be moved out of one place, or one brain, into another (or several others).

Some meetings, like presentations, move information in one direction. The goal is for a presenting party to move information from their brain to the brains in the audience. When you are presenting an idea, your brain is in output mode. You use words and visuals to give form to ideas in the hopes that they will become memories in your audience. Your audience’s brains are receiving information; if the presentation is well designed and well executed, their ears and their eyes will do a decent job of absorbing that information accurately.

In a live presentation, the output/input processes are happening synchronously. This is not like reading a written report or an email message, where the author (presenting party) has output information in absence of an audience, and the audience is absorbing information in absence of the author’s presence; that is moving information asynchronously.

An energetic, collaborative meeting has the same input/output dynamic as a presentation, but there are two important distinctions. First, information is moving in two directions, not just one. Second, the movement between input and output states happens more frequently in smaller, faster bursts. Each brain in a fast-paced meeting is working to absorb the information from surrounding brains while also outputting information for the cumulative benefit of the group. In the best of circumstances, that should increase clarity about a problem or solution and culminate in a shared understanding that wouldn’t exist without everyone.

A meeting is a system that facilitates knowledge input and output while having the potential to create new perspectives at the same time. Poor meetings don’t move ideas from one brain to another effectively, and therefore do a worse job at developing interesting or useful new ideas. Good ones move information more quickly and provide space for unexpected new ideas. Good meetings happen more often when you accommodate attendees’ varying abilities to listen, to learn, and to express ideas in a way that’s “brain consumable.” You can build on what you’ve learned about the way people remember things to design better avenues for input.