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A Marketing Mindset for Better Meetings

Ah, the humble corporate meeting. For many companies, it’s the backbone of progress. A place where projects move forward, status updates are shared, and ideas are tossed around like a game of corporate ping-pong. Sometimes they get off track, and you find yourself talking about why The White Lotus theme song suddenly decided to switch up its melody after two seasons of consistent, yet thematically-unique, tunes. I mean it must be an extremely intentional choice, especially after the popularity of those first two theme songs. They were playing the song in clubs for Pete sake! Mike White, how! Why! …. And other times, you’re laser-focused on the task at hand during your meeting. Whether in person, over Zoom/Teams, or in a hybrid setting with some in-person and some online, we’ve all spent plenty of time attending and leading meetings in the corporate world. And I’ve learned a few things: how you structure a meeting can make or break its effectiveness. In marketing, we’re used to managing projects, deadlines, and data, and the same principles apply to meetings. A structured approach ensures we stay on track and maximize every minute. I reached out to a few marketing-world friends for their tried-and-true frameworks. Here’s a mix of strategies I’ve tried firsthand, along with some advice that’s been passed down to me and shared from multifamily marketing industry connects. 1. Quarterly Goals: What’s Moving Forward vs. Falling Behind A simple but effective format. For an executive meeting, start only with the quarterly goals (Rocks, if you’ve ever read Traction). This should be in an “Old Business” section, kind of like Robert’s Rules of Orders. Bringing these up first shows what's moving forward and what's falling behind. Only after those are addressed should you head to “New Business.” This keeps the conversation focused and can illustrate the detractors or distractions that may be throwing goals off track. With this approach, if you look at the agenda visually, if the “New News” section is off-balance from the priority list, it’s a clear indicator that goals need to be either shifted or refocused. Just like a marketing campaign needs consistent evaluation, so do the actual time and content of meetings. 2. GBU (Good, Bad, Ugly, Great) Report + Priority List Inspired by Debbie Rae Peters, here's the GBU. I love this format because it highlights wins in a great way. Traditionally, this is a GBU, but I like to add Great at the end to end on a positive note. It’s similar to the feedback sandwich, where negatives are between more critical issues. Good: What’s working? What wins can we celebrate? Bad: What’s challenging? Where are we hitting roadblocks? Ugly: The real problems no one wants to talk about, but need to be addressed. Great: What’s the #1 biggest win? Following this, a priority list ensures that key takeaways don’t get lost in the shuffle. 3. The "Better Than 60 Emails" Meeting From Shelly Steitz, Senior Consultant of Partner and Member Engagement at Cadence Marketing Solutions. Her favorite thing to hear in a meeting is, "Can I go off-topic for a moment..." From Shelly: "We all love to complain about meetings that could have been an email, but I strive for an inbox-zero mindset. That’s why I see meetings as an opportunity for focused discussions with clear action items. A regular check-in where your team brings their roadblocks to the table can prevent the endless email back-and-forth that slows projects down. The keywords here are focus and delegation. Don’t meet just to meet. Every meeting should have a clear goal from the outset and defined action items by the end. I’m a fan girl of the EOS Level 10 format, but there are plenty of effective meeting structures that achieve similar results." 4. The Jeff Bezos-Style Meeting 🎵 CEO Entrepreneur born in 1964… Amazon’s head honcho Jeff Bezos went as far as to ban PowerPoints in favor of narrative-style memos. The first 15-30 minutes of the meeting are spent reading a well-structured document outlining the issue at hand. The idea? Get everyone on the same page (literally) before discussion begins. It also ensure everyone is clear and focused on the core reason for the meeting. This is where a marketing mindset comes into play: strategy first, creative next. And then there’s the famous 2-pizza rule: Bezos suggests that if a team is too big to be fed with two pizzas, it's too large for effective decision-making. Keeping meetings small and focused is key to staying efficient and effective. 4. Bringing Your Working Genius to the Meeting Janet Rosseth, Founder and CMO of Cadence Marketing Solutions is a certified facilitator of the Working Genius model (built by Patrick Lencioni and his team at The Table Group). She recommends engaging the group’s geniuses based on the agenda of the meeting. Most important, is starting with the stage of work. Is your meeting or project in the stage of Ideation? Activation? Or Implementation? Different geniuses are required at different phases. If the project is in the ideation stage, make sure the group leans into the geniuses of Wonder and Invention. If it’s in the activation stage, Discerner and Galvanizing are needed. And if it’s in the implementation phase, Enablement and Tenacity are important. Knowing the stage ahead of the meeting can help attendees lean into their individual strengths, and sometimes “check their genius at the door”. In the case of a project or implementation that’s about to cross the finish line, the genius of Invention can be disruptive and slow progress. And in the process of Ideation, rushing to Enablement and Tenacity can skip important steps. Curious about your team’s Genius? Check it out here. Do you have a secret sauce for running effective meetings? What frameworks have worked (or failed) for you? Let’s swap notes in the comments below.

Ah, the humble corporate meeting. For many companies, it’s the backbone of progress. A place where projects move forward, status updates are shared, and ideas are tossed around like a game of corporate ping-pong. Sometimes they get off track, and you find yourself talking about why The White Lotus theme song suddenly decided to switch up its melody after two seasons of consistent, yet thematically-unique, tunes. I mean it must be an extremely intentional choice, especially after the...

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