Why do some meetings feel dull and heavy – like an unwanted obligation, while others feel exciting, and are a catalyst to action?
We were recently introduced to a sort of “human energetics model” that may put some perspective on meeting design issues. The tool is called Five Dynamics (www.5dynamics.com) and we learned about if from a friend and client who was responsible for the design of a senior leadership meeting we supported at the end of 2009.
The brief version of Five Dynamics is that it breaks the Performance Cycle of any project, initiative or strategy into five stages: Explore, Excite, Examine, Execute, Evaluate.
First Dynamic – Explore: Perceiving; option-oriented thinking
Second Dynamic – Excite: Inspiring; energizing others
Third Dynamic – Examine: Planning; building structure
Fourth Dynamic – Execute: Acting; turning the plan into reality
Fifth Dynamic – Evaluate
The principle of the Five Dynamics application is that each of these stages requires a different kind of energy and focus from the individuals who are seeking to accomplish the project, initiative or strategy. The Five Dynamics tool is used as a way to diagnose individuals and teams to see in which stages it is easy for them to focus their energy, and in which stages it takes some conscious effort to become comfortable and effective.
The first three Dynamics are the crucial ones to look at in meeting design, because you must complete these stages effectively in order to Execute with excellence.
The 1st Dynamic marks the beginning of the Performance Cycle, when new ideas, creativity and open−mindedness are required. This dynamic is most effective when participants think broadly, considering more ideas, information, connections and possibilities.
The 2nd Dynamic takes new ideas and insights, identified during 1st Dynamic, and builds a collective energy and excitement around them. This Dynamic should foster increased unity within the team that can increase efficiency and provide foundational support for action over the long term. The setting for this Dynamic is positive, warm and light, involving camaraderie, sharing and enthusiasm
The 3rd Dynamic subjects the now energized idea or ideas to a thorough refining and critical review process. The focus is on avoiding and/or mitigating omissions, mistakes and potential weaknesses. At this stage, the team focuses on how the idea can be effectively integrated with existing budgets, timetables and operational standards. Institutional data is used.
Most organizational meetings are being held in order to be able to best accomplish the fourth Dynamic: execution. But from a meetings design perspective, how do you get people there? How do you best prepare them to execute?
In designing a meeting, there can be a tendency to skip over the first two Dynamics and just bring everyone together for the third Dynamic: Examination – where the group is presented with the facts and the rational and asked to help in operationalizing the strategy.
This sort of meeting can look like a list of presenters, giving data to the group through slides, and asking briefly for questions at the end. The main activity of the participants is to absorb all of the details, examine them, clarify anything that is confusing, and then go back and apply it all to execution.
What can easily be lost are the opportunities for innovative thinking of the first Dynamic – Explore, and the stimulation and interaction of the second Dynamic – Excite.
What do the first and second Dynamics look like in meetings?
The first Dynamic engages people with the possibilities of any given vision or direction. People project into the future finding it inspiring and new. New ideas are entertained, and old ideas are combined in new ways. Fresh perspective, even on a well worn topic, catalyzes innovation. Participants are given the opportunity to come away with a different vision than the one they arrived with.
The second Dynamic engages people with each other. Together, the group starts to develop a collective understanding and vision – and it is stimulating and fun! Alignment builds out of numerous small conversations. People get to express their thoughts and feelings, and they get to hear the thoughts and feelings of their peers; misunderstandings are identified, commonalities come to the fore. The participants deepen their sense of themselves as a unified group or “team”.
Designing solely from the third Dynamic –Examine – is what makes meetings feel like dull, heavy obligations. To inspire innovation and nurture the formation of a real “team”, designers may need to focus equally on the first and second Dynamics – Explore and Excite. All three of these Dynamics are essential to the real goal of the meeting – Execute.
The results of incorporating all three dynamics can be quite stunning. Most participants not only find it useful and relevant to spend time in innovative and interactive activities, they find it prepares them better for leading their own teams. After the meeting, execution means taking their own people through a whole performance cycle. A meeting that is able to incorporate the Explore and Excite Dynamics naturally “cascades” out through an organization, because it catalyzes and nurtures behavior across all of the stages of the Performance Cycle.
When meetings are designed to address all three Dynamics – Explore, Excite and Examine – participants literally tell us they are the best leadership meetings they have ever attended, even in one case across a thirty-year career.
Posted by Karl Danskin
