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Elise Keith

Elise is Lucid Meetings' co-founder, CEO and resident meeting maven. She's the author of Where the Action Is: The Meetings That Make or Break Your Organization.

She's also the author of Inc.com's Ask the Meeting Maven column, a regular contributor and expert commentator on all things business meetings (as seen in BBC News, SHRM Magazine, Industry Week, and the Savvy Dentist podcast), and a frequent speaker on the topic of better meetings everywhere.

Elise leads Lucid Meetings' research, publication, and product management efforts, constantly seeking the best ways to make it easy for people to enjoy meetings that get work done.

Meeting School Courses

10 Science-Backed Rules for Meaningful Meetings
Gain the Essential Skills for Effective Meetings

Templates

How to Create a Team Plan For Better Meetings

Teams run this session to agree on plans for improving their meeting practice. Intended outcomes for this session include a shared understanding of meeting success, a one-month plan for changes to meetings, a defined list of next steps, and much more!

How to Create a Working Team Agreement

Teams use this process to gain clarity about how they’ll work together over the next 3 to 6 months. These agreements increase team productivity and alignment by reducing confusion, duplication, delays, and misunderstandings.

How to Host a Peer Mentor Meeting

These meetings give people from across your organization an opportunity to compare experiences and learn from one another as they work through a shared challenge, such as a significant organizational change or major project. Peers share what they’ve done that worked well and challenges they’re facing, then work together to identify possible solutions.

How to Lead an Advisory Council (Braintrust) Meeting

This sensemaking meeting provides teams with feedback and insights they can use when tackling challenging projects. During the meeting, the team presents their challenge to the advisory council, where they can tap into the council members’ “braintrust,” or deep expertise. Council members ask clarifying questions, then provide candid feedback, access to resources, and options for the team to...

How to Lead an Effective Decision-Making Meeting

This meeting agenda template explains how to prepare for and run a solid decision making meeting. This straightforward process walks your team through the critical decision making steps. It doesn’t rely on any specific analytical frameworks or fancy group exercises. You can run this meeting as is, or use it as a starting place when building a more elaborate decision-making session.

How to Run a Board Meeting Using Robert's Rules

Love, hate, hubris, and anxiety - Robert's Rules inspires strong feelings and opinions in those who have come to know them. Regardless of how anyone might feel about Robert's Rules, we still see this pillar of parliamentary procedure listed as the fall-back in board and organizational bylaws. If in doubt about how to proceed, they say, use Robert's Rules. This Robert's Rules of Order agenda sets...

How to Run a Cross-Functional Weekly Update Meeting

This is the meeting agenda template the team at Lucid Meetings uses to run our weekly meetings. Needless to say, we think this format works pretty darn well. This meeting agenda template brings together leaders from different departments to share updates and reinforce their connections to the company and each other. While definitely work-focused, the tone of this meeting is also intentionally...

How to Run a Daily Leadership Huddle

The Daily Huddle keeps management teams coordinated, focused, accountable and efficient. Lasting just 10 to 15 minutes, a Daily Huddles ensures everyone knows what’s going on each day. The Huddle also provides a fast way to get quick answers to any cross-functional questions. Use this meeting agenda template as a starting place when planning your team’s Daily Huddle.

How to Run a Formal Board Meeting

Boards have many responsibilities and must abide by certain rules and formalities, but there is no one set way to run a board meeting. For every board meeting, the directors must still determine what topics to prioritize, how to manage the available time, and how to ensure the board members arrive informed and stay actively engaged throughout the call. This meeting agenda template provides a...

How to Run a Near-Term Planning Meeting

Purpose: To decide on a new short-term plan of action during times of rapid change or crisis Expected Outcomes: A new short term plan for the next few days, weeks, or month Ideas about alternate plans you could try if this plan doesn’t work • A defined list of next steps A date for the next meeting where you’ll review results Commitment to the plan

How to Run a Project Kickoff Meeting

This is the meeting agenda template the team at Lucid Meetings uses to run kickoffs for smaller projects. It covers all the basics, and gets everyone involved to create a strong mutual commitment to the project's success. During this meeting, you'll lead two separate discussions using techniques developed by expert facilitators and project managers. Between these, you'll walk the team through an...

How to Run a Project Status Update Meeting

This meeting agenda template follows a standard format common in organizations with a well-developed Project Management Office. Most commonly scheduled as a weekly or bi-monthly meeting, this format is best suited for those managing cross-functional teams on moderately complex projects or programs.

How to Run a Quick Retro on Your Working Team Agreement

Teams use this process to review and update their working team agreement. This conversation can be scheduled as a stand-alone meeting or as part of a regular team meeting.

How to Run a Remote Team Check-In Meeting

This meeting agenda template is inspired by Wade Foster's blog post about how the distributed team at Zapier keeps their work in synch and their team connected when meeting from different time zones. This meeting agenda template is best suited for small teams (10 or fewer people) who enjoy communicating in writing.

How to Run a Simple Board Meeting

Boards have many responsibilities and must abide by certain rules and formalities, but there is no one set way to run a board meeting. For every board meeting, the directors must still determine what topics to prioritize, how to manage the available time, and how to ensure the board members arrive informed and stay actively engaged throughout the call. This meeting agenda template provides a...

How to Run a Startup Board Meeting

Boards have many responsibilities and must abide by certain rules and formalities, but there is no one set way to run a board meeting. For every board meeting, the directors must still determine what topics to prioritize, how to manage the available time, and how to ensure the board members arrive informed and stay actively engaged throughout the call. This meeting agenda template helps startup...

How to Run a Strategic Pivot Meeting

Purpose:To decide on a new strategy your organization can use to survive and thriveExpected Outcomes:A shared understanding of what changed and what the new strategy needs to accomplishInsights into leading indicators that inform your new strategyA new list of strategic priorities and a near-term action planIdeas about alternate plans you could try if this plan doesn’t workCommitment to the...

How to Run a Strategic Plan Quarterly Refresh Meeting

During this meeting, teams review their strategic progress and establish targets for the next 90 days. Part retrospective, part working session, and part time-out, running a Quarterly Refresh makes sure your organization’s strategy stays present in everyone’s mind, up-to-date with changes in your environment, and relevant to everyday operations. Use this meeting agenda template as a starting...

How to Run a Successful Project Retrospective

This meeting agenda template helps teams learn from project successes and failures together, and commit to change based on what they learned. Use this template as a starting place when designing your next project retrospective, and adapt the agenda to fit your team.

How to run a Team Check-In and Report-Out Meeting

Purpose: To ensure everyone has accurate information about what’s going on in the team, identify barriers to execution that need to be solved, and prepare updates to share with the rest of the organization. Expected Outcomes: Everyone has current information Answers to open questions Action items created for those who will help solve problems A communication plan with info to share...

How to Run a Weekly Leadership Team Meeting

Held at the same time and day each week, teams use this meeting to drive accountability and resolve issues impeding progress. This is an action-oriented working meeting rather than a reporting and information sharing meeting. The agenda leaves no time for reading reports or explaining delays. Instead, the time is spent working through high-priority issues to find solutions. Use this meeting...

How to Run a Weekly Update Meeting

Inspired by the written report format put together by the fine folks at Weekdone, this meeting agenda template adapts the PPP status report into a status meeting where people can discuss the information they share. Used by product teams, technology companies, and entrepreneurs alike, the Progress, Plans & Problems format provides an easy way to communicate the essential information a group...

How to Run an Agile Standup Meeting

Fast, structured, and to-the-point, the agile stand-up is meant to keep a team fully in-synch on fast moving projects. As you might guess from the name, the "stand-up" was originally designed for teams that would stand up together in front of the board where they track their work using sticky notes. Most commonly scheduled as a daily meeting, this meeting agenda template adapts the stand-up to a...

How to Run an All-Hands Situation Update Meeting

This meeting may look similar to a high-stakes press briefing. One or more leaders will take turns sharing the content described below in the order that makes the best sense for the situation. Then, leadership will answer questions. The most senior leader should end the meeting by sharing information about the next meeting date, any requests for all staff, and expressing gratitude for...

How to Run an Urgent Problem Solving Meeting

This meeting agenda template helps a team find short-term tactical solutions to an urgent problem. The conversation includes time to gain a shared understanding of the problem, but focuses primarily on listing and evaluating possible solutions and the creation of a short- term action plan. Use this meeting to answer the question: “What are we going to do about this problem now?” This design is...

How to Run High Performance One-on-Ones

Cisco studied engagement in over 15,000 teams and found that well- designed one-on-ones based on just two questions reliably boosted employee engagement and team performance. What are your priorities this week? How can I help? Before your weekly meeting, ask team members to write the answers to these questions and send them to their team leader. Then, the team leaders can discuss these...

Contributed Blog Posts

Date Article Title Publisher

04/10/2022

A Framework for Designing World-Class Team Cadence and Progress Check Meetings Lucid Meetings Blog

07/14/2021

A Process for Navigating Your Company's Return to Work Lucid Meetings Blog

07/09/2021

Make Better Decisions Faster by Standardizing Your Decision-Making Criteria Lucid Meetings Blog

04/30/2021

It's Time to Talk About Your Meetings. Here's How to Get Started. Lucid Meetings Blog

01/25/2021

5 Rules for Leading Excellent Meetings with Your Team Every Day Lucid Meetings Blog

09/14/2020

3+ Ways to Approach Strategic Planning Lucid Meetings Blog

09/08/2020

Communicating in Real Time, Near Time, and Far Time Lucid Meetings Blog

08/04/2020

How to Find the Most Productive Meeting Schedule for a Team Like Yours Lucid Meetings Blog

08/04/2020

How to Identify and Eliminate Meetings That Waste Your Team's Time Lucid Meetings Blog

07/20/2020

Case Study: Conservation Colorado Eliminates Employees' Top Complaint Lucid Meetings Blog

05/06/2020

How to Run a Strategic Pivot Meeting with Your Team Lucid Meetings Blog

04/07/2020

Tips for Taking In-Person Training and Workshops Online Lucid Meetings Blog

04/06/2020

Quick Research Project: How often do teams meet? And how often should they meet? Lucid Meetings Blog

04/03/2020

Meeting in Times of Rapid Change and Crisis Lucid Meetings Blog

03/12/2020

Resources for Business Teams Coping with COVID-19 Lucid Meetings Blog

02/07/2020

The Right Story for Every Meeting Lucid Meetings Blog

12/16/2019

How Coda's Meeting Operating System Ensures Every Conversation Has a Home Lucid Meetings Blog

12/09/2019

The Story Behind Our Meeting Flow Model for Pilot Programs Lucid Meetings Blog

12/03/2019

How to Create a Useful Meeting Flow Model for Your Team` Lucid Meetings Blog

12/01/2019

Why Meeting Flow Models are the Key to Unlocking Your Team's Meeting Success Lucid Meetings Blog

Recent Published Articles

Date Title Publisher
09/07/2020 4 Ways to Build Remote Customer Relationships Using Video Inc.
06/11/2020 Businesses Are Ready to Embrace Remote Work. Employees Aren't Convinced Inc.
05/27/2020 5 Simple Steps to Fix Bad Meetings Inc.
05/24/2020 How to Make an Impression Using Custom Zoom Backgrounds Inc.
04/23/2020 How to Make Your Team's Video Calls Less Awkward Inc.
04/01/2020 The Right Way to Keep Your Remote Team Accountable Inc.
03/18/2020 How to Meet With Your Team in Times of Crisis Inc.
03/02/2020 3 Meetings to Run When You Suddenly Go Remote Inc.
02/24/2020 How to Capture Valuable Notes From Every Meeting Inc.
02/10/2020 10 Research-Backed Rules for Meaningful Meetings Inc.
01/20/2020 Why You Need More Silence in Your Meetings Inc.
01/13/2020 3 Myths About Meetings That Are Holding You Back Inc.
12/30/2019 How to Quickly Get Your Staff's Input Before Making a Big Decision Inc.
12/23/2019 5 Lessons From the Famous (and Infamous) Meetings That Made the News in 2019 Inc.
12/04/2019 How to Keep Your Cool When You're Feeling Attacked in Meetings Inc.
11/27/2019 How to Get Ready for Challenging End-of-Year Conversations Inc.
11/26/2019 Is what they're saying about meetings on the internet really true? LinkedIn Pulse
11/04/2019 Being Late to Meetings Annoys Your Co-Workers, But Here's What You Can Do to Make Them Less Upset Inc.
11/04/2019 Researchers found this common bad habit enrages people and drains productivity too Inc.
10/30/2019 How to Make a Lousy Meeting Better When You're Not the One Leading It Inc.