Elise Keith
J.EliseKeith.com 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 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
Templates
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How to Run a Board Meeting Using Robert's Rules Description of the Template and Guide 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.... |
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How to Run a Cross-Functional Weekly Update Meeting Description of the Template and Guide 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... |
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How to Run a Daily Leadership Huddle Description of the Template and Guide 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... |
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How to Run a Decision-Making Meeting (Anytime) Description of the Template and Guide 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... |
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How to Run a Formal Board Meeting Description of the Template and Guide 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... |
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How to Run a Near-Term Planning Meeting Description of the Template and Guide 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 |
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How to Run a Project Kickoff Meeting Description of the Template and Guide 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... |
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How to Run a Project Status Update Meeting Description of the Template and Guide 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. |
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How to Run a Remote Team Check-In Meeting Description of the Template and Guide 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. |
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How to Run a Simple Board Meeting Description of the Template and Guide 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... |
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How to Run a Startup Board Meeting Description of the Template and Guide 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... |
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How to Run a Strategic Pivot Meeting Description of the Template and Guide Purpose: To decide on a new strategy your organization can use to survive and thrive Expected Outcomes: A shared understanding of what changed and what the new strategy needs to accomplish Insights into leading indicators that inform your new strategy A new list of strategic priorities and a near-term action plan Ideas about alternate plans you... |
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How to Run a Strategic Plan Quarterly Refresh Meeting Description of the Template and Guide 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... |
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How to Run a Successful Project Retrospective Description of the Template and Guide 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. |
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How to run a Team Check-In and Report-Out Meeting Description of the Template and Guide 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... |
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How to Run a Weekly Leadership Team Meeting Description of the Template and Guide 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... |
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How to Run a Weekly Update Meeting Description of the Template and Guide 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... |
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How to Run an Agile Standup Meeting Description of the Template and Guide 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... |
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How to Run an All-Hands Situation Update Meeting Description of the Template and Guide 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... |
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How to Run an Urgent Problem Solving Meeting Description of the Template and Guide 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... |
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How to Run High Performance One-on-Ones Description of the Template and Guide 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... |