Do you find your executive committee meetings tend to be a bit routine? That discussions aren’t terribly frank and decisions are taken too slowly? Beekast can help you save time and gain efficiency!
What makes executive meetings noteworthy?
Executive committee meetings fall into the realm of political games. Key decisions are taken that will have an impact throughout the company and especially on the members of the executive committee themselves.
There can be pretence aplenty and it is sometimes difficult to make the right decision for the company, as the individual interests of some members can cloud the issue. The budget allocated to one member’s strategic project won’t bolster another member’s project, for example, or
a decision supported by some may cause the scope of other executive committee members to be limited.
Alliances are formed, and sometimes fall apart (I’ll support you on this vote if you support me on that one), which can make it difficult for a director to truly gauge the convictions of his or her colleagues.
Whether a topic presented needs to make an impact, a problem needs to be analysed in depth or the right decision needs to be taken as a group, Beekast will simplify and accelerate each of these steps.
Host your executive committee meeting with Beekast
Before your executive committee meeting
Do you have your own ideas for what topics to address at the next meeting? But are you sure you’re in sync with the other participants? Finalise the agenda together and ensure the greatest possible level of engagement at your next executive meeting. Follow the steps below:
- Create your Beekast session in ‘participant control’ mode
- Add the ‘Board’ activity
- Create one category for each topic up for discussion at the next executive meeting (like ‘Budget 2021’, etc.)
- For each category, add a card for each point you expect to talk about (such as ‘How about COVID’s impacts?’). Consider adding a final category called ‘Other topic suggestions’ that will allow participants to make suggestions about what they’d like to address
- Send the session link to executive committee members so they can open the session, familiarise themselves with your topics and add their own ideas by creating their own cards under your various categories.
Now you have everything you need to finalise the agenda for the executive committee meeting!
During the executive committee meeting
Like many management groups, the executive committee meeting mainly involves three types of activities in a session:
- 1. Information sharing
This involves sharing information that is useful to all. This information is quantitative (business profits and losses, key figures, etc.) and qualitative (key information, strategic project progress, important recruiting, etc.).
How do you share information through Beekast? To make sure everyone’s paying attention when information is being shared, punctuate the different pages of information you want to share with MCQs or Surveys. Get reactions!
- 2. Subject analysis
During an executive committee meeting, it’s common to have all of the company’s entities represented. This cross-disciplinary setting is an opportunity to explore new topics to uncover key challenges. This makes it possible to launch the ‘right’ projects or project roadmaps. This means orientating the company’s actions and means. In these cases, Beekast can help cut down on the interplay between stakeholders and ensure each person expresses themselves as simply and objectively as possible.
How do you analyse a topic with Beekast? Make sure every member of the executive committee shares their points of view so these can be discussed more effectively. To do so, you can use activities like the Matrix (name two Impact and Feasibility axes to rationally assess the relevance of the various suggestions).
If you are tackling a new subject and would like to establish a framework for it during your executive meeting, you could use the Metaphor activity. It allows each participant to enrich the debate with the strengths, constraints, obstacles and objectives he or she perceives. Enough to kick off a new project with all the challenges in mind!
- 3. Decision-making
The executive committee meeting is the place where all the difficult (what couldn’t be decided at a lower level) and strategic (what has a major impact on the company’s future) decisions are made. Sometimes decisions need a consensus, and sometimes they’re taken by vote. If voting, Beekast reinforces personal honesty by requiring each person to decide individually without being able to simply go along with the rest. Future engagement can only improve!
How do you take decisions with Beekast? This is the chance to use Beekast to speed up decision-making after all sides have been heard. Use the Prioritisation activity by pre-filling the actions from which people can choose. You can have them vote again using the board that has been pre-filled with possible actions or simply evaluate a few competing actions.
After the executive committee meeting
Now you can use automatic meeting notes and statistics that will save you so much and let you send the summary out right away or even during the meeting to really capitalise on the decisions taken. This is the best way to make your executive committee meeting decisions a reality.
Wishing you all the best for your next executive committee meeting!