RE:GATHERING
Friends!
I hope you had a chance to channel your inner Scandinavian! I certainly got a lot of responses from that post, which suggests that you found it valuable, interesting, and illuminating overall. That made me happy. Tack så mycket!
This week, I am reflecting on the notion of gathering. Or, perhaps more specifically, RE-gathering. I was inspired to do so by my wife, Jessica, and the incredible team of volunteers who just produced their 5th TEDxChicago event (and 9th in total including virtual events and a salon). It was great to be together again after so much time doing virtual events. It reminded me of the powerful and critical interdependency of ideas and people being together.
An idea has a greater impact when you experience it with people in a room. It resonates differently. It’s hard to put my finger on it, but there is a mysterious and comforting cosmic energy when an idea travels through others on its way to you. I think our human aperture, literally like a lens of a camera, is wider and more willing and able to embrace new ideas when surrounded by other people. We might reject something at first, but when we feel others embracing them, we aren’t as fast to judge. Gatherings are necessary structures to help us adjust, grow, and learn. I think we all are better versions of ourselves when we are surrounded by other humans!
One reason for the collapse of civility, humanity, and reasonableness in our current public discourse I believe can be found in social media, in general, and loneliness, in particular. Or, at least the notion of consuming information by yourself. Our proximity to reason and reflection is tied to our closeness to other people. Other people are needed to help us see any idea from a different perspective.
Given the vitriol, anger, and negativity occupying most media, and reflecting on how much of this is consumed by people alone on their phones, it's easier to understand why so much of our public conversation has broken down. We need more communication to be what communication should be all about. To enable people to actually COME TOGETHER!
While the pandemic isn’t done with us and we are probably not done with the pandemic, we are at least at a stage where we are redefining, reimagining, and rethinking gatherings. The pandemic accelerated our approaches, our technologies, and our acceptance of distance everything. And much of this is very good. We will most likely see significant productivity gains from it. There are many parts of our lives that don’t require meetings. We will save time, money, and carbon. All valuable savings.
But the issue is, of course, not only what we will gain. It’s also what we might lose.
I have always believed meetings (and gatherings) are super important, and when done right, can have an incredible impact and, quite frankly, cannot be replaced by anything else. But having sat through thousands of meetings and far too many conferences and gatherings (both great ones and many bad ones), most meetings have an opportunity to be reinvented.
As we now are in the process of deciding which meetings will be virtual and which will be physical, let's take this opportunity to reinvent all meetings, regardless of how and where they happen. When thinking about organizing better meetings, I try to focus on these 3 dimensions:
The first should be no surprise to this audience: Purpose. What is the purpose of your meeting or gathering? Is it clearly stated, and will every person invited be aware of this purpose, share, and care about contributing towards fulfilling that purpose? So many meetings feel like they are happening just because. The best meeting has a very clear idea – a raison d’etre.
Second, are all voices present in the meeting? All stakeholders. Amazon is famous for always having an empty chair in the room representing the voice of the customer. That is smart. So many meetings are designed around a particular problem without all relevant constituents and perspectives represented. If you want to find scalable, sustainable, and profitable solutions, make sure all voices are heard. People support what they help create.
Third, is there a well-thought-out process for how to get to the end result? And most importantly who “owns” the meeting. People and process. That’s the winning formula for so much in life. There is clearly the art of the start of any meeting but there also has to be someone in charge that acts like a shepherd and brings BOTH the ideas AND the people along towards the desired end of the meeting. And it is not an easy job. My most productive meetings have often been facilitated by true professionals who know how to get a group to talk, engage, and ultimately find common ground. Special shout-outs to Kjell Enhager, Kay Pollack, Alice Nichols, Brian Bacon, and Peter Skarzynski who in such masterful and human ways helped unlock potential when I was desperately looking for it. Thank you!
There are of course other considerations such as where to hold the meeting (space matters a lot), the cadence of agenda (breaks matters too), food, size of the group, virtual or not, etc. But none of these decisions will matter if the purpose, the participation, and the people/process have not been laid out thoughtfully and clearly.
I have always believed that better meetings can meaningfully elevate the insights and caliber of our public discourse, and hence, life in general. The pandemic has certainly offered us the unique opportunity of reflecting on new ways to hold conversations and meetings. It is my hope that on the other side of this ordeal, one of the gifts will be that we will gather more intentionally, more productively, and more inclusively.
Here are a few links that you might find interesting and relevant to this newsletter:
Priya Parker has written extensively and produced much-inspired content around the Art of Gathering (title of her book). You can find so much inspired thinking and conversation here around how to host better meetings. This interview with another favorite of mine, Krista Tippett, is really good and worth your time.
I know there has been a lot of Brooks lately, but his latest column around essentialism and "group think" is such a primer and puff piece around the importance of going to gatherings. If we don't bend, we will break!
TEDxChicago has a website and their YouTube channel has all former and future talks. The talks from this week will be gradually posted here. The lineup yesterday was fantastic, and I can't wait to share those talks in future newsletters.
And lastly, a story from 60 minutes about a very different type of Education that I found inspiring and very much reminded me of the BILDNING point I mentioned in my last post on Scandinavian traits.
Have a great week!
