How many times have you sat in a meeting and ended up just starring off into “Neverland.” Within moments you are running around with the lost boys jumping across expanses, and fighting with your sword against the evil pirates. In your refusal to grow up you continue to hate meetings and find that they are not very beneficial for you or those who are actually talking.

In a quest a few years ago to try and change some of the way I lead my team I went and read the book, “Death by Meeting,” by Patrick Lencioni. I will assume that by now many of you have heard of him over had the chance to listen to him at Catalyst last year. In this book he gives you a way to actually have more meetings and in some bizzare twist of reality you will actually start enjoying these meetings and finding them beneficial and time sensitive. Let me share with you a few of the meeting that he encourages you to have.

Meeting 1: Daily Check-in

This is a meeting where you would come together with you team for about 5 minutes. No one sits down. You simply stand together and share what is happening for you today. This gives everyone the chance to know what is going on and the opportunity to get together afterwards if you need to touch base about a meeting someone else is having later that day. This meeting will also give the leader the chance to communicate anything that he feels everyone needs to know about the day. In ministry you can close out your meeting with a simple prayer and get to work. This meeting should only take 5 minutes.

Meeting 2: Weekly tactical

Here is where most of us get bored and feel like we have nothing to offer or that what we are offering is ignored. It is in these weekly staff meetings that we begin to hate meetings. Lencioni offers some really good insight in how to lead a meeting and in some ways creating conflict so that people are engaged. However, he also goes on to show that this meeting should simply be a touch base meeting where everyone shares what their major goals for the week are. Then as a team you look over your metrics and check to see that you are on task. There are to be no new items brought to the table. This meeting is simply to go over the day to day details and to measure where you are at with your goals and metrics. This meeting should only last 45 minutes.

Meeting 3: Monthly strategic

This meeting has an agenda that has been set in advance and is given to everyone at least two weeks in advance. There are only one or two items that are to be discussed and worked on. These two items may have required some research and thought that went into the meeting by each individual prior to the meeting. So that when conversation is started everyone has something to bring to the table. This also creates a little bit of a stir amongst your staff as everyone is communicating and feels like they are a part of the overall team. This meeting should only last 2-4 hours.

Meeting 4: Quarterly Meeting

The meeting for Youth Ministers. This is our chance to get out of the office and disconnect for 1-2 days. This is the meeting where you would look at your overall goals, strategy, calendar, implementation of new ideas and team development. This is not your social event as a staff. It is designed to be work intensive so that you can accomplish what needs to be done and assist you in the other meetings to come during the next 3 months. This is your big idea meeting.

While many of you are thinking about this as, I don’t want to attend that many meetings, I thought this book would get rid of meetings. I really believe that reading this book will open you mind to ways that meetings can be lead and create great conversations and get rid of the boring, waste of time meetings. Inside the story that is being told and the concept that is then laid out in the end you will learn how to have fun in your meetings and ways to put it all on the table. Don’t leave your meeting knowing that you made everyone happy, that is not leadership.

All in all this was a great book and one that will be a classic read over and over again. I have added some resources to help you lead out in these types of meetings. Check out the resource page.