What little league baseball taught me about meetings

Just south of Birmingham, Alabama is a town called Alabaster. This is where I spent my childhood.  Alabaster is a place where little league baseball reigns supreme. I can’t remember a summer when I wasn't on the field. That is, until 1994. I was ten years old and told my dad I didn’t want to play that year. He was shocked, but I made sure he understood that I was done with baseball.  Fast forward a year to the summer of 1995 and I have the itch again. I want to get back out on the field.  I tell my dad I want to try out and he looks at me a little confused. I had no idea why.  Now as an adult, I totally understand.  For 12 months, I hadn’t touched a baseball, bat or glove and now tryouts were about a week away. My dad lovingly takes me to the field for tryouts that Saturday. Tryouts were simple. Hit some, field some, and throw some all while the coaches watched.  I stepped onto the field, grabbed a bat and stood in the batter’s box. Pitch after pitch came and I swung, but nothing. Not a single hit! I ran out to the field. Ground ball after ground ball, multiples went through my legs. Fly balls hit at me and I couldn’t read them. I was devastated. I had no idea what happened.  How could something I had done all my life just simply disappear?

Oftentimes, this is exactly what our meetings feel like. I’ve done these a million times, why do I need to prepare? The people you have invited to your meeting are counting on you to make it worth their time.  And there is nothing worse than a meeting that hasn’t been thought through. 

Start with the end result. What do you want as an outcome when you leave the room?  To get this outcome, is it better to have a large group? A large group broken into smaller teams?  A small team? 

Once you figure out who is in the room and how they will interact, use this process

• Make the problem clear

• Why is it important?

• What can we do about it?

• How will we do it?

• When will we do it?

This needs to be done for every meeting.  You can’t go a few meetings without grabbing a baseball, bat or glove.  You must create a meeting routine as a leader.