Why Pivotal Meetings Matter

By Laura Gramling, President, EnSpark Consulting

Read more about how we’ll support your next pivotal meeting here.

There are ordinary meetings, and there are pivotal meetings. A pivotal meeting brings leaders together to explicitly shift the direction of your organization. Say, taking advantage of new opportunities, or dealing with tough problems.

No matter the goals of your pivotal meeting, leaders should become more aligned and resolved for action by the end of it.

Done right, a pivotal meeting can accelerate change efforts.

A good pivotal meeting has three stages: Groundwork, the meeting itself, and post-meeting reinforcement.

Pivotal Meetings Stages

Groundwork: Pivot Point Analysis

Pre-meeting work involves fact-finding and discovery of the core issues – the pivot point analysis. Armed with organizational data, a series of short structured interviews with key leaders and an environmental scan, you start unlocking the drivers of change, the essentials come into focus, and the meeting itself becomes immensely more productive.

Pivotal Meeting: Focus on Context and Design

The pivotal meeting itself must run differently than the usual sort of meeting, so you emphasize the need for change.

Outcomes of a Pivotal Meeting

Clarity on our vision and purpose (our BIG why)
Agility and structure for actions
Leadership resolve and commitment
Blueprint for proactive rapid strategy development

Professional facilitation is essential as is a collaborative meeting design.

From the start, the pivotal meeting enables profound, action-driven dialogues, provides everyone a voice, and enables leaders to step up, be accountable and generate innovative solutions.

In many cases, this means enabling small group conversations that dig into the issues, and bring back conclusions to the larger group. In larger meetings (60 plus leaders), a “theme team” can present top leaders with key issues in real time to enable a more complete picture to emerge.

Broadening participation is key. The pivotal meeting becomes the moment of shift, and having the right mix of those who will implement next steps and those who bring diverse viewpoints accelerates implementation and accelerates results.

Post-Meeting: Reinforcement

For implementation to generate innovation and improvements:

A new narrative must take hold. How we operate, what we do, and our BIG why must cascade throughout the organization.
All leaders must be committed to the pivot, and be held accountable for enabling results.
Individuals must know their roles, and understand how their actions contribute and align to success.
Both informal and formal structures must be developed to generate a flurry of immediate improvements with an eye toward sustainable and reliable solutions.
Structures must be inspired – contributing and aligning to the pivot.

Tap EnSpark when you need results, fast:

Facilitating Pivotal Meetings is our consulting calling card.

With professionally facilitation at top leader retreats, all-hands meetings, and innovation workshops, we ensure leaders succeed, develop critical paths forward, and inspire action and team resolve.