Survey Says: Make Meetings More Effective With Participant Evaluations

Recently, I worked with a client to make 2 charts to use in their division meeting. They were a family physicians group out of BC, and we created visuals that compared the before and after of a community support initiative they planned to discuss.

We also did a graphic recording of the live discussion during the meeting. They talked about issues of attachment, and multi-disciplinary and hospital care. They presented charts. They shared ideas. They took questions. It was your typical business discussion.

But then, before everyone was adjourned, the participants were asked to fill out an evaluation, which I thought was a really great idea. You know, you’re always asked for your feedback at workshops and conferences, but not so much in business meetings. When you think about it though, it makes a lot of sense.

If you don’t ask participants about your meetings, how do you know you’re being as effective as you can be? 

The family physicians group shared their results with me. It was really great to get feedback from the entire group and see that over 95% of them agreed that graphic recording improved their understanding. Plus, more than 80% of them recommended using graphics again.

What their results show is, if you’re not using visual aids in your meetings, you may not be getting your point across as clearly as you think you are.

The facts are:

• Approximately 65% of the population are visual learners.
• The brain processes visual information 60,000 times faster than text.
• 90% of information that comes to the brain is visual.
• 40% of all nerve fibers connected to the brain are linked to the retina.

Check in with your team and see what kind of learners they are. More than likely, a large percentage of them will absorb information best with visual techniques.

When is the last time you asked your team for their thoughts on ways to make your meetings more effective? Are you sure you’re presenting information in the best format to engage people and get your message to stick?

Try out some visual techniques in your next meeting and collect participant evaluations. Not only will your team appreciate how you value their feedback, you can use the data to learn how to present information so they understand and retain more than ever before.

If you want suggestions on how to add exciting graphic elements to your next meeting, click here http://lisaarora.com/getthepicture.ca/contact-get-the-picture/ to set up a conversation with us.