Live Wire.
A short email from Defib about meetings: one fix, one question to steal, and what we shipped. A new issue is planned every two weeks, and every issue is published here too.
We email you a link first, and nothing is kept until you click it. Every issue has a one-click unsubscribe. The first two issues were published under the old name, Vital Signs.
The survey nobody opens.
The fix: show people what their answers did
Most staff surveys are not ignored because people are busy. They are ignored because last year’s answers went nowhere anyone could see. Ask a room for its view, say nothing back, and the room learns that answering is a waste of a minute. Next time fewer people answer, and the ones who do say less.
The cure is small and dull, which is why it works. When a result tells you something, decide one thing you will do about it. Say it out loud. Then, at the start of a later meeting, show that it is done: “You said the stand-up ran long. We cut it to fifteen minutes.”
In Pulse this is “You said, we did”. You note an action against a result, and once it is done it appears on the join screen of your next meetings, before the first question.
People answer when answers go somewhere.
One question to steal
“Did last month’s change help?” Yes or no. Ask it once a month, worded the same way every time. One answer tells you little. Six months of them, side by side, tell you whether things are getting better. Pulse draws the line for you: any question asked in more than one meeting gets a trend on the Analytics page.
What is new
This letter has a new name, Live Wire (it was Vital Signs), and it now comes by email: get your own copy. We email you a link first, nothing is kept until you click it, and every issue has a one-click unsubscribe.
Defib is in early access. Every change is written down in plain words under What’s new.
Until next time
Tell us about a meeting that has gone quiet: clear@getdefib.com. A person reads these.
No flatlines.
The same three people.
The fix: let everyone answer at once
In most meetings a handful of people do the talking. They are not wrong to; someone has to. But it means the room hears three views and takes them for the whole.
The cure is not asking the quiet ones to speak up. It is changing the order. Ask the question, have everyone answer at the same moment from their own phone, and only then talk. Now the loud voices are reacting to the room, and not the other way round.
It also takes care of a quieter problem: the first answer said aloud bends the ones after it. When everyone answers before anyone speaks, nobody is following anybody.
One question to steal
“One word for this week?” Ask it as a word cloud in the first minute. Each person can give up to three words, and the ones that repeat grow on the screen. There are eleven more on the One good question page.
What is new
Meetings in Pulse now start with a heartbeat. Give a session a start time and every phone shows the time ticking down, with the last ten seconds full screen. When the first question opens, every screen counts three, two, one together. It is all listed under What’s new.
Until next time
Tell us about a meeting where the room surprised you: hello@getdefib.com.
No flatlines.
The silence after “any questions?”
The fix: stop asking “any questions?”
It is the most common question in meetings and the least answered. It asks people to go first, in public, and admit they did not follow. So nobody does, and the meeting ends with everyone a little less sure than they look.
Try this instead. Before you close, put one question on the screen: “How clear is the plan, 0 to 10?” Let people answer from their phones without their names attached. If the room says 8, you are done. If it says 5, you have just saved yourself a fortnight of quiet confusion, and you have ten minutes left to find out why.
You can do this with paper. We built Pulse so you do not have to count it.
One question to steal
“What should we stop doing?” Ask it as open text and hold it for the end of the meeting. Read every answer. Then drop one thing, and say so next week.
What is new
Defib is in early access, and admissions are open: you can open a free workspace at defib.live/admissions, with no card and no call. Nothing is on sale. Or just vote in a live poll at defib.live/try. A simulated room answers alongside you, nobody asks your name, and it takes about half a minute.
We ship often and write down every change in plain words: see What’s new. There are also ten ready-made polls to copy, and a calculator for what that meeting cost.
Until next time
If you run a meeting that has gone quiet, write to hello@getdefib.com and tell us about it. A person reads these.
No flatlines.