The Meeting Practice – Small-Group Cohort
Become more capable of changing what happens in the meetings you are already in
Most of us have these experiences too many times to count: meetings where the stated objective obscures the actual situation, hours spent without arriving at a decision, conflict that is avoided or escalated without the tools to work through real disagreement. We have sat through meetings where the real issues or emotions go unspoken and through meetings that feel unproductive even though nobody can quite agree on why. Even that recurring meeting that is fine – but that you’ve always suspected could be much better.
Next cohort: October 21, 28 & November 4 · $450 self-paid / $650 employer-paid · 5–8 participants
One real meeting. Three sessions. A small group of experienced peers.
The Meeting Practice is a small, highly participatory cohort built around real meetings from participants' working lives. Over three sessions, you'll choose one recurring meeting from your work and use it as a laboratory. You'll pay attention differently, experiment with how you participate, learn practical tools for deepening your presence and influence, and share what you're discovering with a group of thoughtful, experienced peers. Each person brings a different meeting, and their own voice, hesitancies and confidences. You'll hear how others are working through similar problems, share your own observations, challenges, and approaches and take in theirs.
“A great way to refresh and look at your work day-to-day through the eyes of others and at a different altitude.”
What we’ll work on:
We’ll learn to support greater clarity about purpose, agenda, decisions and outcomes – and get better at recognizing what’s preventing a meeting from addressing what actually matters.
We’ll practice candor by learning to surface the emotional dynamics that can help us understand what’s really at stake – or prevent a group from addressing it.
We’ll cultivate greater presence through attunement, active listening and awareness of our own reactions, so we can notice what’s actually happening in the room without getting pulled into reactivity or defensiveness.
We’ll build our capacity to show up and stay authentic to ourselves under pressure and exercise greater agency over how we respond.
By the end of the cohort, you should have a clearer understanding of what’s happening in your chosen meeting, a larger repertoire of ways to intervene, greater confidence in sticking with difficult conversations and the direct experience of how changing the way you show up can change what happens in a room.
My hope is that you leave with a higher standard for the meetings you participate in: an expectation that you can help make the time we spend together at work worthwhile.
Is this for me?
The Meeting Practice is designed for experienced professionals who spend meaningful time working with other people and have enough influence to experiment with how they participate. You might lead your chosen meeting, manage some of the people in it, or participate as an individual contributor. You don't need to control the meeting, and you don't need “facilitator” in your title. You do need a specific, recurring meeting to work on, curiosity about both the practical and human dynamics at play, and a willingness to examine your own participation – not just everyone else's.
Fall cohort Details
Three 90-minute Zoom sessions
5–8 participants. The cohort runs with five or more
Wednesdays, noon–1:30 p.m. Pacific
October 21, October 28 & November 4
$450 if you're paying personally, $650 if your company is covering it.
Participants bring one recurring meeting to work with and experiment between sessions. This is participatory rather than lecture-heavy, so attendance at all three sessions matters.
Registration closes October 16. If we haven't reached five by then, I'll let you know and we'll move to later dates. You won't be charged until the cohort is confirmed.
Have a question? Get in touch.
Interested, but these dates don't work? Tell me what would.
