Lindsey Caplan is a screenwriter turned Organizational Psychologist who helps business Leaders design gatherings and change programs for the effect they want.
In this episode of The Leader Assistant Podcast, Lindsey talks about gathering teams for transformation, designing memorable offsites, and why offsites are important for cultivating a healthy workplace.
LEADERSHIP QUOTE
The place I work is in my head. To try to reach someone else’s.
– Jerry Seinfeld
CONNECT WITH LINDSEY
ABOUT LINDSEY
Lindsey Caplan is a screenwriter turned Organizational Psychologist who helps HR and Business Leaders design gatherings and change programs for the effect they want. Her forthcoming book, The Gathering Effect, is based on her consulting practice, research, and 20+ years of experience gathering across entertainment, education, and business.
NOTES TAKEN BY JEREMY DURING THE CONVERSATION
3 Tips for Effective Gatherings
-
- Desired Effect/Outcome
- So what? What does success look like? Fast forward 30 days after the offsite, how will we know we were successful? Tell us a story of what that would look like?
- No more than 3 outcomes
- An Agenda is the LAST Thing You Should Do
- 1 activity or experience per effect/outcome
- A central question that you’re solving, which guides the offsite toward the same direction (what is our Q4 plan? How do we gain trust amongst the team?)
- Landing the Plane
- Do NOT rush or hurry the ending
- Finish offsite by focusing on integration vs information sharing (use questions)
- After the event = plan the after-show
- Already have it on the calendar, assign to members of team
- Desired Effect/Outcome
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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00.500 –> 00:00:03.220
JEREMY: Person-Meeting Planning can be a lot to manage.
00:00:03.220 –> 00:00:05.940
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00:00:05.940 –> 00:00:10.560
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00:00:10.560 –> 00:00:19.640
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00:00:19.640 –> 00:00:34.480
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00:00:34.480 –> 00:00:41.140
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00:00:41.140 –> 00:00:45.180
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00:00:46.280 –> 00:00:47.740
LINDSEY: Hi, I’m Lindsey Caplan.
00:00:47.740 –> 00:00:55.280
LINDSEY: Today’s leadership quote comes from Jerry Seinfeld, who says, The place I like to work in my head to try to reach someone else’s.
00:01:01.450 –> 00:01:09.050
<v SPEAKER_3>The Leader Assistant Podcast exists to encourage and challenge assistants to become confident, game-changing leader assistants.
00:01:18.132 –> 00:01:25.132
JEREMY: Hey friends, my best-selling book, The Leader Assistant, has a companion study and discussion guide to go along with it.
00:01:25.132 –> 00:01:27.832
JEREMY: It’s called The Leader Assistant Workbook.
00:01:27.832 –> 00:01:41.412
JEREMY: Now, you can buy the Kindle ebook version of The Leader Assistant Workbook on Amazon, or you can go to leaderassistantbook.com and get a printable PDF version of the workbook.
00:01:41.412 –> 00:01:50.052
JEREMY: This version has all the space and margin in between the questions that you can write your own answers and take notes with.
00:01:50.052 –> 00:01:57.492
JEREMY: So it’s a great way to print it out and keep track of your discussion and study guide notes.
00:01:57.492 –> 00:02:04.672
JEREMY: Again, go to leaderassistantbook.com and click on Workbook to check out The Leader Assistant Workbook.
00:02:04.672 –> 00:02:07.032
JEREMY: Hey, friends, welcome to The Leader Assistant Podcast.
00:02:07.032 –> 00:02:13.612
JEREMY: It’s episode 320, and you can check out the show notes for this conversation at leaderassistant.com/320.
00:02:16.152 –> 00:02:17.412
JEREMY: That’s leaderassistant.com/320.
00:02:21.232 –> 00:02:24.412
JEREMY: And today, I’m very excited to be speaking with Lindsey Caplan.
00:02:24.412 –> 00:02:36.692
JEREMY: Lindsey is a screenwriter turned organizational psychologist who helps HR and business leaders design gatherings and change programs for the effect they want.
00:02:36.692 –> 00:02:41.452
JEREMY: Lindsey, thank you so much for coming on the show, and we’re excited to chat.
00:02:41.452 –> 00:02:49.312
JEREMY: Why don’t you tell everybody where you’re from and where you currently live, and then maybe what your favorite thing to do outside of work is.
00:02:49.312 –> 00:02:49.812
LINDSEY: Awesome.
00:02:49.812 –> 00:02:51.092
LINDSEY: Well, thanks for having me, Jeremy.
00:02:51.092 –> 00:02:52.312
LINDSEY: It’s great to be here.
00:02:52.312 –> 00:02:54.052
LINDSEY: And my name is Lindsey Caplan.
00:02:54.052 –> 00:02:56.572
LINDSEY: I’m actually based in the San Francisco Bay Area.
00:02:56.572 –> 00:03:02.252
LINDSEY: This is where I’m from originally, although I’ve tried on a few other cities for size.
00:03:02.272 –> 00:03:08.392
LINDSEY: And one of my favorite things to do outside of work, I’m a huge baseball fan, huge, huge baseball fan.
00:03:08.592 –> 00:03:19.232
LINDSEY: So I love going to Giants games and watching baseball and hoping one day my team gets back to the World Series, but I think it’s going to be a while.
00:03:19.232 –> 00:03:19.672
JEREMY: Nice.
00:03:19.672 –> 00:03:24.552
JEREMY: Well, I actually got to take my boys to San Francisco last year.
00:03:24.552 –> 00:03:29.952
JEREMY: And we went to a Giants game and set up in the upper deck and got to look at the Bay and everything.
00:03:29.952 –> 00:03:37.032
JEREMY: And then one of my assistant friends is a, I don’t remember the name of the club, but there’s some club that the Giants have.
00:03:37.192 –> 00:03:38.792
JEREMY: And she’s a member of it.
00:03:38.792 –> 00:03:44.072
JEREMY: And she got to take us back behind the scoreboard in right field.
00:03:44.072 –> 00:03:49.272
JEREMY: And we got to kind of see all the, how they manually change the scores and keep track of the games.
00:03:49.272 –> 00:03:52.812
JEREMY: And so anyway, it was a beautiful ballpark.
00:03:52.812 –> 00:03:54.352
JEREMY: And I’m a big baseball guy too.
00:03:54.352 –> 00:04:00.332
JEREMY: So that’s great to hear that you like to spend some time at the ballpark as well.
00:04:00.332 –> 00:04:01.592
LINDSEY: That is so cool.
00:04:01.592 –> 00:04:02.352
LINDSEY: Lucky you.
00:04:02.352 –> 00:04:04.452
LINDSEY: I’ve never been able to do that, but now I want to.
00:04:04.452 –> 00:04:05.592
LINDSEY: I want to see behind the scenes.
00:04:06.012 –> 00:04:07.752
LINDSEY: But yeah, it is a nice ballpark.
00:04:07.752 –> 00:04:09.892
LINDSEY: So we’ll take that.
00:04:09.892 –> 00:04:10.992
JEREMY: Awesome.
00:04:10.992 –> 00:04:15.032
JEREMY: Well, tell us a little bit about your career.
00:04:15.032 –> 00:04:21.432
JEREMY: As I mentioned from your bio, you’re a screenwriter turned organizational psychologist.
00:04:21.432 –> 00:04:24.092
JEREMY: So that’s a little bit of a change, I would say.
00:04:24.092 –> 00:04:32.252
JEREMY: So tell us a little bit about how you got into the screenwriting world and why you transitioned over to organizational psychologist.
00:04:32.252 –> 00:04:32.532
LINDSEY: Yeah.
00:04:32.532 –> 00:04:33.672
LINDSEY: What the heck is that, right?
00:04:33.752 –> 00:04:36.292
LINDSEY: That’s kind of, you don’t hear that transition every day.
00:04:36.292 –> 00:04:36.552
LINDSEY: Sure.
00:04:36.552 –> 00:04:37.712
LINDSEY: I’ll start.
00:04:38.752 –> 00:04:40.092
LINDSEY: I’ll go back in time a little bit.
00:04:40.092 –> 00:04:42.572
LINDSEY: A long time ago in college, I studied screenwriting.
00:04:42.572 –> 00:04:46.152
LINDSEY: I wanted to be a TV writer and moved to Hollywood to try to do that.
00:04:46.452 –> 00:04:50.932
LINDSEY: I quickly discovered there was something missing from that dream.
00:04:50.932 –> 00:05:00.952
LINDSEY: Long, long story short, I found my way into learning and development and realized it was more meaningful to develop people in real life than maybe just characters on a page.
00:05:03.052 –> 00:05:09.352
LINDSEY: I was learning how to gather to entertain people and then how to educate them in learning and development.
00:05:09.352 –> 00:05:16.672
LINDSEY: Then I went and got my master’s in organizational psychology, where amongst other things, I learned how to gather people for transformation.
00:05:17.532 –> 00:05:24.552
LINDSEY: Over the course of my career, which now spans about 20 years, the gathering theme has been consistent.
00:05:24.552 –> 00:05:31.292
LINDSEY: How do we put people in our room and give them a piece of content and I hope that it poof changes them?
00:05:31.292 –> 00:05:56.032
LINDSEY: Over the years, I’ve learned how to design gatherings for different effects, which brought me to my current role, which is as the founder and lead consultant of the gathering effect, where I use all of those different pieces of my background, whether it’s communication, learning and development, or organizational psychology to design or redesign off-sites, all-hands, town halls, onboarding programs, leadership development programs, etc.
00:05:58.172 –> 00:06:00.392
LINDSEY: to achieve the effect that companies want.
00:06:00.392 –> 00:06:06.152
LINDSEY: So brief story of the past 20 years, but a very rewarding one for myself.
00:06:06.152 –> 00:06:06.552
JEREMY: Nice.
00:06:07.072 –> 00:06:14.072
JEREMY: Do you have any claims to fame in your screenwriting career shows that people might recognize?
00:06:14.072 –> 00:06:14.512
<v SPEAKER_3>Yes.
00:06:14.512 –> 00:06:17.532
LINDSEY: I briefly worked on Kirby or Enthusiasm.
00:06:17.532 –> 00:06:20.072
LINDSEY: I don’t know if you’ve seen that show.
00:06:21.232 –> 00:06:22.292
LINDSEY: It was so long ago.
00:06:22.292 –> 00:06:32.452
LINDSEY: The only thing I remember, and I hope I’m allowed to say this, and I don’t think I’ve actually ever said this on the podcast, is just we weren’t allowed to touch Larry David’s food drawer.
00:06:32.452 –> 00:06:40.612
LINDSEY: He had a very specific diet and there was a section of the fridge and kitchen that was only for him, and we weren’t allowed to touch that part of the fridge.
00:06:40.612 –> 00:06:43.052
LINDSEY: So that’s my most distinct memory.
00:06:44.152 –> 00:06:47.092
LINDSEY: Anyway, but yeah, it was a good time.
00:06:47.092 –> 00:06:47.972
JEREMY: Awesome.
00:06:47.972 –> 00:06:48.572
JEREMY: Thanks for sharing.
00:06:50.912 –> 00:07:01.032
JEREMY: Well, we’re going to talk a lot about the idea of crafting worthwhile offsites and gatherings for teams.
00:07:01.032 –> 00:07:13.692
JEREMY: As an executive assistant, we find ourselves scheduling these offsites or coordinating these offsites, and that can come down to the venue and the hotel and the food and all that.
00:07:13.692 –> 00:07:19.312
JEREMY: But that’s just the logistical, practical things of a gathering.
00:07:19.312 –> 00:07:32.732
JEREMY: And oftentimes, we’re also sitting in the room with our leadership team or our CEO or our C-suite executive trying to figure out, okay, how can we make this offsite worthwhile?
00:07:32.732 –> 00:07:34.612
JEREMY: How can we keep our team engaged?
00:07:34.612 –> 00:07:44.072
JEREMY: How can we really inspire change that lasts from, you know, when we go to the offsite and we have this meeting, we’re all together.
00:07:44.672 –> 00:07:53.612
JEREMY: And then when we come back to our day-to-day grind, what did we do in that gathering to cause lasting change?
00:07:53.612 –> 00:08:00.052
JEREMY: And so, this is, at least from my understanding, this is what you are a specialist in.
00:08:00.052 –> 00:08:17.992
JEREMY: And I know that assistants maybe don’t always or maybe they don’t have the, you know, high, like, the buck doesn’t stop with us necessarily, but we do have a lot of influence, and we do coordinate a lot of that with our executives.
00:08:17.992 –> 00:08:32.712
JEREMY: And so, how can we help our CEOs and our principals and our executives create these gatherings for transformation or craft these worthwhile offsites?
00:08:32.712 –> 00:08:34.512
LINDSEY: Exactly, I think you said it very well.
00:08:34.512 –> 00:08:49.992
LINDSEY: And two things, one, I think that the question of the podcast or maybe the question I ask a lot of folks is, would you pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for an offsite that employees said they liked the next day but forgot about a week later?
00:08:49.992 –> 00:08:53.452
LINDSEY: And believe it or not, that’s pretty common.
00:08:53.452 –> 00:09:00.672
LINDSEY: And so, my hope is in this podcast, I wouldn’t be a good learning development person if I didn’t say, I hope you leave with three takeaways.
00:09:00.672 –> 00:09:03.232
LINDSEY: So I’m going to share three tips or three takeaways.
00:09:03.232 –> 00:09:05.032
LINDSEY: I hope you leave with one.
00:09:05.032 –> 00:09:11.092
LINDSEY: But I’d love to give some concrete tips on how to avoid what I just described because it is possible.
00:09:11.832 –> 00:09:22.872
LINDSEY: And secondarily, I think you’re right, an EA, an assistant may not always be the ultimate decider here and be responsible for this kind of success only on their shoulders.
00:09:22.872 –> 00:09:36.932
LINDSEY: However, I hope I’m speaking to the strategist, the gatekeeper, the leader in all of us in this role, who can have influence and really support and guide in this way.
00:09:37.472 –> 00:09:43.792
LINDSEY: So, you’re the quality control person and we can play a big role in helping to educate folks.
00:09:43.792 –> 00:09:44.712
JEREMY: Yeah, that sounds great.
00:09:44.712 –> 00:09:55.652
JEREMY: So, I think we should dive right in and, you know, those three takeaways, I know assistants like myself, we love practical takeaways.
00:09:55.652 –> 00:09:57.412
JEREMY: Sounds like a good plan.
00:09:57.412 –> 00:09:59.352
LINDSEY: That’s my goal.
00:09:59.352 –> 00:10:07.512
LINDSEY: Sure, let me just give a little bit of setup as to the problem space, if I can and why this is important and then I’ll dive into some of these tips.
00:10:07.512 –> 00:10:13.312
LINDSEY: So, I’ve been designing off-sites or leading off-sites and gatherings for a long time.
00:10:13.312 –> 00:10:17.692
LINDSEY: And I think especially post-COVID, I see kind of two trends here.
00:10:17.692 –> 00:10:22.552
LINDSEY: I see off-sites that are designed to sort of solve for the kitchen sink.
00:10:22.552 –> 00:10:24.912
LINDSEY: Like we want this to solve for everything.
00:10:24.912 –> 00:10:31.352
LINDSEY: We don’t get people together in person very often and so we wanted to do everything, alignment and trust and cohesion and goal setting.
00:10:31.412 –> 00:10:33.492
LINDSEY: And that’s what I call the kitchen sink.
00:10:33.492 –> 00:10:39.152
LINDSEY: The other side of the spectrum is casual, where let’s bring people to Mexico and have a party.
00:10:39.152 –> 00:10:41.592
LINDSEY: I’m speaking today about the kitchen sink off-site, right?
00:10:41.592 –> 00:10:49.352
LINDSEY: The ones that are meant to solve, you know, I don’t want to say just business problems, because I think hopefully both are meant to solve business problems.
00:10:49.352 –> 00:10:52.932
LINDSEY: But more where the challenge is just we have so much that we want to do.
00:10:52.932 –> 00:10:55.852
LINDSEY: How do we avoid this off-site being a panacea?
00:10:55.852 –> 00:10:58.572
LINDSEY: Because if it solves for everything, it’s really going to solve for nothing.
00:10:58.572 –> 00:11:00.532
LINDSEY: So that’s something I want to describe.
00:11:00.592 –> 00:11:03.792
LINDSEY: And then also, why is this important?
00:11:03.792 –> 00:11:06.152
LINDSEY: Well, offsites are expensive.
00:11:06.152 –> 00:11:08.072
LINDSEY: We talked about that.
00:11:08.072 –> 00:11:20.872
LINDSEY: And also, I think more and more what I’m seeing is these offsites are our culture, our organizational culture on display, more than they were probably before the pandemic or maybe before some companies went remote or hybrid.
00:11:20.872 –> 00:11:29.152
LINDSEY: Because you don’t have as many chances to share what you care about to sort of see how other leaders are acting, to sort of walk the talk.
00:11:29.652 –> 00:11:42.212
LINDSEY: And so, again, I think the message here is if you’re going to your principal, sort of helping to educate them on why this is important, I hope I’m also arming you with some information about why we should pay attention.
00:11:42.212 –> 00:11:45.152
LINDSEY: So I’ll start there.
00:11:45.152 –> 00:11:46.712
JEREMY: That’s great.
00:11:46.712 –> 00:11:48.612
JEREMY: Makes a lot of sense.
00:11:48.612 –> 00:11:51.872
LINDSEY: I’m sure you can relate or I’m hoping you can relate to this.
00:11:51.872 –> 00:12:00.872
LINDSEY: And I’d love to hear more if you want to share too about what you’ve experienced, but should I dive into some of the tips?
00:12:00.872 –> 00:12:02.712
JEREMY: Yeah, that sounds great.
00:12:02.712 –> 00:12:03.132
LINDSEY: Awesome.
00:12:03.132 –> 00:12:10.152
LINDSEY: So I think the first tip is to focus on the desired effect that you want to create, not just the content.
00:12:10.152 –> 00:12:12.092
LINDSEY: Yes, my company is called The Gathering Effect.
00:12:12.092 –> 00:12:16.432
LINDSEY: That’s not the only reason why I suggest we focus on this.
00:12:16.432 –> 00:12:27.952
LINDSEY: I think what I tend to see, companies come to me and they hand me a four-page long agenda or ideas of activities or 12 things they want to solve for.
00:12:28.672 –> 00:12:30.712
LINDSEY: The kitchen sink, I should say.
00:12:30.712 –> 00:12:35.652
LINDSEY: I often remind folks that what we’re going for is effectiveness, not just efficiency.
00:12:37.172 –> 00:12:47.892
LINDSEY: Instead of starting with activities or content or guest speakers or topics, to really help your principle get clear on the desired effect.
00:12:47.892 –> 00:12:49.032
LINDSEY: What do I mean by that?
00:12:49.032 –> 00:12:55.512
LINDSEY: I mean the so what, the pain points, what we’re solving for, what success looks like.
00:12:57.712 –> 00:13:10.272
LINDSEY: A few ways to do this or a few ways to help them get clearer or to ask questions like, fast forward a week or 30 days or three months after the offsite, how will we know that we’re successful?
00:13:10.712 –> 00:13:11.972
LINDSEY: Can you give me an example?
00:13:11.972 –> 00:13:15.512
LINDSEY: Can you tell me a story of the before and after?
00:13:15.512 –> 00:13:28.492
LINDSEY: We want to use stories to illustrate what we’re going after versus descriptive words or adjectives like cohesion or alignment, because those don’t really tell us too much.
00:13:28.492 –> 00:13:32.852
LINDSEY: If I were to look through a camera lens, how would I know if the offsite is successful?
00:13:32.852 –> 00:13:34.652
LINDSEY: There’s a couple of questions.
00:13:34.852 –> 00:13:45.972
LINDSEY: Another way to do this is to ask for or source critical incidences that this executive or your principal is experiencing or the company is experiencing.
00:13:47.992 –> 00:13:51.452
LINDSEY: To really gut-check with other people and other stakeholders, is this an issue?
00:13:51.452 –> 00:13:52.972
LINDSEY: Is this what we’re solving for?
00:13:52.972 –> 00:13:56.112
LINDSEY: Or again, to get crystal clear on how this shows up for people.
00:13:56.112 –> 00:14:04.872
LINDSEY: The more real and concrete the quote-unquote pain, the more motivated people will be to be a part of the solution.
00:14:04.872 –> 00:14:10.072
LINDSEY: I think what we want to do is create offsites that pull people in and not just push content at them.
00:14:10.552 –> 00:14:16.452
LINDSEY: I’ll stop there, but that’s really, I think, a very important tip that often gets ignored.
00:14:17.492 –> 00:14:44.672
JEREMY: Yeah, so like, instead of, hey, we’re going to overwhelm you with a firehose of awesome content and speakers and resources, you’re starting with, hey, we’re going to walk away from this gathering with ABC, or we’re going to, here’s the problem that we’re going to solve with this offsite.
00:14:44.672 –> 00:14:45.552
JEREMY: Is that what you’re saying?
00:14:46.232 –> 00:14:49.292
LINDSEY: Absolutely, and I think it probably sounds obvious.
00:14:49.292 –> 00:14:56.052
LINDSEY: However, I often see this part skipped because it’s hard to get clear on this.
00:14:56.052 –> 00:15:07.272
LINDSEY: I think offsite is a very common tool that we use to solve a myriad of problems, but we don’t always know what we’re looking for it to do.
00:15:09.412 –> 00:15:11.112
JEREMY: That’s just what you’re supposed to do, right?
00:15:11.112 –> 00:15:13.672
JEREMY: You’re supposed to get everybody together and have an offsite.
00:15:14.232 –> 00:15:16.392
LINDSEY: Let’s have an expensive field trip.
00:15:18.492 –> 00:15:20.652
LINDSEY: Yes, I had talked about what’s at stake, but there’s more.
00:15:20.652 –> 00:15:23.372
LINDSEY: There’s employee trust, there’s morale, there’s motivation.
00:15:23.372 –> 00:15:26.992
LINDSEY: Asking people to fly across the country and leave their families for a few days.
00:15:26.992 –> 00:15:37.652
LINDSEY: This is something to take very seriously, and the core challenge, I think, of this work is to take what’s important to the principal or the executive and help it become important to everybody else.
00:15:37.652 –> 00:15:46.452
LINDSEY: Getting clear on what we want to solve for and getting people bought into the solution is a really important way to do that, and it happens by spending a little bit more time clarifying the desired outcome.
00:15:46.452 –> 00:15:53.392
LINDSEY: So in our role as strategist, I think, and gatekeeper, I think this is something that we can really help people do.
00:15:53.392 –> 00:15:55.772
JEREMY: Yeah, well said.
00:15:57.072 –> 00:15:58.952
LINDSEY: So that’s one tip.
00:15:59.012 –> 00:16:05.152
LINDSEY: And last thing I’ll say here is, yes, my background very, very long time ago was as a screenwriter.
00:16:05.152 –> 00:16:07.512
LINDSEY: It’s kind of similar to how you start writing movies.
00:16:10.292 –> 00:16:16.172
LINDSEY: You often want to know what happens at the very end, and what happens at the end of the movie, and then you work backwards.
00:16:16.172 –> 00:16:18.272
LINDSEY: So who does his character have to meet?
00:16:18.272 –> 00:16:20.572
LINDSEY: What kind of experiences do they have to have?
00:16:20.572 –> 00:16:22.012
LINDSEY: What are they motivated by?
00:16:22.832 –> 00:16:27.552
LINDSEY: You start with the end in mind versus put people in a room and let’s see what happens.
00:16:27.552 –> 00:16:30.432
LINDSEY: So same muscles and principles apply.
00:16:30.432 –> 00:16:31.132
JEREMY: Yeah.
00:16:31.132 –> 00:16:33.972
LINDSEY: So that’s one tip.
00:16:33.972 –> 00:16:40.412
LINDSEY: And by the way, I’m trying to practice what I preach here, meaning we could talk about a lot of tips, right?
00:16:40.412 –> 00:16:47.252
LINDSEY: But in terms of effectiveness, I want to just leave us just with three.
00:16:47.252 –> 00:16:55.512
LINDSEY: So the second tip has to do with agendas, which I feel like is probably the thing that many of us look to as like our safety net.
00:16:55.512 –> 00:16:56.992
LINDSEY: Like, let’s just get an agenda.
00:16:56.992 –> 00:16:58.272
LINDSEY: Okay, I can help with the agenda.
00:16:58.272 –> 00:17:00.032
LINDSEY: Let’s put an agenda together.
00:17:00.032 –> 00:17:08.412
LINDSEY: And I’m going to offer a very controversial opinion, which is an agenda is really the last thing or one of the last things that we should be doing.
00:17:08.412 –> 00:17:13.252
LINDSEY: I liken it to the bag that you wrap a sandwich in.
00:17:13.252 –> 00:17:15.952
LINDSEY: First, we need all the ingredients of the sandwich.
00:17:15.952 –> 00:17:21.012
LINDSEY: We need the meat and the bread and the lettuce and tomato or whatever it is that you put on a sandwich.
00:17:21.012 –> 00:17:22.852
LINDSEY: It’s not the first thing that we do.
00:17:24.032 –> 00:17:27.912
LINDSEY: So a few sort of agenda tips.
00:17:28.552 –> 00:17:45.272
LINDSEY: Once you have your desired outcomes, it’s much easier to build an agenda because what you’re trying to do is create or suggest or hire for one discussion or activity or experience per outcome and or effect.
00:17:45.272 –> 00:17:51.752
LINDSEY: And I think you’re really going for depending on how much time you have, two, maybe three at the most outcomes, not 12.
00:17:51.752 –> 00:17:55.592
LINDSEY: So once you have those, then your agenda flows from there, right?
00:17:55.592 –> 00:18:03.192
LINDSEY: But you have to make sure that every single thing on your agenda ties obsessively back to one of those outcomes.
00:18:03.772 –> 00:18:10.532
LINDSEY: So in your role as the gatekeeper, my guess is, and Jeremy, I’d love for you to validate this, that this is true for you.
00:18:10.532 –> 00:18:13.792
LINDSEY: Everyone’s going to come to you with, oh, can I get a few minutes to talk?
00:18:13.792 –> 00:18:16.392
LINDSEY: Or how about we add this session?
00:18:16.392 –> 00:18:24.392
LINDSEY: And when you have clarity on your outcomes and your effect, it makes agenda crafting less personal and more purposeful.
00:18:24.392 –> 00:18:29.992
LINDSEY: So you know who to say no to and why, and who to say yes to.
00:18:29.992 –> 00:18:33.012
LINDSEY: And this goes not just to off sites, but town halls and all hands.
00:18:33.012 –> 00:18:36.632
LINDSEY: And it helps you have a really clear litmus test.
00:18:36.632 –> 00:18:41.872
LINDSEY: Maybe I’ll pause there, and I can offer more on agendas, but see if this is landing.
00:18:41.872 –> 00:18:42.892
LINDSEY: I’m curious.
00:18:42.892 –> 00:18:44.512
JEREMY: No, I think that’s super helpful.
00:18:44.512 –> 00:18:48.652
JEREMY: I like the idea of one activity or experience per outcome.
00:18:50.012 –> 00:19:04.012
JEREMY: And that kind of gives you guardrails for not overdoing it and saying, oh, we’re going to have these seven activities, and they’re all going to have different goals or different outcomes.
00:19:04.012 –> 00:19:07.972
JEREMY: So yeah, I think that’s super helpful and to the point, love it.
00:19:12.192 –> 00:19:21.212
JEREMY: The Ping Pong back and forth game of manually scheduling meetings is unnecessary and inefficient in today’s automated world.
00:19:21.212 –> 00:19:26.712
JEREMY: It’s time to embrace calendar automation for increased productivity and capacity.
00:19:27.492 –> 00:19:32.712
JEREMY: You Can Book Me by Capacity is my favorite automated booking solution.
00:19:32.712 –> 00:19:36.132
JEREMY: It’s a game changer for me and my executive.
00:19:36.132 –> 00:19:45.592
JEREMY: You can manage scheduling for your entire executive team, send automated reminders, add buffer time between appointments, and much more.
00:19:45.592 –> 00:19:53.912
JEREMY: You Can Book Me integrates with your existing Microsoft and Google calendars, so you can add automation without disrupting your current workflow.
00:19:54.552 –> 00:20:03.812
JEREMY: Go to leaderassistant.com/calendar to learn more and sign up for a free trial of this powerful scheduling automation tool.
00:20:03.812 –> 00:20:05.172
JEREMY: That’s leaderassistant.com/calendar.
00:20:12.092 –> 00:20:18.412
LINDSEY: It’s possible we may not solve the desired effect in one activity or one experience or one discussion.
00:20:18.412 –> 00:20:19.992
LINDSEY: We likely can’t.
00:20:21.552 –> 00:20:23.932
LINDSEY: But it’s a start, right?
00:20:23.932 –> 00:20:40.972
LINDSEY: A couple of other things to think about with agendas, because I know it’s probably the thing we think about when we think about off-sites, besides all the planning and logistics that go into it, is maybe think about your agenda as a central question that you’re solving.
00:20:40.972 –> 00:20:50.312
LINDSEY: Like, I keep sort of using my screenwriting background here, but I love shows like Severance or White Lotus, I don’t know if you’ve watched these shows.
00:20:50.312 –> 00:20:54.012
LINDSEY: But they have a central question that the whole series is answering.
00:20:54.012 –> 00:20:58.892
LINDSEY: So with White Lotus, it’s usually a question of who murdered who?
00:20:58.892 –> 00:21:01.612
LINDSEY: There’s always a murder at the beginning of White Lotus.
00:21:01.612 –> 00:21:03.572
LINDSEY: Or Severance, which is a great show.
00:21:03.572 –> 00:21:08.112
LINDSEY: I think one of the central questions is, what the heck is happening at Lubin Industries?
00:21:08.112 –> 00:21:14.252
LINDSEY: The reason I’m talking about central questions is, it’s something that sort of guides or wraps the entire series.
00:21:14.252 –> 00:21:18.632
LINDSEY: It peaks curiosity, keeps people involved to find out the answer to the very end.
00:21:18.632 –> 00:21:32.052
LINDSEY: And I think if we can design our agenda or offset around a central question, it could be really motivating and help guide the conversation of what we want to include.
00:21:32.052 –> 00:21:41.372
LINDSEY: So maybe consider either creating one central question for your agenda or delineating it by the questions that each section will answer.
00:21:41.772 –> 00:21:44.212
LINDSEY: So, you know, what is our Q4 plan?
00:21:45.272 –> 00:21:49.152
LINDSEY: Or how do we increase trust amongst this team?
00:21:49.152 –> 00:21:58.492
LINDSEY: And again, sort of framing things as questions versus issues gets other people interested and involved in wanting to support and be involved in the solution.
00:21:58.492 –> 00:22:02.352
LINDSEY: So, yeah, that’s some agenda stuff to consider.
00:22:02.352 –> 00:22:04.132
LINDSEY: Nice.
00:22:04.132 –> 00:22:04.472
JEREMY: Awesome.
00:22:04.472 –> 00:22:05.532
JEREMY: Yeah, that’s super helpful.
00:22:05.532 –> 00:22:08.252
JEREMY: I like the question forming things in questions.
00:22:10.152 –> 00:22:25.892
JEREMY: You know, I mentioned in my book and in several of my coaching talks and whatnot, the idea that like, it’s like, okay, what are some of the best conversations and most impactful conversations that you’ve had with people?
00:22:25.892 –> 00:22:30.952
JEREMY: And there’s a recurring theme throughout those.
00:22:30.952 –> 00:22:39.172
JEREMY: And it’s good questions like people, you know, or some of the best interviews that you’ve watched or listened to.
00:22:39.172 –> 00:22:42.332
JEREMY: It’s like, they all, the best therapy sessions you’ve been in.
00:22:42.332 –> 00:22:59.312
JEREMY: It’s like, there’s always that theme of, okay, someone or both, one or both party are asking interesting questions to show that you, to guide things, but also to show that you, you really want to know what the other person has to say.
00:22:59.312 –> 00:22:59.772
LINDSEY: Yeah.
00:22:59.772 –> 00:23:02.712
LINDSEY: And I think it’s a lot.
00:23:02.992 –> 00:23:10.892
LINDSEY: Well, I hear this from CEOs a lot or executives a lot, which is a version of why don’t people care or why aren’t they listening to me.
00:23:10.892 –> 00:23:17.512
LINDSEY: And in employees, when I talk to them, they say, well, why doesn’t my voice matter?
00:23:17.512 –> 00:23:19.292
LINDSEY: How come my voice doesn’t matter?
00:23:19.292 –> 00:23:32.932
LINDSEY: And I think, you know, one, as an assistant, one thing to help your principal do is using more questions and statements or turning your agenda from issues into questions, does help people feel like their voice matters.
00:23:32.932 –> 00:23:40.252
LINDSEY: And it might be less about being listened to and more about, you know, inspire influencing in a slightly different way.
00:23:40.252 –> 00:23:44.992
LINDSEY: So a good, good communication technique there.
00:23:46.372 –> 00:23:53.232
LINDSEY: And then the third tip, if sounds good to you, is what I call landing the plane.
00:23:53.232 –> 00:24:03.732
LINDSEY: And I like to use a lot of metaphors and analogies here, but, you know, we go on airplane trips and there’s always a routine that we follow when we take off and when we land.
00:24:03.732 –> 00:24:07.632
LINDSEY: Put your seatbelts on and put your tray table up and all of that stuff.
00:24:07.632 –> 00:24:11.772
LINDSEY: And what it does is it helps bring the plane safely home.
00:24:11.772 –> 00:24:14.432
LINDSEY: And we have to do the same thing for our offsites.
00:24:14.432 –> 00:24:27.752
LINDSEY: What I tend to see is rushed and hurried endings or offsites where we pump them full of content and there’s no time for questions or debriefing or anything at the end.
00:24:27.752 –> 00:24:36.892
LINDSEY: And, you know, my background in learning and development is about helping people absorb and retain and remember and be motivated by content and experiences.
00:24:36.892 –> 00:24:43.372
LINDSEY: And so this tip is really about helping remind your principle or guide your principle to land the plane.
00:24:43.372 –> 00:24:44.652
LINDSEY: What does that mean?
00:24:44.652 –> 00:24:57.532
LINDSEY: That means, let’s say you have a one-day offsite, I would spend the last hour of that day having deliberate time to focus on more integration than just more information sharing.
00:24:57.532 –> 00:25:03.332
LINDSEY: So we’ve spent the past seven hours talking about a bunch of things, doing activities, whatever it might be.
00:25:03.332 –> 00:25:06.672
LINDSEY: Let’s do some reflecting and some applying.
00:25:06.672 –> 00:25:11.072
LINDSEY: So it’s just guiding them through a series of questions, more questions.
00:25:11.072 –> 00:25:13.052
LINDSEY: What stood out by what we talked about today?
00:25:13.052 –> 00:25:15.072
LINDSEY: What might get in the way of this being successful?
00:25:15.072 –> 00:25:17.292
LINDSEY: What’s the one thing you’re motivated to try?
00:25:17.292 –> 00:25:31.452
LINDSEY: Just questions that get people, A, putting the experience in their own words, thinking about how it applies to them, thinking more about us and how we work together based on what we did versus just it, the content.
00:25:31.452 –> 00:25:38.512
LINDSEY: And all of what this does is it helps avoid this experience being a one-off, like a one and done.
00:25:38.512 –> 00:25:42.652
LINDSEY: It also increases the shelf life of the experience.
00:25:42.652 –> 00:25:58.932
LINDSEY: And the reason I’m saying this is important as an EA and assistant is, you know, this is helpful to remind folks of, and ultimately, if our goal is to save folks time, we don’t want to have to then do another off-site the next month because nobody remembered what we talked about.
00:25:58.932 –> 00:26:05.912
LINDSEY: So small things like this can be really beneficial and useful to guide folks with.
00:26:05.952 –> 00:26:06.272
JEREMY: Love it.
00:26:06.472 –> 00:26:13.332
JEREMY: What would be, okay, so you land the plane, everybody gets on the literal plane and goes home.
00:26:13.332 –> 00:26:25.612
JEREMY: Is there like a good cadence of, hey, you know, a week after the off-site, you know, you should check in or follow up, or is there anything like post-off-site to help things continue to stick?
00:26:25.612 –> 00:26:33.272
LINDSEY: Yes, I think I’ve experienced this too, the dreaded like, we will commit to doing this next week and then no one does it.
00:26:33.272 –> 00:26:34.532
LINDSEY: It’s so common.
00:26:35.012 –> 00:26:40.632
LINDSEY: So, I suggest people do what I call after shows.
00:26:40.632 –> 00:26:44.872
LINDSEY: I don’t know if you ever watch Bravo, or like watch What Happens Live.
00:26:44.872 –> 00:26:47.792
LINDSEY: Have you heard of this show on TV?
00:26:49.292 –> 00:27:00.512
LINDSEY: Basically, what it means is, it comes from folks who watch television show, they’d have an after show to sort of carry the conversation forward and discuss it in more detail.
00:27:00.512 –> 00:27:02.512
LINDSEY: And what do we think about what this character did?
00:27:02.512 –> 00:27:03.972
LINDSEY: And I can’t believe they did that.
00:27:04.532 –> 00:27:16.332
LINDSEY: And what I often suggest to companies is plan the after show, meaning like the more personalized discussions may be amongst departments or smaller groups that can carry it forward.
00:27:16.332 –> 00:27:32.112
LINDSEY: So either already have it on the calendar or assign it to different leaders in your team, which just allows sort of more of the trickle down of information, the change management of whatever you’re trying to introduce and gives people an additional space to sort of process and talk about what just happened.
00:27:32.252 –> 00:27:37.492
LINDSEY: So schedule it, sort of make it, I guess, a ritual inside the organization.
00:27:37.492 –> 00:27:49.932
LINDSEY: And I find that calling things something light, like an after show adds a little bit of levity, but maybe also sort of reminds us that we don’t have to take things seriously, perhaps.
00:27:49.932 –> 00:27:52.312
LINDSEY: So that’s what I might try.
00:27:52.312 –> 00:27:53.852
JEREMY: Nice.
00:27:53.852 –> 00:27:55.952
JEREMY: Well, that’s super helpful, Lindsey.
00:27:55.952 –> 00:27:58.072
JEREMY: I think thank you so much for sharing those tips.
00:27:59.192 –> 00:28:27.032
JEREMY: I think that’s very, very good as far as when we assistants are involved to whatever extent in planning these offsides or these gatherings or these company all-hands meetings that we can help guide our executives to, yeah, make sure they’re memorable offsides and they’re effective and, you know, lasting.
00:28:27.152 –> 00:28:29.572
JEREMY: And so thanks so much for sharing those tips.
00:28:29.992 –> 00:28:35.312
JEREMY: How can, I know you’ve got a book as well.
00:28:35.312 –> 00:28:37.112
LINDSEY: On the way, a book on the way.
00:28:37.112 –> 00:28:38.532
JEREMY: Okay, awesome, awesome.
00:28:38.532 –> 00:28:44.332
JEREMY: So what’s the best way for people to reach out if they want to connect and learn more about what you’re up to?
00:28:44.332 –> 00:28:45.632
LINDSEY: Yeah, thanks for asking.
00:28:45.632 –> 00:28:52.012
LINDSEY: Folks can find me at my website, which is gatheringeffect.com, or they can find me on LinkedIn.
00:28:52.012 –> 00:28:54.052
LINDSEY: Happy to connect and chat.
00:28:55.312 –> 00:28:55.672
LINDSEY: Awesome.
00:28:55.672 –> 00:28:58.472
JEREMY: I will put those links in the show notes, of course.
00:28:58.472 –> 00:29:05.192
JEREMY: And for those listening, if you want to reach out to Lindsey, connect with her on LinkedIn and find out more.
00:29:05.192 –> 00:29:12.592
JEREMY: You can find those links in the show notes at leaderassistant.com/threetwozero, leaderassistant.com/threetwozero.
00:29:15.852 –> 00:29:18.232
JEREMY: Lindsey, thanks again so much for being on the show.
00:29:18.232 –> 00:29:22.912
JEREMY: Is there any last words or final thoughts for the assistance of the world that you’d like to share?
00:29:24.252 –> 00:29:29.592
LINDSEY: I’ll just circle back to the leadership quote I shared at the beginning, which is that Jerry Seinfeld one.
00:29:29.592 –> 00:29:45.472
LINDSEY: The reason I love that so much is, he says, the place I like to work is in my head to try to reach someone else’s and as assistants, and that’s what we can help our principals and executives do, is help them reach others by what’s in their head.
00:29:45.472 –> 00:29:55.032
LINDSEY: Offsites are one way to do that, but ultimately, it probably has to do with a lot of the gatherings that we have in our day-to-day work.
00:29:55.032 –> 00:29:56.392
LINDSEY: Yeah, but thanks so much, Jeremy.
00:29:56.392 –> 00:29:57.912
LINDSEY: Thanks for having me on.
00:29:57.912 –> 00:30:07.332
JEREMY: Yeah, I love it, and I love Seinfeld, one of my favorite shows ever, and I appreciate you sharing, and yeah, take care and best of luck to you.
00:30:07.332 –> 00:30:08.412
LINDSEY: Thank you so much, you too.
00:30:18.647 –> 00:30:21.007
LINDSEY: Please review on Apple Podcasts.
00:30:27.422 –> 00:30:33.122
LINDSEY: gobullos.com.
00:30:33.122 –> 00:30:40.102
JEREMY: Hey friends, my best selling book, The Leader Assistant has a companion study and discussion guide to go along with it.
00:30:40.102 –> 00:30:42.822
JEREMY: It’s called The Leader Assistant Workbook.
00:30:42.822 –> 00:30:55.842
JEREMY: Now you can buy the Kindle ebook version of The Leader Assistant Workbook on Amazon, or you can go to leaderassistantbook.com and get a printable PDF version of the workbook.
00:30:56.442 –> 00:31:12.482
JEREMY: This version has all the space and margin in between the questions that you can write your own answers and take notes with, so it’s a great way to print it out and keep track of your discussion and study guide notes.
00:31:12.482 –> 00:31:18.642
JEREMY: Again, go to leaderassistantbook.com and click on Workbook to check out The Leader Assistant Workbook.
