Tips and tricks before you create group meetings

We at Knowly believe that the exchange between participants in a learning journey has a significant impact on enabling and supporting learning. When we conducted the prestudy, we got backing from our users. One of the best activities for a successful learning journey is to let the participants reflect and share experiences. Therefore, we build  Group meetings, an activity where you, as an administrator, give the participants one assignment to conduct in a smaller group. 

Hence, we realize the many challenges to success with the exchange of experiences in a learning journey - how do I create the right conditions for a group meeting? From what we know, the participants demand clearness and relevance, and at the same time, the activity shall be meaningful. Below you will find our collection of advice to help you create great group meetings.  

  • Explain short and consistently why the meeting is valuable for the participants. The examples we share connect to situations many people actually run across and can relate to. 
  • Emphasize what the expectations are. Give the participants details about the meeting scope and agenda, both as what they should talk about. Remember that a richer explanation to cover everything is better than a short one that could be misread by someone. 
  • Give the participants clear instructions about what they expect to do before the actual meeting. We do not recommend having any time-consuming prep work. Instead, it should be a simple task, for example, to read the meeting scope and present themselves.
  • Be vigilant about the participant's time. Don't ask them to read a book but instead ensure that both the prep work and meeting are doable. 
  • Create one clear assignment that cannot be misread. We want the participants to feel served through clearness and that they do not have to come up with their own jobs to succeed with the meeting. By giving the participants a recipe for the meeting, we risk having a non-meaningful meeting and wasting time. Supplement the participants with a meeting agenda with a precise time on each point. 
  • Be precise on how much time the participant should spend on each part of the agenda, even if the scope is significant. By creating a plan like this, you will also know the amount of time for the actual meeting.
  • If you feel like you want to shorten the meeting time, the best way is to decrease the size of the groups. Having smaller groups will enable all participants to participate in the meeting without having a time-consuming meeting. The purpose of the meeting is to give the participants the chance to share experiences. 
  • A good way to try the assignment is to conduct it yourself. If you read thorugh the assignment - does the text tell you what to do, how you should do it and for how long. If questionsmarks arise, answer them by complementing the desription. For even more clarity, try the assignment on a collegue. 
  • Don't be afraid to be distinct! Clearness ensure particpiants to do what you actaully want them to do and create value.