How to keep up engagement when contact decreases

Ever wondered how you can keep engagement going when contact decreases?

A coaching client had been running daily stand-up meetings with much success. However, those daily meetings were now turning into weekly meetings, and she was concerned that people would lower their commitment, focus, and engagement in the light of having only a weekly meeting.

Here's what we did, which worked:

1. We named the weekly meeting as a new meeting, rather than reducing the old ones

We reframed the weekly meeting from being a "reduction from daily to weekly" to instead being a new type of meeting. This is perhaps simply reframing — but naming matters.

2. We communicated why it was now weekly, and made that reason important

We also did the John Kotter thing of creating a sense of urgency, and emphasised the importance of the shift to this new routine.

3. Then, we ran the meeting differently

You can't just say "it's a new meeting" and then make it a larger version of the former daily meetings.

So we changed the design. We put things in a different order, and put different focuses into view.

4. We gave everyone a role

Critically, we gave every attendee a role. We required new types of updates, and strictly weekly reporting — so everyone had to report on their progress weekly, no later. As we all know, involvement increases commitment.

It was successful because it wasn't just a case of reframing — it really did become a different meeting. Even though so much was the same, the mental and procedural shift made this meeting achieve different things.