This is a game to help teams or groups recast their meetings into something more effective (including eliminating the meeting altogether).

1. Let’s Play the Meeting Change Game!

2. The purpose of the Meeting Change Game is to help folks recast
meetings by thinking through what outcome is intended and seeing if
this can be done differently – either by changing or eliminating the
current meeting.
What you will need:
• The gameboard printed on 11x17 paper preferably
• Stickies and sharpies
• Discs or tokens in 3 colors
• Arrow shaped page marker post-it flags
• Pawns in several colors; the colors will represent distinct groups of
people (e.g. developers, managers, etc.)
• Flipcharts
• Dot stickers
Assumption: people playing this game are all a part of the same peer
group or team.

3. Desired
Outcomes
Expected
Inputs
Participants
optional required
Meeting Name
½
Weekly
Bi-WeeklyDaily
Ad-Hoc Monthly
Quarterly
Value
frequency Duration
Primary Agenda Items

4. Instructions:
• Have folks brainstorm the meetings they attend (perhaps even if they are the sole team member
attending); rank these in some manner (dot-vote for example).
• Place the gameboard down where everyone can see/reach it and take the most painful first – write
it in the meeting name space.
• Start by having people brainstorm what Agenda Items are normally covered.
• Then do the same for Inputs: data or opinions needed for the meeting.
• Then lastly, do the same for the Desired Outcome(s); alternatively, if there is a specific meeting
sponsor you can ask them their desired outcomes.
• Ask them to take a pawn in the color they represent and place it on whether they are currently
required (expected) or optional attendees.
• Ask the group what the frequency of the meeting is and its planned duration. Write these onto the
sheet.
• Ask them to take discs; one color represents 15 minute increments and another color represents
hour increments. Have people make stacks with how much time these meetings typically take. Use
a third color to represent anytime the meeting hits the end of the typical duration and either has to
go long or stops without reaching its intended outcome. This color is always placed on the top of
the stack.
• Next, they should place arrow post-it flags as gauge arrows on the amount of value they get out of
the meeting.
• Record results onto the gameboard as needed.
With this information you can now move onto the Debrief.

5. Debrief:
• Are the Desired Outcomes needed? What is done with them?
• Do the Inputs come from any other meetings? Can they be found and shared in
other ways (brainstorm ideas)? Do they require full team discussion?
• Given the Desired Outcomes, what other ways could we get these? (Suggest
brainstorm on stickies and debrief.)
• Given the Desired Outcomes, what changes can we make to this meeting to get
them and improve the ROTI (return on time invested) to folks? (Shorten, decrease
frequency, alter agenda, etc.)
• Place these on a flipchart and have people dot-vote on the ideas they want to try;
if the change is to eliminate it and replace it in some manner, then you can try this
change out. If the top changes is changing the meeting in some manner, craft
what the top changes to it would be.
• Also for meeting changes, ask people to place themselves in the required or
optional categories on whether they feel their need to participate. If they don’t
need to attend at all, but need to know the outcomes, ask them how they want to
receive them.
• Gain commitment on making the change(s) by the team in some manner (e.g. Fist-
of-Five)