How often have you been sitting in meetings wondering what they are for? What about the meetings that you run: Do the participants know the purpose? Are you yourself clear on what you are trying to achieve?
PO3 is a wonderful help for preparing meetings and workshops. It helps you gain clarity into why you are running this particular meeting (Purpose), what you want to achieve during (Objectives), how you’ll document it (Outputs) and its intended overall effect (Outcomes).
I learned it from Bernhard Ibertsberger who told me how PO3 improves meeting effectiveness, when included in the meeting invite. Because 1) the host has prepped and knows what they are going for and 2) all the participants also have the right expectations.
As a side benefit he reported that when he himself prepares a meeting, he sometimes finds out that the meeting isn’t necessary. He works through the 4 fields in a PO3 and sometimes realizes that all he has to do is to write an email to two people and be done. Obviously not always, most meeting still take place, but it’s nice, when you can save everyone time. Which, with PO3, you will also do if you have the meeting because everyone is clear on the why, what, artifacts and intentions.
Check out the 1-pager with the PO3 fields and specific questions to help you fill them out in a helpful way:
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Content of 1-Pager:
PO3 – Planning Meetings with Purpose
- Name of the meeting:
- Purpose
Why do this? What would be missing without this meeting? - Objectives
What do you want to achieve during the meeting? (Similar to an agenda) - Outputs
How will you document the meeting or its results? Do you need details notes? Will a photo of stickies suffice? - Outcomes
If it works, what effect(s) will you able to observe? What is going to change? Short term? Long term?
Sources:
This one was hard to google. I learned it from my friend, fellow coach and facilitator:
He also came up with the exact set of questions in the 1-pager. Another helpful source – albeit about PO2 (no Objectives in this one):
The oldest source we found was:
- Chris Collison in 2016, who learned it at a company called Syngenta
Other sources:
- A-connect
- Dwarfs and Giants – They credit Nic Turner from nowhere