Effective Meeting Practices

If you're a founder trying to fundraise right now, it probably feels like the entire venture world has gone quiet. The response times are slow, OOOs are on and it’s easy to feel like you’re losing momentum. Don't stress. The summer slowdown is predictable, and it's not a setback, it's a gift of time if you use it well. I see this every year... The founders who scramble to send frantic emails in July/August are the same ones who struggle in the fall with an over-shopped deal and the fatigue of an endless fundraise. But the founders who use this quiet period for deep, focused preparation are the ones who run a crisp, successful process after Labor Day. The fundraising race is won in the prep lap. Here are a few things you can do right now to prep for a big fundraising push this fall: 1. Build a High-Fidelity Investor Pipeline. Go beyond a simple list of names. Create a comprehensive document that tracks every firm and partner, their specific thesis, your history with them (if any), your connections to them and crucially, the feedback they've given you in the past. This turns your outreach into a strategic campaign. 2. Assemble a "Push-Button" Data Room. Don't wait for an investor to ask. Build your data room now so it's ready to go at a moment's notice. This includes your customer contracts, cohort analyses, deck, references and financial model. A well-organized data room signals professionalism and creates momentum. 3. Craft a "Juicy" Forwardable Blurb. The best introductions are easy to forward. Write a tight, compelling, one-paragraph teaser. It must include a unique insight on the market, why your team is going to win and any key metrics. This makes it effortless for people like me to advocate on your behalf. 4. Pressure-Test Your Narrative. Use this time to pitch trusted advisors, mentors, and other founders. This isn't about memorizing a script, it's about finding the weak spots in your story. Ask them to be ruthless. The tough questions you answer now in a friendly setting will save you in a rapid fire partner meeting later. 5. Get Your "Diligence" in Order. This is the one everyone forgets. Talk to your lawyer now. Make sure your corporate governance is tight and your cap table is accurate (and clean). Uncovering a messy problems during late-stage diligence can kill a deal. Solving it now is a massive de-risking event. 6. "Warm Up" Your References. Your best customers are your most powerful asset. Don't wait until an investor asks for a reference call to talk to them. Re-engage with your top 3-5 champions now. Check in, share your progress, and get them excited about your vision. A reference who is prepped and genuinely enthusiastic is infinitely more impactful. The fall fundraising season will be here before you know it. The work you do in the quiet of August will determine the success you have in the chaos of the fall. We are prepping for our next fundraise as well so this is how I'm spending my time💥

Stop wasting meetings! Too many meetings leave people unheard, disengaged, or overwhelmed. The best teams know that inclusion isn’t accidental—it’s designed. 🔹 Here are 6 simple but powerful practices to transform your meetings: 💡 Silent Brainstorm Before discussion begins, have participants write down their ideas privately (on sticky notes, a shared document, or an online board). This prevents groupthink, ensures introverted team members have space to contribute, and brings out more original ideas. 💡 Perspective Swap Assign participants a different stakeholder’s viewpoint (e.g., a customer, a frontline employee, or an opposing team). Challenge them to argue from that perspective, helping teams step outside their biases and build empathy-driven solutions. 💡 Pause and Reflect Instead of jumping into responses, introduce intentional pauses in the discussion. Give people 30-60 seconds of silence before answering a question or making a decision. This allows for deeper thinking, more thoughtful contributions, and space for those who need time to process. 💡 Step Up/Step Back Before starting, set an expectation: those who usually talk a lot should "step back," and quieter voices should "step up." You can track participation or invite people directly, helping create a more balanced conversation. 💡 What’s Missing? At the end of the discussion, ask: "Whose perspective have we not considered?" This simple question challenges blind spots, uncovers overlooked insights, and reinforces the importance of diverse viewpoints in decision-making. 💡 Constructive Dissent Voting Instead of just asking for agreement, give participants colored cards or digital indicators to show their stance: 🟢 Green – I fully agree 🟡 Yellow – I have concerns/questions 🔴 Red – I disagree Focus discussion on yellow and red responses, ensuring that dissenting voices are explored rather than silenced. This builds a culture where challenging ideas is seen as valuable, not risky. Which one would you like to try in your next meeting?  Let me know in the comments! 🔔 Follow me to learn more about building inclusive, high-performing teams. __________________________ 🌟 Hi there! I’m Susanna, an accredited Fearless Organization Scan Practitioner with 10+ years of experience in workplace inclusion. I help companies build inclusive cultures where diverse, high-performing teams thrive with psychological safety. Let’s unlock your team’s full potential together!

"No complaining without solutions.” Great for junior employees. For executives, it’s catastrophic. Alan Mulally confronted this at Ford. In his weekly Business Plan Reviews, every metric was green while the company hemorrhaged $17 billion. Finally, Mark Fields showed a red slide—the new Edge had a suspension problem halting production. The room held its breath. Everyone expected Fields to be fired. Instead, Mulally clapped. "Mark, that's great visibility. Who can help Mark with this?" The room exhaled. Ideas poured in. They solved it together. The next week, every slide was "splattered with more red than a crime scene." Ford turned around. Almost every executive meeting I’ve observed works this way. Functional leaders sharing victories. BU heads reporting progress. Everyone demonstrating their competence. Everyone avoiding the problems they haven't solved yet. It's Arnold's rule on steroids: Don't just avoid complaining—only discuss what you've already handled. Your executive meetings shouldn't be status updates on solved problems. That's what email is for. It should be your smartest people tackling what none of them can solve alone: → "Revenue's soft in the Midwest and I don't know why" → "Customer churn is up but the data's conflicting" → "Our competitors just did something I don't understand" These aren't complaints. They're invitations to think together. How do you break the pattern? 1. Role model vulnerability. Be the first to show red. Your courage gives others permission. 2. Celebrate the brave. When someone admits they need help, thank them publicly—like Mulally's applause for Fields. 3. Enlist your stars. Get your most respected team members to go first. Everyone already knows they’re competent. Ask yourself: What percentage of your executive meeting is people reporting wins versus wrestling with unsolved problems? If it's mostly wins, you're wasting the most expensive brains in the building. And if you can't get your team there alone, that's what facilitators like me are for. Sometimes you need an outsider to reset the room. Image credit: James Huang

Neurodiversity 101: Creating neuroinclusive meetings 5 ways to getting started: 1.Provide agendas and materials in advance. Share clear agendas, objectives, and relevant documents well ahead of time. This supports those who need time to process information or prefer to prepare, including many neurodivergent people. 2.Offer multiple ways to contribute Allow contributions via chat, shared documents, or follow-up emails—not just verbal input. This accommodates different communication preferences and reduces pressure to speak spontaneously. 3.Be mindful of sensory environments Minimise distractions like background noise or harsh lighting. Offer camera-off options and use virtual backgrounds that are not visually overwhelming. 4.Clarify expectations and timeframes State how long the meeting will last, what decisions (if any) are expected, and who is responsible for next steps. Predictability reduces anxiety and supports executive functioning. 5. Build in breaks and check-ins For longer meetings, schedule short breaks. Briefly check in at the start and end to see how people are doing, which fosters psychological safety and a sense of inclusion. What else do you think?

Silence is not the absence of thought or engagement. It is often the incubator of great ideas. As someone who is naturally more reserved and quiet, I've often stumbled to speak in meetings, especially early on in my career. The louder voices tend to dominate the room, creating an intimidating environment where contributing feels akin to entering a yelling contest. Over time, I moved past this by developing my own strategy including preparing points beforehand, gathering my thoughts before speaking, writing detailed notes and sending them out after meetings, and asserting myself in a calm manner that felt natural to me. I wanted to write this post as a reminder for those who often hold the metaphorical microphone, to make room for the quieter voices in meetings. These individuals, often younger or part of minority groups typically bring unique observations, shaped by their distinct experiences. You can make meetings more inclusive by: 1. Establishing Company Meeting Norms: This can involve setting expectations for how meetings are conducted, including scheduling, setting agendas, participant list, rules of engagement and making it a must to distribute relevant information in advance, allowing everyone to come prepared. This also makes them more efficient ;) 2. Assigning a Facilitator: It's useful to have a designated person for each meeting to ensure smooth operation. They take on this role to ensure different opinions are heard, notes & action items are taken, and overall, that the meeting runs both efficiently and effectively. This role alternates between meeting attendees, and creates a collective sense of responsibility. 3. Creating Space for Silence: Instead of rushing to fill every moment with words, allow moments of silence after prompts and issues/challenges are presented. This gives people a chance to process information, formulate their thoughts, and contributes to a less pressured environment, often allowing for a more conclusive conversation. How do you include quieter voices in your meetings/team discussions? Share your strategies below! 👇🏼

2 — Solving Goal & Priority Misalignment with Is/Is Not + Perspective Circle.  SOLVING THINGS with SYSTEMS THINKING (STwST) — a series of mini, real-world applications of DSRP. When a team says, “We’re working hard but not pulling in the same direction,” it’s usually not a motivation problem. And it’s rarely a communication problem. It’s a distinction + perspective problem. Different people are carrying different mental pictures of what the goal is and is not, and different perspectives on what actually counts as a priority. So even when everyone uses the same words, they’re not aiming at the same thing. They might be reading the same page but interpreting it differently. Two simple thinking moves fix this. The first is an Is / Is Not list. Take the goal and the priorities and make them explicit: what this goal is, what it is not; what matters now, and what does not. This forces clarity where assumptions usually hide. The second is a Perspective Circle. You don’t need everyone to think the same way—but you do need everyone looking at the same picture. Different roles, levels, and functions can keep their own viewpoints, as long as they’re all anchored to the same shared view. Then keep that shared model on the table. Revisit it at the start of meetings. Use it when tradeoffs show up. Let people argue with it, stress-test it, and refine it. Don’t laminate it. Put it to work. Alignment doesn’t come from hearing the right words once. It comes from people rebuilding their own internal picture until it matches the shared one. When that happens, language cleans up, decisions get faster, resources line up, and the friction fades—because action always follows the mental model. If you listen carefully, misalignment announces itself in sentences that shouldn’t exist if the goal were truly shared. Those sentences are the signal. #STwST #SystemsThinking #CabreraLabPodcast #SystemsThinkingStandardsInstitute

In April I sent a company-wide note with the subject line “I hate meetings.” Unsurprisingly, it’s our most-read internal communication to date. My message was simple: meetings can be incredibly effective when done right, but we’ve all adopted some bad habits when it comes to using our time – and our colleagues’ time – wisely.   After soliciting feedback from colleagues around the world through polling, group discussions and direct outreach, I shared our first round of meeting-focused updates:   ✔ Default meeting lengths in Outlook would now be 20- and 40-minute blocks, as opposed to 30 and 60 minutes. ✔ Pre-reads should be utilized more, prepared in a thoughtful way and sent at least 24 hours in advance. ✔ Even when the purpose of a meeting is clear, agendas matter! We should get in the habit of creating clear and concise agendas for all meetings, regardless of length. ✔ Less technical, but just as important: when considering a meeting, ask yourself – can this be done another way (e.g., e-mail, phone call, walk down the hall for an in-person discussion)? If a meeting is required, when considering participants ask yourself who really needs to take part. In the first month, total meetings per week dropped by ~1,800, and total audio minutes per week dropped by ~15%; that’s 282,280 minutes, or more than 4,700 hours. Stating the obvious, that’s rapid culture change. And while things have normalized a bit (at least, until our next round of updates), we’re still seeing a downward trend. Are these groundbreaking ideas for how to become a more efficient and effective organization? No, but they don’t have to be. Sometimes it’s as simple as 1) reminding people that we don’t have to operate a certain way because “that’s how we’ve always done things,” and 2) encouraging ownership of our time, the most valuable commodity we have. #CompanyCulture #TimeManagement #WorkSmarter

I bombed my first investor meeting because I couldn't answer a basic objection. That experience led me to build a framework that helped me close my $780K pre-seed round 👇🏾 Fundraising is (basically) just sales. In sales, customers give you reasons they can't buy; in fundraising, investors give you reasons they might not invest. Our objections at Chezie fell into two categories. Here's exactly how we addressed each one. MARKET & COMPETITIVE RISK The objection: "The market feels too small." What this really means: the investor can't do the math from your ICP to $100M in revenue. They're not saying the market doesn't exist, they’re just saying it’s probably not big enough to build a big business. How we handled it: I built the math directly into our Market Opportunity slide. 57,000 companies globally have ERGs. Our pricing at maturity puts average contract value around $50K. 2,000 customers at $50K each gets you to $100M. Once the investor could run that math themselves, the objection mostly went away (plus I got brownie points for doing bottoms-up market sizing 💅🏾). TEAM & EXECUTION SIGNAL The objection: "We're not sure the team can pull this off." What this really means: the investor isn’t confident that the team has either the right domain expertise OR has the personnel to actually build the product. How we handled it: We showed our hiring plan, named CTO candidates we were already in conversations with, and let our traction speak louder than our org chart. At that point we had $120K ARR across seven enterprise customers. That signal said more about our judgment than any answer about a CTO search could. THE FRAMEWORK Every objection an investor throws at you is just uncertainty on whether or not you can execute. There’s a two-step process on how to handle them. 1. Acknowledge it directly. Don't deflect or get defensive; if the concern is legitimate, say so.  2. Show action. Either point to something you've already done that addresses the concern, or explain specifically what you'll do once you close the round. - - - I put together a cheat sheet covering the 10 most common VC objections with plain-English translations and example responses. Click "Visit my website" above to grab it for free. And if there's an objection you keep hearing that's NOT on the list, drop it below. Happy to help you work through it 🤝🏾

For 30 years, I've dreaded giving presentations. But I've still given more than I can count... Presenting is something that many leaders struggle with. But unfortunately, it's par for the course of running a business. The good news is, you don't need to be a naturally gifted speaker. I'm certainly not.  You just need to be well-prepared and follow some simple rules. This is what I would share with any leader before their next meeting: 1. The 20-Word Strategy Rule Your strategy must fit 1 sentence and answer three questions: 1. What are you passionate about? (Your purpose) 2. What can you be the best at? (Your USP) 3. How will you make money? (Your economic engine) 2. The Pre-Read Rule Always make sure you have done the reading beforehand.  Leaders should set the agenda and send pre-read material in advance. 3. The Working Together Framework When a new leader joins, share a short two-page Working Together document. It should answer 4 things clearly: 1. What do I expect them to achieve? 2. How can I get the best out of them? 3. How can they get the best out of me? 4. What motivates and demotivates each of us? 4. The Storytelling Rule Start with the broad ambition, then follow with three supporting messages. Keep in mind: - Practise until you can tell it without a laptop or notes. - Keep it simple. Too much information adds clutter and confusion. - Statistics and data will not persuade people. Make it about them, not you. 5. The Back-To-The-Floor Rule Before any major presentation, do this first: 1. Block out a morning to shadow your frontline team. 2. Put the headset on and listen to real customer conversations. 3. Walk the floor and look for what the data is not telling you. 4. Write down the one or two things that surprised you. 5. Build those observations into your presentation. 6. The Communication Rules Think in news headlines. Do not change the message too often.  Do not sugar-coat.  Be honest about bad news.  Bottom-up communication is essential. 7. Before You Walk In - Can I state our strategy in 20 words or fewer? - Have I sent pre-read material in advance? - Am I leading with a story, not a data dump? - Have I been to the shop floor recently enough to speak with authority? - Have I been honest about what is not working? - Does everyone in the room know what I am asking of them? - Could I present this without opening my laptop? Preparation is not glamorous. It's not meant to be. But if you want to earn the trust of a room, it’s absolutely necessary. If you want more lessons like these delivered to your inbox each week, subscribe to my newsletter here: https://lnkd.in/ergDQtiK If you're a leader, comment below if you've ever struggled with presentations. Or share a strategy that has helped you in meetings.