Following Up After the Big Meeting is the Key
“Now what?” or “What’s next?” are important questions to making the progress we want to make in many areas of our lives.
It’s good to remind ourselves that even though we need to take time to recover from a big event to rest and reflect, we cannot take too much time “off” and very much need to get back into the rhythm of what was so great about a meeting.
Okay, so let me step back here and share what I’m getting at because I uncharacteristically jumped right to my point without much context there.
I’ve just returned from another wonderful conference and I’m still coming down from the high of spending time with so many wonderful people, and as I planned to share the experience here, I realized that there are parallels here to the kind of work that I do with families.
Setting the Date for the Next Meeting
Whenever anyone asks for tips on holding great family meetings, I’ve been known to say that the most important thing you need to do is follow up with a date for the next meeting so that everyone can put it on their calendar and make sure they’ll be there.
I drove back from the annual FFI Conference in Boston yesterday, and so I just followed my own advice and added next year’s event to my calendar for October 25-28, 2023 in New York City.
I also made a note on my calendar for Monday morning, when I get back to my desk, to make sure I look through my notes and the event brochure and be sure not to let any follow-ups fall through the cracks.
I already went through the list of attendees and made sure to hit up all the new folks I spoke with over the past few days with LinkedIn connection requests.
My notes will surely reveal some blog ideas and at least one follow-up for a podcast guest request, if not more.
Connecting Like-Minded Colleagues
During the three days of the conference, I was on the lookout for other fellow Canadians so that I could add a Canadian flag sticker to their name badge.
I can’t believe that the 25 stickers I brought weren’t sufficient and I ran out. I must remember to bring more next time, and I should probably make sure I order extras, because they were quite popular.
Besides trying to herd all my fellow great-white-north friends, I was also on the lookout for any French-speaking attendees.
FFI has had a Spanish language study group for a decade now, and some fellow Quebecers want to launch something similar in French, so I spent some time trying to connect colleagues for that too.
More Jolly Good Fellows
Every year at the FFI conference, they announce another group of members who have achieved “FFI Fellow” status, and this year I was very honored to be part of this group.
I’m still a tiny bit disappointed that they haven’t adopted the tradition of singing “For he’s the jolly good fellow” during the ceremony, but I’ll get over it.
It is indeed gratifying to be part of the growing group of leaders in the field of family enterprise, all of whom make an effort to share so generously with colleagues so that we can all serve our family clients even better.
Back to the Family Meetings….
I just spent a few paragraphs writing a lot about “who,” and when you think about family meetings, the “who” part is also important because spending family time together is obviously a huge part of what you are trying to do.
Sharing common experiences is key to family bonding and understanding, which is all part of making sure that your communications are working.
There’s also the “what” part you need to consider, and the content and planning are not something you want to skimp on or leave to the last minute.
Just like this conference I was at, many people spent a lot of time creating the conditions for success, and your family meetings deserve as much as well.
Make sure your agenda includes learning and fun, as well as some break time for people to just “be” together.
You want them to leave satisfied and looking forward to the next one.
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