REVITALIZE TOWN HALL MEETINGS. © 2017 by Davis & Company.
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Contents

Why town halls (still) matter

Where town halls go wrong

Making the case for change

How to revitalize town halls

The essential premise: A town hall is an event, not a presentation

What to do differently

A. Set objectives

B. Create focus and flow

C. Keep content fresh

D. Arrange the room

E. Go beyond Q&As to transform participation

F. Build a dynamic virtual experience

Measure progress/success

Ready to take employee town halls to the next level?

All-employee meetings are too important to do poorly. Here’s how to escape mediocrity—and create sessions that inspire employees and motivate them to action.

In this manifesto, you’ll find answers to such questions as:

• Are town halls worth the effort? Are these sessions effective at engaging employees?

• We don’t really have objectives for our town halls. What’s the most important objective a best-practice town hall should have?

• Every time we have a major meeting, we start with a small list of topics, but then it keeps growing as leaders think of more and more issues they want to add. How can I convince leaders to limit the number of topics?

• We’ve been doing town halls the same way for a long time. How can I make the case for change?

• What’s your opinion about planted questions? We do it because employees don’t raise their hands, but is there a better way?

• If I can only make one change to improve my next town hall meeting, which will have the biggest impact?

Why town halls (still) matter

It was, quite simply, a brilliant idea. Sometime in the last century, someone in a large organization came up with the concept of bringing leaders and employees together in a face-to-face forum to discuss important issues.

“We’ll borrow from the classic format of town hall meetings,” this smart person must have said. “Leaders will share information, employees will ask questions and raise concerns, and everyone will leave the session understanding what we need to do to succeed.”

The idea was so good that it quickly caught fire. More and more organizations added town halls—which were also known as all-hands meetings—to their internal communication programs.

Town halls bring people together from various locations and functions, so they create a sense of community.

In the decades since, much has changed about communication. Organizations have gone from print publications to apps, from in-person meetings to virtual experiences. So you may wonder whether town halls are still a valid communication channel. The short answer is yes—town halls are still as compelling as they ever were.

Here’s why:

1. A town hall presents one of the few opportunities employees have for interacting (live) with senior leaders.

2. As a result, town halls build employee confidence and trust in leaders.

3. Leaders can be more candid than they can in written or recorded communication. That makes a town hall feel authentic.

4. The best town halls share content employees can’t hear at the analyst meetings, by scanning media or in press releases. Because of that, town halls provide unique and valuable perspectives.

5. Town halls bring people together from various locations and functions, so they create a sense of community.

In fact, town halls can make such a significant impact that it’s critical to do them right. But, as you’ll see in the next section, many town hall meetings fall short of their potential.

Virtual is nice. But face to face is more effective

We are living in a virtual world, right? Organizations are spread out across the country and around the globe, and so many meetings these days are held via teleconference, web meeting or video presence.

So when it comes to employee communication channels, you may wonder whether face-to-face town halls are still relevant.

Definitely, reports The Economist. Being there in person is still the best.

According to The Economist: “The availability of high-definition video on people’s screens…does not seem to have sapped their enthusiasm for the din and discomfort of a standing-room-only crowd. If anything, they may be placing even more of a premium on live, shared experiences.”

For internal communication, here’s what this means:

• Face-to-face experiences are more engaging. Multi-tasking during screen time has now become the norm. But being there in person makes it more likely employees will pay attention.

• The ability to see a leader in person is more compelling. Employees build higher levels of trust in leaders when they’ve seen them face to face.

• Being there makes the experience more memorable—especially when employees have a chance to participate. When employees are involved in a conversation, they’re more likely to retain the content that was discussed. That creates learning about important topics.

In short, although face-to-face forums often require more effort than holding a virtual meeting, the results are worth the investment.

Where town halls go wrong

What’s the core principle of town hall meetings? Participation. Several thousand years ago, the Greeks invented the town hall (which they called an “assembly”) as a way to give citizens a voice and a role in government.

But somewhere along the way, many internal town halls lost this essential element and became little more than one-way presentations.

The lack of participation is just one problem with these internal forums. Ask employees what they really think of town halls and they’ll offer a long list of what’s not working:

• Bad PowerPoint. “I can’t even read all those details.” “With the money they spend on these meetings, you’d think they could do better than those ugly, dense slides.”

• Poor time management. “One speaker takes more time than he’s supposed to, then the others have to rush through their slides.” “The meeting’s supposed to be an hour, but it always runs long.” “When I don’t get back to my station on time, my supervisor gets cranky.”

• Boring! “So many facts and figures!” “With all those charts, time moves soooo slowly.” “I stopped going to the actual meetings and started attending remotely so at least I can multi-task.”

• Over our heads. “To be honest, I quite frankly don’t understand a lot of the stuff the CEO is saying.” “It’s all MBA-level content, as if the boss is presenting to the board, not employees.”

• Same stuff, different day. “One town hall meeting is pretty much the same as another.” “The format doesn’t change from quarter to quarter, and the content’s not very different either.” “I feel like I heard it all before.”

• Meaningless content. “I guess what’s covered is important for the company, but I don’t know what it means to me.” “Am I supposed to do anything differently? It’s not clear.”

• Fake questions. “They ask for questions ahead of time, but when the facilitator reads the questions, they seem very packaged—not what it really on people’s minds.” “People raise their hands to ask questions, but it seems like that was all prearranged.”

• Not participative. “The town hall seems very one-way: They talk and we have to listen.” “The CEO says he wants questions, but the presentation always runs long and we end up with only a few minutes for Q&A.” “I don’t feel it’s really safe to speak.”

• Uninspiring. “The focus is on bad news, so town halls are a downer.” “It’s like listening to a lecture. Am I motivated? No.” “What do I feel when I leave the town hall? Mostly relief that it’s over.”

Employee feedback: “Am I supposed to do anything differently? It’s not clear.”

Although the truth hurts, it doesn’t have to be this way: You have the power to improve your town halls. (Just follow the advice in this guide.)

5 reasons NOT to hold a town hall meeting

Although town halls have become routine in many organizations, that doesn’t mean that you have to hold these sessions. In fact, there are at least 5 reasons NOT to hold a town hall session:

1. No news. If you don’t have unique, interesting or surprising content, why bring employees together?

2. Lack of purpose. What are the objectives of your upcoming town hall? If you don’t have clear outcomes, skip the session.

3. Not enough interaction. Participation is in the DNA of town halls. If your objective is just to present, use a different form of communication.

4. An unbalanced experience. One of the biggest mistakes organizations make today is to bring employees people together in person (usually at headquarters) and have others “listen in” by phone. If you can’t create a consistent experience, reconsider the whole format.

5. Low return on investment. While budget shouldn’t be the only consideration in whether to hold a town hall, I have also experienced far too many sessions that cost far too much (especially given the value created). That’s why you should analyze whether the session was worth the money spent.

Making the case for change

Your employee town hall meetings aren’t great, but at least they’re predictable. Sure, the agenda is tightly packed, and there are too many speakers, and you haven’t solved the problem of remote participants, and there’s hardly any interaction, but at least town halls happen every quarter. And employee feedback is…okay. So town halls are (sort of) a success, right?

Um, no. Deep in your heart you know that your town halls are no more than mediocre. But your company keeps conducting town halls the same way every time (definition of insanity?) because:

• We’ve always done them this way.

• Leaders refuse to change; they insist we need to share all this information.

• The obstacles (technology, logistics) are too big to solve.

• All of the above

I’ll address all of these challenges in this manifesto. Let’s start with the toughest one of all: Leaders won’t change.

It’s been my experience that many leaders are stuck in the We’ve-Always-Done-It-This-Way trap. The static, talk-at-them, everything-and-the-kitchen-sink formula for town halls is so ingrained in most organizations that no one can even imagine a different approach.

Reframe the reason for town halls: to inspire, motivate and engage.

Here are four ways to persuade your leaders to take a different approach:

1. Rethink objectives. If your current objective is simply to inform employees about a variety of topics, that’s not a very ambitious desired outcome. So aim higher. When you reframe the reason for town hall, your more ambitious objectives give you a foundation for proposing changes.

2. Survey employees differently. Of course you’re conducting post-event surveys—preferably after every town hall. But here’s an important way to make sure that research is worthwhile. Instead of asking softball questions like—“Did you find the town hall informative?”—test your objectives by asking provocative, raise-the-stakes questions like: “Were you motivated?” “How much do you now know about X topic?” and “Are you prepared to take action?”

3. Conduct focus groups to explore employees’ experiences and perspectives. Survey results are very helpful, but I’ve also found that leaders are persuaded by verbatim comments from employees—the kind of qualitative research you get when you facilitate focus groups. For example, several years ago we held focus groups at a manufacturing facility to learn what employees thought about town halls. Although employees liked many aspects of the sessions, they were very critical of the content presented because it was very high level and not relevant to their jobs. “All that financial stuff—I have to admit most of it is over my head,” said one employee. “It’s too dense—and I don’t really understand what it means to me,” said another. Those frank comments helped the communicator convince leaders to change the focus of town halls.

4. Quantify the investment. One client I know figured out how much it cost the organization every time call center employees attended a town hall. The math went something like this: If 200 call center reps attend a one-hour session, and the company pays each employee $30 an hour (when you factor in pay and benefits), then the labor cost alone is $6,000. Factor in leaders’ and professionals’ time, technology and the total for one session was north of $10,000. The question: is the company getting its money’s worth?

Now you’ve got the evidence you need to demonstrate the case for change, go to your leader with a thorough analysis and bold new recommendations.

Test objectives by asking provocative, raise-the-stakes questions like: “Were you motivated?” “How much do you now know about X topic?” and “Are you prepared to take action?”

How to revitalize town halls

The essential premise: A town hall is an event, not a presentation

Let’s say you’re ready to prepare for your organization’s next employee town hall meeting. Chances are, you’re also about to make a classic mistake: focusing almost exclusively on organizing information to fill the hour.

A town hall is not—it should not be—a collection of information. Instead, it should be an experience. Merriam-Webster defines experience as “the process of doing and seeing things and of having things happen to you.”

(Sitting and watching leaders narrate 55 PowerPoint slides is not an experience; it’s an ordeal.)

A town hall should not be a collection of information. Instead, it should be an experience.

A town hall, in other words, is an event. It's a show. What makes a show a show? From Broadway productions to TV programs to school plays, shows are:

• Choreographed

• Memorable

• Energy-producing

• Participative

In this section, you’ll learn how to create a town hall experience by:

• Setting appropriate objectives

• Creating focus and flow

• Keeping content fresh

• Arranging the room

• Going beyond Q&As to transform participation

• Building a dynamic virtual experience

Use the five senses to create an experience

The people who run retail stores, restaurants and hotels know the importance of putting customers in a certain mood as soon as they enter the establishment. So these folks spend a lot of time choosing the right lighting, décor, music and even scent.

A recent Marketing Insider article interviewed two executives from Mood Media, a firm that combines sight, sound, scent and other solutions to create emotional connections between brands and consumers.

The objective is to elevate “the experience—making it enjoyable to buy, to eat, to rest, to stay,” said Ken Eissing, president of in-store media, and Danny Turner, global senior vice president for programming and production.

For example, music is one of the strongest tools retailers have. “Music is evocative, personal, and has a unique ability to inspire mood and recollection. Hearing is a primal trigger. When I walk into a retail store, there’s no guarantee I’ll see an end-cap display but you can assume I’ll hear music.”

When applying this premise to town halls, consider:

• Playing relaxing music while employees are gathering, finding their seats and waiting for the town hall to begin—and energetic music to signal the event has started.

• Showing arresting visual images (on screen or in big posters or banners) that communicate something significant: faces of customers, for example.

• Using scent to convey a feeling. Is your company undergoing a transformation? How about choosing a scent that connotes something refreshing, like mint or a sea breeze?

• Giving employees a taste of something. Perhaps a cookie (sweet) or chips and salsa (spicy).

Some of these ideas may be a little out there for your organization, but you see where I’m going with this. There are lots of tools at your disposable to help create a town hall that’s inspiring, memorable and meaningful.

All you need to do is plan the experience.

What to do differently

A. Set objectives

A client sought ideas for easy ways to improve her organization’s quarterly town halls. She was clear about her sessions’ strengths and weaknesses:

• Pluses: Leader visibility, lots of rich content, most employees attend

• Minuses: Limited employee interaction (very few questions asked), too much content, same format every time, low energy level

But she wanted to know where she should start to build on strengths and address weaknesses. Our advice to this client was what it would be for anyone who aspires to make town halls more effective: Reboot objectives.

The problem is that, at the client’s company as at most organizations, the only objective applied to a town hall is “to hold the town hall every quarter.”

In other words, success is defined by checking the box (the town hall happened), not whether the session accomplished outcomes like these:

• Did employees learn something?

• Do they feel more motivated after the town hall?

• Are they prepared to take action?

If you don’t articulate outcomes, it’s difficult to design the session to achieve those objectives. And it’s why so many town halls become a collection of information rather than a focused experience designed to create knowledge, build motivation and persuade employees to do something.

So many town halls become a collection of information rather than a focused experience designed to create knowledge, build motivation and persuade employees to do something.

So, before your start making small improvements, here are three things you should do:

1. Make the big hairy, audacious change. Set tangible, specific objectives like these:

   – Increase confidence in the company and trust in leaders

   – Create learning about an issue that’s vital to the organization

   – Motivate participants

   – Prepare employees to take action

2. Work hard to gain buy-in from key stakeholders. Gain commitment that future town halls will change to achieve those objectives.

3. Design every research tool—from post-event surveys to an annual communication audit—to measure how well employees think you’ve achieved your objectives.

That means that all the other stuff that clutters up a town hall has to go: Multiple speakers. An array of topics. Too much time spent presenting. Too little time spent engaging employees in dialogue.

This isn’t easy, but it has the potential to make all the difference—from a mediocre town hall to a memorable one.

A key objective: increase confidence in the company and trust in leaders.

B. Create focus and flow

One of the most common mistakes made in planning town halls is including too many topics.

The root of the problem is this: Instead of designing the session from the objectives down, organizers go around collecting topics from key stakeholders:

• Most organizers start with topics “we always cover:” financial performance, other quarterly results and a review of priorities.

• Then a senior leader suggests adding a segment on a key initiative.

• Another leader chimes in that “we have to include time to talk about X topic.”

• At the 11th hour, the CEO remembers that “we absolutely need to cover Y topic.”

By the time the town hall begins, there are 10 or 12 topics shoehorned into 40 minutes of presentation time. That means the town seems like a laundry list (a bulleted list of facts) or rice at a wedding (unstructured content seems random and scattered.)

The result? The town hall isn’t interesting while it’s occurring and isn’t memorable afterwards. Employees recall that they attended the town hall, but they’re left with nothing but the painful fact that they’ll never get that hour back.

It doesn’t have to be this way. If you create focus, you can design town halls that create energy and engagement.

If you create focus, you can design town halls that create energy and engagement.

Remember that a town hall isn’t an information-delivery channel; it’s a key tool in the campaign to win the hearts and minds of employees. So you need to think differently about the way you create your agenda and help the leader develop his/her content. Ask yourself: How can you put this town hall together to raise employees’ energy and leave them feeling more motivated than when they came in?

There are two ways to do so:

First, build a story arc for your event. A “story arc” is a term that fiction writers, Broadway playwrights and Hollywood screenwriters use to describe the ups and downs of a narrative.

The classic story arc goes like this: Boy meets girl (creating interest). Boy gets girl (positive energy). He loses girl (negative dip). He fights the good fight and gets the girl back (positive energy). They live happily ever after (ending on a high note).

The story arc idea can be applied to any type of session in which the objective is to involve and motivate people, and encourage them to take action. Think about a campaign rally, for instance. If the speech is well-constructed and enthusiastically delivered, participants will cheer and leave determined to help their candidate succeed.

Here is an example of structuring a town hall session to create a story arc:

• Welcome/introductions (5 minutes)

• Thank you for great year; recognize teams and individuals that made a difference (5 minutes)

• Recap 7 priorities for coming year, giving a tangible example for each priority (5 minutes)

• Focus on customer service priority: what’s happening with our competitors, why customer service is a differentiator, how we’re going to go about improving our scores by 10% (15 minutes)

• Employee perspectives on customer service, brainstorm initial ideas, Q&A and discussion (25 minutes)

• Next steps (5 minutes)

The second way to create better flow is to eliminate every piece of information that’s not essential to tell your story. Town halls don’t happen very often, so it’s tempting to want to talk about everything that has happened since the last one. But, there’s a limit to how much information people can process before employees’ eyes glaze over and they’re overwhelmed.

That is why you should limit your agenda to no more than three key topics (yes, only three) and keep the level of detail to a minimum. Having fewer, more focused topics will help keep employees interested.

A story arc can be applied to any type of session in which the objective is to involve and motivate people, and encourage them to take action.

C. Keep content fresh

It’s time to focus on this town hall challenge: old news. Most town halls share information that employees already know. Employees learn nothing useful. The content is not only static (because it’s presented in a boring way); it’s also as stale as last week’s bread.

No wonder employees multitask during virtual town halls. After all, there’s no reason for employees to pay attention when they can’t learn anything new—or gain any value from what’s being shared.

The good news is this: You can create content that’s fresh and unexpected; you just need to work at it. Here are three ideas about how to do so during town halls:

• Instead of rehashing the quarterly financial report, ask the CFO to share what analysts are most concerned about.

• Instead of reiterating all seven strategic initiatives, suggest focusing on one strategy. Invite an internal expert to explain what it means. Create a breakout session where employees share their perspectives on the issue.

• Instead of repeating any existing content, ask yourself how to make key topics fresh and unexpected. For example, don’t review safety statistics; develop stories about how employees have taken steps to improve workplace safety. Show photos, play audio, create a video.

While you can’t change everything, you have the power to do this: Create content that’s fresh and unexpected.

Instead of rehashing the quarterly financial report, ask the CFO to share what analysts are most concerned about.

D. Arrange the “room”

The town hall should have been a stunning success. The CEO was warm, funny and engaging. He spoke in a relaxed way, focusing on a few topics employees cared about: company performance, key initiatives, the competition.

Yet when it came time for Q&A, an eerie stillness filled the room. Although employees seemed like they were paying close attention when the CEO spoke, they didn’t seem comfortable raising their hands.

There are a lot of reasons for the lack of participation, but the simplest one was this: The way the room was arranged discouraged employee participation.

Those responsible for organizing this town hall asked the hotel to arrange the room in theater style: semicircular rows of chairs facing a stage.

Here’s the problem: A theater-style arrangement sends a signal to people that their role is to observe and listen. We think of concerts, plays, movies, sporting events—all experiences where we’re not participants, but audience members.

Theater-style seating is one of the two worst room arrangements for participation. The other terrible setup is classroom style, where employees sit facing the stage behind a desk-like table. Classroom-style seating reminds us of being third-graders: We’re there to absorb information, and all power is at the front of the room (where the leader/teacher stands).

So, back to our original scenario. For the next town hall, we set up the room up with round tables, with employees sitting in a semi-circle around one side of each table, facing the CEO.

And here’s an important dynamic we used as well: We put the tables (and chairs) close together. As every stand-up comedian knows, wide-open spaces make people stiff. So bring employees in as close to speakers as possible. A little crowding is a good thing.

Changing the chairs (and using a few other techniques to encourage participation) dramatically improved the dynamic of the session. Employees interacted with each other more before the CEO began speaking. More importantly, when it came time for the Q&A, they actually asked questions. Some even made comments.

The upshot? Next time you conduct a town hall, consider the chairs.

A theater-style set up sends a signal to people that their role is to observe and listen.

E. Go beyond Q&As to transform participation

At nearly every traditional town hall, there’s a moment of silence that comes when a senior leader utters these four scary words: “Are there any questions?” A hush falls over the room. Nobody moves. People avoid making eye contact. Finally, some brave soul raises his hand and everyone starts breathing again.

Focus on one or two key topics of critical importance, then explore each subject in depth.

But town hall participation doesn’t have to be painful. In fact, there are seven ways to encourage employees to play a role.

1. Find out why employees don’t speak up. Conduct focus groups or interviews to explore what stops employees from participating. There are likely some common challenges, but there may be some unique factors at work in your organization. Only by understanding the barriers can you address them.

2. Limit the number of topics. Here’s a key reason employees don’t participate: The content being presented is too complex, abstract and boring, so employees can’t even think of a question to ask or a way to respond. So that’s another reason to focus on one or two key topics of critical importance, then explore the subject in depth.

3. Set expectations. Ask your leader to state up front that the town hall has been designed to include participation. The leader should then articulate how the session will work (especially if the format is different than previous town halls).

4. Allow plenty of time. Most town halls and other leader venues are too heavily weighted toward presentations, leaving only a few minutes at the end for Q&A. Once employees start to watch the clock (“only 10 more minutes”), they’re discouraged from participating. You need enough time to set up the discussion, facilitate dialogue and build momentum.

5. Take a vote. The safest way for employees to participate is as part of a big group. An effective option is audience response devices or text polling to ask employees their opinions on key issues. If you don’t have access to technology, you can still ask employees to share their viewpoint. The simplest approach? Call for a show of hands. A more fun and energetic way is “voting with your feet.” Instruct employees to move to the part of the room that represents their opinion, then ask the leader to comment on how employees are voting.

6. Eliminate the spotlight. Even the most extroverted of us find it difficult to raise our hand in front of all our colleagues. So create a way for employees to share their questions or thoughts more quietly. Facilitate a break-out session at tables or in small groups of two or three and ask employees to generate a couple of questions or concerns on cards. Then ask a spokesperson from selected groups to verbally share a thought. Because the ideas were generated in a group, it’s safer to speak up.

7. Instead of calling for questions, coach leaders to pose a question. Even in the most open, supportive culture, it’s risky for employees to expose potential ignorance by asking a question. But if the leader poses a question—like “What are the obstacles to achieving this objective?”—employees have the opportunity to participate from a position of strength.

Instead of calling for questions, coach leaders to pose a question.

Don’t plant questions

When employees don’t ask questions at town hall meetings, it becomes very tempting to start “planting” questions. After all, it’s awkward when a leader says, “Are there any questions?”, and no one moves or speaks for what seems like an eternity.

So the town hall organizing team seizes upon planted questions as a way to stop the pain of silence. It usually works like this:

• Before the town hall takes place, the organizing team comes up with a short list of questions employees might ask.

• Team members then provide those questions to a facilitator who pretends questions were asked beforehand or through chat from people participating remotely.

• “Volunteers” raise their hands and ask the prepared questions.

Here’s the main reason you shouldn’t do this: Most employees know immediately that planted questions are fake.

Planted questions are always more scripted than the way real employees talk. And they’re usually shaped from a more high-level perspective than how real employees look at the world. So planted questions sound like what they are: packaged content created by professional communicators.

Plus, although the hope is that planted questions will break the ice and lead to actual questions, they often have the opposite effect. Since planted questions are so perfectly articulated, they dissuade employees from sharing the specific, not-entirely-baked thoughts in their heads.

After all, why risk sounding dumb or combative when it’s so much safer to say nothing?

To create genuine interaction in your next town hall, start by eliminating planted questions.

F. Build a dynamic virtual experience

Here’s the problem with conducting a town hall meeting where some employees gather in person and others join remotely: Remote employees have an inferior experience, especially when it comes to participation.

As one client told me recently: “Our CEO is very interested in engaging with employees. But he naturally focuses on people he can see in the room. It’s hard to get him to pay attention to questions coming in over chat when he can see someone’s hand being raised in the audience.”

How to increase participation among those attending virtually? Take a trip to an art sale, like the kind hosted by top auction houses like Christie’s and Sotheby’s

Even if you’ve never been to a fine-art auction in person, you know how they work from watching movies or TV shows:

• Some potential buyers gather in the auction house’s showroom; others call in.

• The auctioneer invites someone to start the bidding.

• After an initial bid, buyers in the room raise their hands or shout out higher bids; auction house employees make bids for buyers on the phone.

• Finally, the auctioneer indicates that he has a winning bid and strikes his hammer down to indicate the auction is over.

Here’s the key: Remote buyers have as much opportunity to bid as those in the showroom. (In fact, the anonymous buyer on the phone often wins the multi-million dollar prize.)

So how do you replicate that everyone-is-equal experience in employee town halls? Assign facilitators to manage remote employees’ questions and comments.

It works like this:

• You assign a facilitator to manage each remote location—and a partner facilitator who sits in the main location (where the leader is). (That’s right: There are two facilitators to serve as a bridge between each location and the center.)

• The remote facilitator is responsible for collecting employees’ questions and comments—and feeding them to his or her partner facilitator via chat, text or email.

• An additional facilitator monitors employees joining from their individual desks, who ask questions or comment via a dedicated chat window.

• During the interactive portion of the town hall, each facilitator in the room has several chances to raise his or her hand and ask a question or make a comment on behalf of his or her assigned location. (Each facilitator knows to make reference to the location: “I have a question from our facility in Budapest…”)

• The leader, who has been briefed ahead of time, knows to give equal time to employees in the room and to facilitators representing those not in the room.

This technique takes coordination, for sure. But it immediately changes the dynamic so remote employees don’t feel like voyeurs, peering in at the town hall but not having a chance to join the party.

How do you create an everyone-is-equal experience in employee town halls? Assign facilitators to manage remote employees’ questions and comments.

Measure progress/success

Picture it: The town hall is over and you’re basking in the positive responses. But you ask yourself, “Was it worth it?”

When I review surveys that assess town halls, I’ve noticed that questions tend to focus on the experience: Rate the speakers. How was the room? Did you like the food?

While answers to these questions will provide clues about satisfaction with the event, they won’t help you demonstrate impact. Instead, move away from things you know (for example, the mini quiches weren’t hot and a senior leader needs presentation coaching) and focus on what you’re trying to achieve.

Your survey questions should fall into these four buckets:

• Participation. There are two parts to this one: A. Employees attend (because they find the meeting valuable). B. And they have the opportunity to contribute during the meeting; for example, providing ideas or asking questions.

• Key topics. What level of knowledge are you trying to build by the end of the town hall? For example, awareness of a new corporate strategy or in-depth knowledge of the customer first initiative.

• Attitudes. What attitudes are you trying to influence? For example, employees feel energized to take on challenges for the new year.

• Actions. Do attendees understand what to do after the meeting?

Write the post-meeting survey right after you draft objectives and before you start planning the town hall. It will force you to think about objectives and help you design the meeting differently.

For example, if your goal is to build in-depth knowledge of the customer first initiative, you’ll need opportunities for discussion and idea sharing (breakouts), not just a series of talking heads.

Move away from things you know and focus on what you’re trying to achieve.

About Alison Davis

Alison sets the strategic direction for Davis & Company, an award-winning firm that helps companies reach, engage and motivate their employees. Since founding the firm in 1984, Alison has provided senior counsel to clients such as Motorola Solutions, Nestlé, Roche and Rogers Communications.

In addition to writing Revitalize Town Hall Meetings, Alison has written or edited these groundbreaking books: 49 ways to improve employee communication (2013), The Definitive Guide to HR Communication (2011), and Your Attention, Please (2006, updated 2015). Alison is a former online columnist for The New York Times and frequently writes articles for leading business and trade publications. A seasoned blogger, she is the author of the company's Insights Blog and writes an online column for Inc.

To learn more about Davis & Company, please visit davisandco.com. You can also browse our other titles.