How To Design An All-Hands Meeting Your Employees Actually Want to Attend

YOUR EMPLOYEES ACTUALLY WANT TO Attend
HOW TO design an
ALL-HANDS
MEETING
elm | elearningmind.com

with the To help people learn better and a vision to
accomplish this through building a company where employees were highly
engaged and fulfilled in the work they do.
Two entrepreneurs came together in 2013
passion

One of the keys to accomplishing this was launching a monthly meeting
(an All-Hands Meeting) that allowed for transparency,
feedback, and some fun.

Andrew and Simon met a solopreneur Jack Makhlouf looking to take
his creative design agency called eLearning Mind to the next level.

Realizing Jack shared their same vision, the three of
them decided to join forces.

how elm got started?
Andrew Fayad and Simon Casuto founded eLearning Mind in 2013, a creative design agency focused on
transforming digital learning experiences.

and have implemented top culture research into building a business where
both the business and employees can
Positive Leader
They lead with a model called
engagethrive

have been and continue to be a crucial part of our own culture, and
contribute to the success we’ve seen as a business and as individuals.
ALL-HANDS
MEETINGcrucial part
The

This slideshare gives a foundation from which
any business can launch their own All-Hands.

IN THIS SLIDESHARE
WHAT YOU WILL LEARN
How Our Own All-Hands Meeting Has Transformed Our Startup
15 Ways To Make Your All-Hands Meetings Less Annoying
How An All-Hands Meeting Supports Your Business
Companies Who Use All-Hands Meetings
What is an ALL-HANDS MEETING & and Why Most Suck?

an ALL-HANDS MEETING?
WHAT IS

An “All-Hands” Meeting (also called a TownHall) is an organization-wide business meeting where
all employees are encouraged to participate in asking questions and engaging with other employees
and executives.
it’s an unfiltered chat in an effort to get
everyone on the same page, where everyone feels
equal and no question is off the table.
Basically,

these meetings kind of suck
a lot of the time,
BUT
Because they are held for the wrong reasons, like:

there are a ton of companies
out there using
BUT
All-Hands Meeting

Giving acknowledgement where due
Welcoming new team members
Reinforcing your mission and values
Setting goals and expectations
Opportunities for employee growth
Realignment with customer success
Invaluable Feedback
Fostering employee ownership
and seeing the following results...
Cultivating transparency in communication
Establishing accountability
Overcoming the fragmented nature of virtual companies
Promoting fun and boosting employee morale
Improved company culture

what do these companies do in their meetings to keep
employees engaged, and even a little excited?
so...

LESS ANNOYING EVEN KIND OF Fun!&
ways to make your
ALL-HANDS
MEETING
15

2
#1
prior to meeting.
get employee feedback

2
Send every employee advance notice of the meeting and a meeting
agenda (tentative but ﬂexible). Let your employees know what the
meeting will cover and more importantly, ask if they have any
suggestions to make it better. Give employees and easy, and “safe” way
to do this.
This not only aids in the planning of the meeting, but allows everyone to
be prepared and feel included. You might also capture ideas or discover
issues you were unaware of prior to, creating a unique opportunity to
address them now.
#1

1 3
#2
INVITE OUTSIDE GUESTS
TO JOIN YOUR MEETING.
(CEOs, investors, leaders, and community members)

1 3
The value of a variety of different perspectives and ideas is undeniable.
Bringing in people outside of your company creates a truer sense of
transparency and openness to take an honest look at what’s going on.
The retail giant Zappos takes this to the next level bringing in CEOs,
investors, and members of the community to be involved in their quarterly
All-Hands meetings.
#2

2 4
#3
CELEBRATE WINSwithin your company.

2 4
At our company we call this “giving props.” It’s important to give credit
where credit is due. Publicly facilitate a way to give recognition to
individuals and teams when it’s warranted. Wins should also be a mix of
both personal and professional accomplishments. This practice builds
camaraderie and fosters an atmosphere for positivity and motivation.
#3

3 5
#4
mAKE SURE YOU HAVE A
compelling session format.

3 5
It’s so important to start off the meeting with high energy! Whether that’s
giving props at the start, or following the steps of some companies who
invite bands to perform.
After that, using the right format can help you increase the engagement
level with your employees. Going from a key presenter, to interviews, to
lightning talks, to discussion tables, it’s important to mix it up, break up the
meeting, and keep it interesting.
#4

4 6
#5
SHOWCASE EMPLOYEE
talent or passion.

4 6
This may sound odd, but All-Hands meetings are a great way to offer a
stage for employees to grow in their personal interests and talents. Maybe
you have an employee who is passionate about emotional intelligence.
You might consider giving them a chance to teach their peers about the
topic for 5 to 10 minutes during the meeting.
Zappos let’s employees passionate about singing, dancing, or other
creative outlets perform during their meetings. This allows employees to
express who they are, often resulting in higher retention.
#5

5 7
#6
reinforce your company
values, vision, and mission.

5 7
What better time to bring clarity and updates around where you stand
and what you believe in as a company? Take the opportunity to get
feedback on how you are doing in living out your vision and values.
These are essential to keeping people onboard.
Google takes All-Hands as an opportunity to reinforce a sense of value,
vision, and mission to their employees.
#6

6 8
#7
HAVE YOUR EMPLOYEES
present learning topics at each meeting.

6 8
Your All-Hands meeting can be the perfect time to add value from a
learning standpoint. Let each department share what they are working
on, rather than leadership. This provides a dual learning opportunity
for not only the company, but the individual(s) presenting.
Justworks rotates through their departments each week, allowing
them to educate other departments about what they are working on.
An example is having their marketing team teach everyone about why
messaging, voice, and tonal guidelines are important.
#7

7 9
#8
BE FULLY TRANSPARENT OF WHERE THE COMPANY IS AT
and where it’s heading.

7 9
This is your opportunity to build a sense of “ buy-in” and loyalty to
the company. Be honest with your employees about where you are
at, and build a vision for them of where the company is going, how
you are going to get there, and what their role is in making that
happen.
#8

8 10
#9
use pictures and videos
to capture and keep attention.

8 10
Absolutely no one likes staring at plain text on a screen for an hour.
Visuals and video add life to any presentation, and help you keep the
attention of your highly distracted audience. Adding a photo can add
impact to a story, and showing a video can more easily solidify an idea
because our brain processes visuals 60,000 times faster than text.
#9

9 11
#10
CONSISTENT AND REGULAR.
KEEP THEM

9 11
Having your meetings on a monthly (or more if you can and need to)
basis to establish consistency and instill a sense of importance around
the meeting for employees.
#10

10 12
#11
make sure your tech works.
PLEASe,

10 12
This might sound like a no-brainer, but a poor Google Hangout
connection can take the meeting from a 10 to a 1. Don’t wait til the last
minute to check your tech! Find something reliable and get it set up in
advance. We promise this will save you a lot of headaches later.
#11

11 13
#12
Diversify Who’s Speaking.

11 13
Always putting the CEO up to speak is predictable, and therefore,
boring. You can have the most charismatic CEO, but bringing in
different speakers (whether internal or external) brings in a variety of
opinions and feels less biased. New ideas beneﬁt the entire company.
#12

12 14
#13
two-way open dialogue
Establish a
and add a Q&A session.

12 14
Before you launch your All-Hands meeting say this outloud:
“It’s a dialogue, not a monologue”.
Make sure the conversation is actually a conversation. Leave plenty of
opportunity for comments and questions around hot topics.
Facebook does this well, using their own chat function to let employees
ask questions. Employees can “like” questions and top questions get
pushed to the front.
“
?
#13

Showcase what you do
and how it affects the community.
13 15
#14

13 15
#14
It’s important to remind and show employees the direct impact of their
contributions to not only the company, but to clients and even the
community around you. When you can clearly see the impact of your
actions, you are motivated to do more and feel a sense of
accomplishment and purpose.
Accomplishment is linked to a release of dopamine in the brain, which
makes you feel good and become “addicted” to positive reinforcement
like accomplishments.

Introduce the new
14
#15

14
#15
With everyone together, this is an ideal time to introduce new ideas, new
plans, new employees, and really anything new the company is bringing
to the table. This creates a sense of inclusion. For example, we introduce
new employees during our meetings, bringing a little spotlight to them
and reinforcing their value to the company. You have everyone’s
undivided attention, so make sure you are using it well.

But WHY
WHY
W
W
H
WHY
WHY
WHY
WHY
WHY
WHY
WHY
WHY
WHY
WHY
WHY
HY
WHY

we’ve implemented a monthly All-Hands Meeting in an effort to promote overall
transparency, spark employee ownership, and boost overall employee morale and
company culture.
As the founders of a startup called eLearning Mind,

We hold our All-Hands Meetings each month (as consistent as
possible) to discuss a variety of topics surrounding where our
business is now, and where we want to be in the future.

Announcements
ELM growth
what did we learn as a Agency
2015 Key agency Metrics
2015 Key agency Metrics & Q1 ELM Rocks
2016 Strategic Plan
Elm Branches: product, marketing, client
development elm tree
elm mission, vision & brand vision
We’ve found it to be vital that each meeting has an agenda to set
expectations up front, that also allows for enough flexibility to include
a Q&A with employees on what’s discussed.
Agenda

We talk about a variety of things like:
our growth
or vision
our values
announcements
our metrics
changes
topics
our strategy
more
along
these
lines.

One of the most important parts
of our All-Hands
3
that is consistent in every meeting is giving one another
for things well done. Along with this, we’ve
also included notes from the founders thanking the entire
company for major accomplishments. This seemingly small
component adds massive bursts of energy to our meeting
and an overall mood boost to our meeting.
#PROPS
“props”

BUT
to share with you is what we’ve learned through
years of holding these meetings that have yielded
the best results for our business
WHAT WE REALLY WANT
3
01
21

Visuals are key, especially for folks who are not looking at ﬁnancial or sales ﬁgures
on a weekly or even daily basis. Just adding a few key visuals to support your
content and breakup the monotony.
Visuals are key,

Put time into concluding. What do you want to leave everyone with?
Put time into concluding

All good news! In group settings you want to have the word “cheerleading” in mind.
If negative issues or problems arise, address them directly of course. But, the
majority of your time spent together in an All-Hands should be inspirational and
rallying the group.
All good news!

Tell stories, and present cases, especially client cases. That’s how people learn and
retain information and take-aways.
Tell stories, and present cases, especially client cases.

Have people send in questions to their managers or on a forum before so they
aren’t shy about asking during the meeting and questions get addressed.
Have people send in questions

Keep it short , to the point, and use it as a forum for things you want to positively
encourage and replicate. (Example is props: which is calling out behavior that has
gone above and beyond.)
Keep it short, and to the point

Leave lots of time open to discussion, and ask questions 1:1 or in smaller group
setting leading into the All-Hands (otherwise employees may feel less conﬁdent to
address issues or asking questions in a big open setting).
Leave lots of open to dicussion

QUESTIONS?
HAVE MORE

Tell Us What You Think
nINA.TOMARO@ELEARNINGMIND.COM
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