All Hands Meeting

Owned by Giovani Salvador (Deactivated)
Jul 18, 2024
3 min read

These guidelines were defined based on our employees' feedback. It aims to improve the quality of our presentation and boost people’s attention and content retention.

For Presenters

Guidelines

  1. Share the decision-making process behind projects and activities: Based on which pillars/guiding principles did your department prioritize this initiative/project? People need to understand the logic/rationality behind decisions.

  1. Transform data into valuable information: More than just explaining numbers, it's critical to explain why they matter, and why they're so useful. Put yourself in the shoes of the other person and consider whether they are aware of the significance of this number. Here's an example: This month, we completed X merges on our code. So, what is the month-to-month average? Are we better than average? What does it all mean? Is there a more qualified coding script now?

  1. Don’t be too technical: Remember that the All Hands Meeting is an opportunity to spread the word and share key departmental information with others. Do not assume that everyone understands everything you're saying. Make your speech understandable to everyone by translating specific terminology, including a glossary/simple explanation in your presentation, or attempting to swap specific terms for more generic terms whenever possible.

  1. Send the slides to the owner 24 hours before the All Hands Meeting: Every presenter should finish their slides 24 hours before the meeting. This will give us time to review and suggest changes according to the best practices (like adding a summary, presenter names, etc.); this also helps whoever is managing the meeting to prepare with more time in advance (not having to wait until the last minute to upload the presentation to the meeting room).

Best Practices

  1. Slides information: Even though All Hands Meetings should be attended by all employees, we recognize that timezone is a challenge; this implies that if someone sees your slides asynchronously, they should be understandable and with clear directions. Try to include the following items in your presentation: The name of the project/initiative, the person in charge, the status, and the next steps. It will greatly simplify our lives.

  1. Summarizing important points: Remember that you/your department is merely one of several All Hands Meeting presenters. Try to include a concluding slide that recaps and summarizes key points from your presentation. It will also help with material and attention retention, as well as future async consultations on your presentation.

  1. Centralized folder in our Rocket.Chat shared Drive: We organized an "All Hands Meeting" folder in our Shared Drive to consolidate and build a single search for truth. Please consolidate your presentation there, following the folder's arrangement by year > month. (Location: Shared Drive > Rocket.Chat > All Hands Meeting)

  1. Important links shared in the All Hands Meeting chat: You must include the URL of those links shared during All Hands meeting in your presentation in a visible location to encourage access to it following the All Hands Meeting.

  1. (Culture Pillar) Use this opportunity to thank your team and share critical team deliverables, giving them a voice: The leader should choose some members of your team to present a significant deliverable that demonstrates the impact of their efforts, the problems they faced, and how they overcame them. It is a method of positively exposing your team's hard work and promoting engagement of your team with the rest of the company.

For the Organizer/Owner

Important directions

  1. Shared Drive Folder: The owner of this assignment must establish a new folder for the month, as well as a new document for the next presentation, to keep the single search for the truth up to date.

  1. Ensure that Guidelines & Best Practices are being followed: We need to have someone to reinforce the importance of following those guidelines and best practices.

Meeting Planning

  • Every second All Hands meeting of each month: OKRs track session

  • 1 week before All Hands Meeting: This is an excellent opportunity to reaffirm Guidelines and Best Practices with upcoming presenters.

  • 1 day before All Hands Meeting: Analyze the slides and make some minor changes based on the All Hands Meeting rules and best practices.

  • After each All Hands Meeting: 1) Insert the All Hands recording link in the All Hands Meeting folder (Each month's folder will have a document titled "Recordings All Hands Meeting," which is where you should insert the recordings); 2) In the #important channel, share the URL to the All Hands meeting folder for that month, along with instructions such as "month X" and then "day DD/MM/YYYY," to educate others on where to discover our "one search for truth."