Joanna Parsons’ Checklist for Running World-Class Town Halls
4 Nov 2024
We got to host a webinar with Joanna Parsons, CEO of the Curious Route, here at Workvivo. The award-winning comms consultant and author talked about delivering world–class town halls. And yes, we were starstruck.
Correction: *are starstruck.
When Joanna began her webinar, she asked attendees to share the words they’d use to describe a typical town hall for them.
Here are some of the things they said.
- Stagnant
- Boring
- Dry
- Sterile
- Flat
- Stressful
- Sleepy
- Awkward
- Exhausting
- Lame
- Challenging
- Necessary
- Top-down
For something that impacts every person in an organization, and (hopefully) takes place pretty regularly, these sentiments are not reassuring.
But they tie in perfectly with the top mistakes Joanna sees companies make with their town halls…
- Lack of clear purpose
- Irrelevant content
- Speakers talking for too long
- Information overload
- Monotonous format that’s the same every time
She groups the top two into the ‘fundamentals’ bucket – what you absolutely need to deliver in a town hall – and the other three into the ‘fun’ bucket – the parts of your town hall where you can get creative and experiment.
Here’s how she recommends nailing both groups. Click the image to download the cheat sheet, and watch Joanna’s webinar back for free here!
