Vibe Check?

A 30-Second Meeting Trick

Aug 27, 2026

Hey there, just one quick idea for you this week, about how I like to I set “the vibe” of an important meeting, conference, session, etc.

There are so many different ways to do this, I know some folks like sharing their ‘Rules of Engagement’, or, get their groups working collaboratively on ‘Group Agreements’, or ‘Hopes and Fears’ from the upcoming session.

I don’t think there’s a hard and fast rule of what you should(n’t) do, but one thing I like to bring in time-to-time is a ‘vibe continuum’.

Here’s an example from a session I ran this week

I had two teams come together to work towards setting their initiatives for a program of work.

To set the session up, I drew a few continuums on a flipchart, which you can see pictured below (notice, my handwriting hasn’t improved over the years… still!).

When I was thinking about the type of workshop I wanted to run, I knew I wanted it to be:

Focused on initiatives (programs of work), not tactics.
Challenge ideas; not the person
To start with discussion, then end with decision-making.
Light, not heavy.
Success; not perfection (and, success is a range - thanks, Alan Weiss) - this was such a helpful one to keep the conversation moving, and not stuck on semantics.

I drew up the continuums in purple beforehand.

Then, after sharing a bit about the agenda, I walked over to the flipchart with my green Sharpie and stated, “Okay, so here’s where we’re going to play. Here’s where we need to focus the conversation, based on the meeting outcome.”

I drew the dots on where I’d ideally like the group to show up; and gave examples of what that would actually look like/why it was important.

I like doing this is because of the way people interpret words.

Take “respectful”, for example.

If you say, “We’re going to be respectful in this workshop,” what does that actually mean?

For some people, it might mean showing up on time, for someone else, it might mean not interrupting. For someone else, it might mean giving everyone space to contribute.

We use the same word, but we can mean completely different things.

By putting the word against a continuum, you get much more specific about what it means in the room, for this group and session, today.

And you can show people how much you’re going to index towards one side or the other.

You can use this, of course, if you’re a consultant, hosting an event, or a workshop facilitator. But you can also use it if you’re a leader running a meeting.

You can also ask the group to select where they want to play.

It’s a cool tool because different meetings have different intentions, and different vibes.

So rather than giving people a binary set of rules about how to behave, you can just visually map it.

It takes 30 seconds - but it helps set the right vibe for the conversations that follow.

What do you use to ‘set the tone’ in your sessions? LMK!

Discussion about this post

Ready for more?