Case Study: How Launch Darkly made their most expensive meeting worth it

“I want to re-imagine it completely”. This is how LaunchDarkly, a 500-person high-growth tech organization, described the current state of their monthly All Company gathering.

LaunchDarkly partnered with The Gathering Effect to re-design not only their monthly hybrid meeting but also their broader communication practices to better support a now-remote organization. Read on to review critical changes we implemented immediately to increase engagement and ensure scale-ability.

Step 1: Define the ideal state

Employee and Leadership feedback, survey data, and stakeholder interviews centered on 3 main goals for ‘All Company’:

• Make it scale-able: “Everyone wants to present”, “we’ve outgrown many of our existing rituals”

• Optimize for employee alignment and connection: “let’s preserve what makes us special and ensure this time is well spent”

• Improve clarity and retention of information “Our agenda is packed, repetitive, and often not relevant”

Step 2: Diagnose the current state

The Gathering Effect (TGE) reviewed 5 recent All Company recordings to form our analysis: 

Keep

1. Desire for connection 

   1. There is a very active Zoom chat. Employees want to connect and be involved yet the gathering is primarily one-way.

2. Warmth

   1. Sense of care towards employees comes through; preserve this piece

Adjust

1. Over-saturation (the suitcase is stuffed)

   1. Packed agenda causes cognitive overload for participants, stress for planners, and constant last-minute changes

2. Lack of clarity

   1. Agenda evolves organically rather than being planned strategically. Lack of pre and post-communication with employees

3. Lack of relevance

   1. 75% of presentations are department updates

   2. Not optimizing for synchronous (what we do all together) vs asynchronous (what we can do apart, like email) communication

“This is the only chance we have to connect as an organization” - LaunchDarkly CEO.

Despite the desire for connection, the gathering was optimized for information instead. One reason why: ‘All Company’ is the only communication mechanism and sole opportunity for employees to hear directly from leadership. Because of this, everyone wanted their content shared.

Step 3: Adjust the gathering

Here’s the 3-step approach we suggested:

1. Refine outcomes: Clarify what this gathering is for to help it scale

2. Make the gathering more brain-friendly: add small retention mechanisms to improve clarity and retention of information

3. Shift specific portions to asynchronous communication to optimize employee connection

Many organizations start with content. Start with the effect instead. 

Executives first aligned on the desired effect for their gathering: to align the organization on the mission and their progress towards it. Without this clarity, the monthly agenda lacked focus and a process for deciding who should take part. This often led to last-minute slide scrambling and a burden for gathering organizers. 

Once the desired effect was decided, we then introduced the concept of strategic filtering:

Agendas often balloon when the call for participation lacks clarity. This also makes it harder to say ‘no’. The meeting had been used primarily as an opportunity to share department updates, a process that wouldn’t scale as the company grew and more departments were added.

We instead introduced a 3-step litmus test to decide what to include in their meeting - or share in other communication mechanisms (which were newly introduced). 

1. Does it apply to all employees?

2. Is there a clear call to action?

3. Do you want to engage and not only inform?

That way, organizers weren’t saying ‘no’ necessarily but directing folks to the channel best suited to their content. Speakers now receive submission and speaker guidelines to ease the burden on organizers. The number of announcement-only requests has decreased, and those that are included are lumped into one slide for clarity and brevity.

Typical agendas look like the agenda on the left. They highlight the content you are sharing. This makes it easier for people to tune out when the section isn’t relevant to them, especially virtually - a challenge LaunchDarkly could relate to.

Instead of crafting an agenda slide based on topics or content, they now prepare their agenda slide based on the effect (the right). Not only that, but they communicate the ‘effect agenda’ before and after the gathering to increase clarity and retention. Doing so makes it very explicit what employees will walk away with and what will be different because of their time together. 

Key takeaways, clear calls to action, and follow-ups help employees retain and remember the content organizers worked so hard to put together. Each meeting begins with a ‘review’ and ‘preview’ of what was covered last month and what employees can expect in this month’s meeting. 

In addition, they created a new Slack channel for company announcements. They are in the early stages of creating a company newsletter to take the pressure off of All Company to be the only communication mechanism. 

“I was definitely feeling it was time for us to reboot All Company - this new format is much more engaging and helps us connect more as an organization” - LaunchDarkly Co-Founder

This meeting is still the only opportunity for employees to hear from leadership and leadership to hear from employees. Because of this desire for connection, we introduced a new 5-minute section called “What’s on our minds”.  LaunchDarkly’s CEO and co-founder share what is top of mind for them in the business, professionally and personally. Then they share a summary of questions received from employees during the week of All Company. Less content, and more time for Q&A. 

Employees, presenters, and meeting organizers have been receptive to these enhancements. 88% of employees surveyed say All Company is either a good or great use of their time, increasing their sense of alignment with the organization and energy towards the mission. 

Lindsey Caplan is a screenwriter turned organizational psychologist who helps HR & business leaders create experiences that boost motivation, engagement, and performance

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