Why Your Fall Business Update Is Putting Everyone to Sleep (And How to Fix It)

September rolls around, everyone's back from summer, and you need to realign the company for the next few months. So you do what you always do: deck full of slides, 30 minutes for people to learn, process, and respond. Their eyes glaze over. You think "people like this format, I always get good responses." Of course they do—nobody wants to tell the CEO or Executive Director that the format sucks.

Allison McMillan has heard all the excuses. "This is what people are used to." Yeah, and "we've always done it this way" is the worst reason to keep doing anything. "We have a lot of information to get through." Sure, but what does everyone actually need to know versus what could be an optional deep dive for people who want more? "I don't have time to think about a different way." That's what outside facilitators are for.

Here's what actually works. Pre-record the update and send it a week in advance so people can process it on their own time. Keep it tight—just because you're pre-recording doesn't mean you should balloon from 20 to 40 minutes. Then do segments followed by breakout rooms where people have to DO something: write down work that maps to these focus items, outline their top 3 excitements and top 3 risks.

Or try stations around a room, museum-exhibit style. More of your leadership team gets involved. They present facts, graphs, short customer clips. Individuals spend time at stations for areas they know less about. Or go completely off-the-wall: send information in advance, then do smaller group discussions followed by volunteer slideshow karaoke—15 predetermined slides, auto-advancing every 15 seconds, content based on state of the company. It'll be memorable, guaranteed.

The point isn't that you need to adopt these exact formats. The point is that your staff is tired of slide decks they have to passively consume. Make it interactive. Make it stick. Or at least acknowledge that the current format isn't working as well as you think it is.