All-hands meetings are the perfect time to measure progress against goals, get updates on company-wide initiatives, and communicate future plans. As good as they are for transmitting crucial information, once you hit a certain size, meaningful conversation becomes more difficult—especially if some or all of your team is remote. Grouping colleagues together for breakout sessions after an all-hands meeting (and including conversation prompts) is a great way to brainstorm, ask questions, and contextualize the information you just heard.
💡Buffer uses breakout sessions as a way to meet colleagues and inspire thought.
How to Set up Breakout Sessions in Donut
Create a Slack channel for breakout sessions and invite teammates to join it.
Log into your dashboard, click "Donut Channels in Your Workspace" & then "Start New Donut Channel."
Align the frequency with your all-hands meetings, and select the date of next pairing as your next all-hands meeting. Note that depending on the frequency of your all-hands meetings and whether they're held consistently on the same day or not, you might have to update Donut to align with future scheduled meetings.
Consider changing the group size to 4-5 people, and the Intro message to add a specific prompt (in Advanced settings). You can customize the intro message for each all-hands meeting depending on what will be covered, or you can add a thought-provoker not tied to a particular topic like "Please share a like, a wish, and a wonder based on our all-hands meeting today."
Don't forget to check your reporting to confirm whether or not people have had a chance to meet for their breakout sessions, and to see whether they have any feedback for you.
❓If you have any questions or feedback, click the purple Donut button on the bottom right of your screen to open up a chat with our support team!