Introduction to Moments of Truth

3. How do you use MoT?

By now, you should have a handle on what MoT is and why it matters. How do you use it effectively, though? Traditionally, the approach has been to reserve an entire meeting to the program and try to tackle the six modules all at once. While this can work, it often can result in too many "wish list items" coming up that aren't addressed.

If you decide to use MoT this way, here are some suggestions for doing so:

Perform the MoT meeting near the beginning or the very end of the Toastmasters year, so that an implementation plan can be drafted for the year ahead.
Open with lecture about the MoT's; briefly describe what they are, and what their purpose is. After that, focus more on small group activities than lecture. Make sure to mix up the groups so that there's a good distribution of new and old members for more perspectives.
Provide worksheets to keep the groups on task. (worksheets are available in the planning section in the resources folder)
Allow groups to work on more than one MoT by rotating them. This will give you more perspectives. Don't expect every group to touch all the MoTs, however - expect that they can really get into 2-3 depending on your time limits. 10-15 minutes per MoT should do.
Have each group do the ratings as an aggregate to turn in on a worksheet, as well as their top 3-5 suggestions for improvement and the 3-5 top things the club does well for that MoT.
Collect the aggregate worksheets for review by the officers. Review the suggestions and scores briefly and get some feedback on them.
You may want to put the suggestions up on a whiteboard or other medium, and have club members vote on what month they should be completed/focused on, then have the club secretary record a month-by-month plan. Try to narrow down how many objectives you'll pursue, and make sure it is clear who will do what by when. If you have a clear idea of what the top 3 suggestions are for each MoT, you'll have a better time than trying to pursue 33 objectives.

Whatever you do, if you want this to work, you must record the results and act on them, or the suggestions turn into "wish list items" that get done if and when someone feels like it. This makes the whole exercise a waste of time.

If taking a whole meeting isn't practical, what are some other options for conducting MoT?

Focus on one MoT per month. Since there are six MoTs, you can either do them one month at a time twice during the year, or two months at a time. Do a brief session at the first meeting of the month similar to the above process to collect data (use the worksheets), then figure out what you want to achieve by the end and who will do what by when. At the end of the period, have a brief session to collect data again to see if you've improved that MoT. Use club business at the opening to remind people of the monthly MoT the club is focusing on.
Use a MoT-themed meeting to collect data. You can use the MoT theme cheat sheet to facilitate this. This can work well with the above.
Do it as an officer meeting. You won't get as much feedback, but if this is your only option, it's still valuable.
If you have the people and the motivation, create a MoT or Club Quality committee that is dedicated to making sure the club is continually improving.

No matter how you run MoT, you must get the feedback recorded and followed up on consistently. If you don't do this, you won't get anything out of the program.