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# How to make any meeting better with 3 simple fenceposts
- URL: https://www.improvesomething.today/purpose-rational-aim-experiential-aim/
- Published: 2022-11-30T16:00:26.000Z
- Updated: 2026-01-09T17:21:46.000Z
- Description: Identify a purpose, rational aim & experiential aim—quick actions with a huge effect.
- Author: Brian Kerr
- Tags: Facilitation

Before your next meeting, write down these three things:

1. **Purpose** ← the topic or problem that brings a group together.
2. **Rational aim** ← the action, decision, or outcome the group must arrive at.
3. **Experiential aim** ← how the group will feel changed by the experience. Express this as a feeling: something like *resolved* or *open* or *refreshed*.

Many meetings begin with only one of these known. The best have all three.

Here’s how to use them:

- At the beginning of a meeting, share the meeting’s purpose and the rational aim. For example: *“We are here today to X. We’ll get there by creating Y and Z together.”*
- Keep the experiential aim to yourself, but keep it in mind.
- At the end, close with a question that reinforces the experiential aim.

## Consensus Workshop

The Institute of Cultural Affairs’ Consensus Workshop is a more elaborate facilitation method. Consensus workshop uses the rational aim and experiential aim to build a fence around group work, and then offers structured planning tools to make sure those aims are met.

## For today: keep it simple

Even for short, informal meetings, take a few moments to get clear on the meeting’s purpose and identify both a rational aim and an experiential aim.

- Knowing the purpose will help the group begin.
- Knowing the rational aim will help everyone walk the same path.
- And knowing the experiential aim will help *you* produce the experience of change or transition that is needed.

May 15, 2024: edited for length.