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Ten Ideas to Encourage Individual Involvement in Interactive Meetings
Most interactive meetings require all team members openly communicate on agenda topics while participating in decision making and problem solving. Active participation in meetings yields better results than those meetings where people passively sit listening and providing very little input. Often meetings will have different levels of participation from the team members. Some will talk a lot while others will talk very little or not at all. For those team members not interacting with the group, there are some ideas a team leader may wish to try in order to encourage that individual and everyone else to become more involved.
1. If someone provides a good suggestion or pertinent information to the team leader before the meeting, ask them to do some research and then introduce the idea along with their data at the next meeting.
2. Rotate responsibility for facilitating meetings and taking minutes so everyone understands the roles. Whenever possible, delegate different topics on the agenda to others in various meetings so everyone gets a chance to share and shine.
3. To get everyone involved, call on different people to share their ideas, opinions, and thoughts on topics throughout the meeting.
4. If someone is not actively participating, look directly at them and use their name when asking a question to encourage a response and increase their participation level.
5. Realize there is no need to rush through the entire meeting. Be patient and give people time to think and respond to ideas presented. After a few minutes of silence, ask a question to prompt discussion or see if the group wants to continue onto a new agenda topic.
6. Create a safe respectful environment for open exchange of ideas and opinions. One way to do this is to never allow belittling of a person’s questions or input – everyone can add value including the devil’s advocate.
7. Take time in the meeting to praise good work done by employees outside the meeting. During the meeting say thank you for sharing. Appreciation makes members feel valued. Valued people are more willing to speak up and share their ideas.
8. If someone appears to be dominating the meeting or discussion, don’t let it go too far. When one person takes over the meeting, other ideas are not shared and better decisions become harder to make as people may feel intimidated. Instead, thank the talker for their contribution after a few minutes and then move to the next topic or ask a question of a quieter team member.
9. At the end of the meeting, make sure everyone has an action item to do after the meeting. There is almost always a need to assign someone a research item prior to the next meeting and this gives them to opportunity to provide a report or presentation at that meeting.
10. Try to understand why an individual is not participating by talking with them outside of meetings. Perhaps they are not really interested in being on the team or they do not see how they add value to the team. Or their low participation could be because they are not interested in a particular meeting topic or they do not see how it directly affects them. Explain why they bring value to the team and what is in it for them.
How to Conduct a Meeting
When discussing organizational issues, policies, and plans, the meeting comes as your best platform. The group’s planners and decision makers converge to tackle every concern, leading to the organization’s success. For a meeting to be effective, it must be conducted properly. Your job is to gather the right people, provide the correct concerns to center on, and organize the information gathered from the meet.
Before the Meeting
Some Pretty Good Ps For Planning a Meeting
How much money and time are wasted in meetings every year? Estimates range from one-third to half your time. That adds up to millions! Here are some useful things to consider when planning for a meeting that’s worth your-and everyone else’s-time. I’ve framed them in terms of some pretty good Ps. If you take these in order, you have a Plan. And planned time always generates better outcomes than unplanned time.
Being explicit about the considerations below will help you:
Thinking “New” – As in Ways to Continue to Do Your Important Company Meetings
We’re hearing it over and over again…Tough times…Cut backs…Expense and travel reductions…
Many executives and customer representatives are no longer allowed to attend events that might be construed as frivolous, a conflict of interest, have limited sales or marketing value to the company, or that might influence buying decisions. Some companies are deciding to cut out all big ticket events, such as sponsorships or tickets for major sporting events, or client meetings at high-end resorts that might “include” activities such as golf or spa treatments. Those days are over. And that’s probably a good thing!
However, at times it seems like the pendulum may have swung a little too far in the other direction. Have you been told to cancel your user group meeting this year? No more customer meetings? Say good-bye to VIP gatherings? But can you really afford to cut all face-to-face interaction with customers and prospects, and squander the momentum and goodwill so carefully built up over the years? Your customers are still interested in the future of your company. They still want to have the ear of your executives, and get the inside scoop on new products and updates. Going too far in trying to cut costs could be cutting potential sales and relationships as well.
The Scourge of Unnecessary Meetings
As a project manager that used to be a programmer, I can recall how much I loathed sitting in meetings. My train of thought was commonly along these lines; “why am I in this meeting talking about the project when I could be out there coding it?” Because of this, I do my best not to subject programmers to meetings unless it’s absolutely necessary. Obviously not all managers come from a technical background, so this empathic understanding may not be present.
Ad-hoc meetings are a growing trend, but its not always convenient for three or more people to stand around discussing the details of multiple projects in an open-plan environment. When it’s realized that an impromptu discussion is probably disrupting other people around you, the common suggestion is “lets take this to the boardroom”. Now you have an ad-hoc meeting which has become the real thing, a meeting which can potentially turn into a lengthy discussion.