We’ve all been there, right? You walk into an hour long meeting, dreading what is to come. Whilst this is meant to be a ‘team’ meeting, 90% of the session is dominated by the chair, with very little input from anyone else.
Sadly, this is a fairly common occurrence in the world of work, which is unfortunate due to its soul sapping and morale-destroying nature.
So how can we avoid making our meetings a one-person-band and instead one that is inclusive to the whole team? Here are some of my top tips.
Before the meeting
In reality, the key to an inclusive meeting is usually the preparation. After all, if you are sticking this in a time which does not actually work for most people (or indeed you’ve forgotten to even invite them) you are unlikely to get the full engagement you desire.
Things to consider:
- Is your invite list correct?
- Have an agenda, and ensure people can add points to an agenda
- Is the date/time of the meeting one that is inclusive. E.g. avoiding school run times
- Have papers been sent ahead of time?
During the meeting
Within the meeting, as the chair it is your role to effectively facilitate the discussion. It is important to avoid abusing your chairing privileges which allow you to come in whenever you want, as this quickly leads to you dominating the conversation. Rather, if you do want to comment, perhaps open up the floor for discussion first before giving your comment.
As the chair is often the most senior person in the room, if they speak first they are likely to stifle any discussion as more junior members of the team are less likely to want to disagree with what you say.
Things to consider:
- Try and make space for introductions – it makes any meeting far more human!!
- Steer away from one / two people dominating the conversation (and avoid being one of those people yourself!). Agendas help with this.
- Use your ability as chair to ask others whether they would like to come in.
- Give moments of pause to allow people to think within presentations etc.
- Keep to time! If possible, invite reflections on the meeting at the end.
After the meeting
Whilst the meeting may be over, your job may not necessarily be done. Following up after the meeting can ensure everyone is clear with the tasks agreed, as well as a great opportunity to pick more informal feedback from colleagues about how the meeting went.
Things to consider
•Send up follow-ups, actions, read-outs etc. Invite individuals to comment / dispute the write-up
•Check-in with individuals on how they found your chairing style and whether they got what they wanted for in the meeting
Finally, other things you may want to think about is having a rotating chair system, as well as a standing agenda point to review the meeting at the end. These both help increase engagement and give the team a greater sense of ownership over the meeting.
These are my top tips, do you have others?