minutes to a meeting : 10 Tips for Better Participation in Meetings

A meeting can be led (or misled) from any chair in the room. Here's how to make sure that you add value to your next meeting.

1) Focus on the issue. Avoid stories, jokes, and unrelated issues. These waste time, distract focus, and mislead others. Save the fun for social occasions where it will be appreciated.

2) Take a moment to organize your thoughts before speaking. Then express your idea simply, logically, and concisely. People are more receptive to ideas that they understand. Long, complex explanations always work against you.

3) Use positive comments in the meeting. Negative comments create defensive reactions that distract from your goals.

4) If it is your meeting, ask a facilitator to lead the group through major solution finding activities. This frees you to participate in them and gives responsibility for keeping order to an impartial party.

5) Test your comments by asking, "How does this add value to our work?" If you sense it subtracts, keep silent or jot down the idea. This frees your to think about what others are saying, and that idea may be more appropriate later.

6) Use structured activities. These process tools ensure equitable participation and systematic progress toward results.

7) Respect others. Different views force us to think. After all, if we were all the same, they would need only one of us.

8) If you notice that you are speaking more than anyone else in a meeting, take a rest. You are either dominating the meeting with monologues or conducting a conversation with a minority of the participants. In either case, you're preventing the participants from working together as a team.

9) When voting give the participants veto power over ideas they strongly oppose. This avoids sabotage or partial support from people who were forced to accept decisions that harm them.

10) Rescue wayward meetings by challenging seemingly unrelated comments. Ask, "How does that contribute to the issue?"

By Steve Kaye