Silence can be a challenge when members of a team feel hesitant to participate in a team meeting.
Not participating is not in itself a problem, but what if the issue is the hesitation due to fear due to lack of an open space to share ideas?
Here are ten ideas that we can try to encourage most, if not all, of our team to speak up, to share and be a part of a wonderful group conversation.
1. Time: Make sure that we have enough time. As simple as it sounds, if a meeting seems rushed and we feel we have too much to cover in a short amount of time people in the audience can feel a sense of pressure and know that there really won't be much time for questions, comments, suggestions, or any other kind of input.
2. Agenda: The other aspect we can think of is preparation, sending out an agenda, or at the very least stating an agenda at the top of a meeting so we have clarity of why we're here, what we're going to be discussing, and perhaps participants can zero in on certain topics where they have genuine expertise, interest or questions. Some folks may need that extra few minutes of thought to be able to form a cogent response because they do not speak well impromptu.
3. Q&A: An open space for Q&A should be a scheduled part of the meeting. Again, as obvious as it may sound, if this is not a stated part of her agenda and there is not at least five or ten minutes set aside for it, we're going to have a situation where people don't want to prolong the meeting and be the cause of everyone having to stay back. So, keeping that buffer time, and making the meeting 55 minutes or 25 minutes long as opposed to an hour or 30 minutes might help here as well.
4. Assigned topics and roles: Another suggestion is giving actual, predetermined topics for people to participate in. So, for instance, people might be told, “hey, you're the marketing expert in tomorrow's meeting, could you chime in about the marketing aspect of our project and what you suggest we should work on?” Giving people time to think it over, but also a predetermined role in the meeting can be one way to encourage people who might otherwise hold back.
5. Well begun is half done: What if, despite all this, there is still some people being hesitant or not feeling part of the meeting… how can we proceed? Ask yourself how you begin your meeting. Sometimes when the meeting begins too abruptly or too directly, it does not give enough time for people to settle in, get in the right frame of mind and most importantly, reconnect on the social aspect with everybody in the room. It is important to make sure that everyone in the room says hello, makes a quick bit of salt small talk and slowly and smoothly the moderator of the meeting can get everyone comfortable and most importantly, focused on the key agenda of the meeting.
6. Moderator: As an add-on, it's always important for the team to appoint a moderator for each week so that someone is guiding the conversation, keeping it on track and making sure we're not overspending time on one topic and sacrificing time for other topics where people may have genuine interest. Get those side conversations out of the way. A major cause of silence is when one or two or three of the team members monopolize conversation or take it in directions that is not relevant to the majority of the people in the room. It is important at this point for a moderator to step in. Gently and politely asking folks to table that conversation, as important as it may be, for another time, and so we can complete the predetermined agenda for the group.
7. Name and Fame: As the team leader, whenever it is appropriate, mention people by name during a meeting. “John, that was a really cool thing you did the other day, and I appreciate you putting in the extra time.” “Hey Martha, thanks for helping us over the weekend. I know it was not a convenient time for you. That really helped us out.” Mentioning and even complimenting people by name, or conversely, asking them by name what they think about something to share their views on something. Is an extremely high engagement methodology. People do not get spoken to as often as they used to, so when someone mentions you by name. You pay attention and most importantly, you feel valued as a team member. Value to team members, feel engaged, feel energized, and want to be a part of the conversation.
8. Make it a conversation: Make sure that your meeting is framed as and conducted as a conversation and use that kind of terminology. “Let's collaborate about this”, “Let's discuss this”, Using phrases like this really can help people feel that the structure is built for them to chime in, sometimes in a predetermined manner, but also in an organic manner.
9. Speech Coaching: Some folks have great ideas but aren’t sure how to word them. Speech Coaching is a wonderful way to get team members ready to form their thoughts effectively in simple language that has profound effects on their audience.
10. Checking in with everyone: Make time one-on-one with each of your key stakeholders and team members. The leader, a moderator, or a coordinator needs to always have a good sense of what space their key stakeholders are in, so that they know what's going on and what explains different behaviors we might perceive, be it a delay in work, or a hesitation, or any other curious comment that pops up.
So, as we can see. There's no one-size-fits-all option. Many of these will fix 80 to 90% of your silence issues in work meetings.
Last thought - it is OK if someone wasn't doesn't want to participate, so long as they feel welcome to do so if they'd like to.
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