The FireFly Whiteboard - Effective Meeting Facilitation Strategies, Team-Building Tools, and Training Techniques from Kimberly Douglas, President of FireFly Facilitation.

Part 3: What To Do When Holding a Meeting with Silent Introverts & Overbearing Extroverts - Meeting Effectiveness Tips from FireFly Facilitation

The Mastering Meetings for Introverts webinar will be held this Wednesday, May 7^th. You won’t want to miss Dr. Jennifer Kahnweiler, President of AboutYOU, Inc., an Atlanta-based consulting firm, as she gives you insight on how to make your meetings more effective.

Remaining tips from Kimberly Douglas if you are the introvert…

1.   Get prepared to participate. Hopefully you know why you were invited – if not, ask the meeting leader. Make sure you know the key points you want to make in the meeting regarding the topics to be discussed. Jot these down on the agenda to be sure they get addressed. Review the pre-reading so that you are well-versed on the topic and can thus more fully participate.

2.   Sit in a strategic seat – see top item #2.

3.   Suggest the facilitator or meeting leader use ground rules and ask everyone to help the group live by them. See top item #3 for additional information on ground rules.

4.   When there is an opportunity to speak – take it. Start talking early in the meeting if possible, so that it won’t be so hard to do it after the meeting has already been going for awhile.

5.   Speak in a quieter tone – often people will become quiet to hear what you have to say.

     Remember, post a comment or question by clicking on Comments ( ) below…and I look forward to answering it an upcoming blog!

FireFly Facilitation Answers a Blogger’s Meeting Effectiveness Question

Have a tough question or issue you’re dealing with? We love receiving comments from our readers and are happy to respond to specific questions!  Here is another question from a recent blog visitor…

I manage a team of 10 student staff members and we meet on a weekly basis. As a student myself, I understand that they have other things going on and are often disengaged during our meetings. After meetings, they come to me asking the same questions that I already went over. It's very frustrating. How do you recommend leaders engage team members in this type of situation and help them retain the important information?

My top 4 recommendations for situations like these are:

1) Keep a targeted agenda in front of everyone at all times. Be sure it shows time allotted for discussion of each item. If time runs out, quickly decide how to deal with it – e.g. postpone further discussion until the next meeting (perhaps with prep work in between); allow X amount of additional time now; pick up the discussion at the end of the meeting, time permitting.

2) Be clear on the expected deliverable for each agenda item. For example, is it for idea generation, evaluation, decision, or planning? Limit the number of items that are for information only. Use handouts for these items with clear bullet points of facts they need to know; everyone has a very limited attention span for these kinds of topics.

3) Restate the outcome of the discussion before moving on. This gives people a sense of accomplishment and clarity about what was decided. Best practice tip: Flip chart decisions and actions throughout the meeting. Capture – for all to see – who is to do what by when. It amazes me how much more seriously people take their accountabilities when you write it up for all to see!

4) Make time for a 5-minute wrap up at the end. Do a round robin, with everyone recapping what they are accountable for delivering. Good questions for the leader to ask to get people thinking about the impact of the meeting: “Who needs to know what we decided today? How are we going to communicate this to them?

These 4 simple steps will keep everyone on point and engaged!

Part 2: What To Do When Holding a Meeting with Silent Introverts & Overbearing Extroverts - Meeting Effectiveness Tips from FireFly Facilitation

Part 2 of the series from Kimberly's interview with Dr. Jennifer Kahnweiler for Jennifer's teleseminar on Mastering Meetings for Introverts. Click here to view the first post in the series. 

The Top 8 things to do if you are the meeting leader or facilitator… 

 5.  Conduct quick process checks during the meeting to see if people are satisfied with the level of participation and adherence to the ground rules. A simple thumbs up for “good” and thumbs down for “not good” will suffice. Then solicit their suggestions (after individual think time – see below) for improving the interaction and participation in the group.   

6.  Always give them time to think. Everyone needs time to think before speaking in order to be effective – whether we take the time to do it or not. Before expecting a free-wheeling, productive discussion on a topic, pose the question – and then give them 2 to 3 minutes to jot down their thoughts. This allows introverts a chance to gather their thoughts before they speak – which they like to do – and forces extroverts to do the same – which they hate (I should know!)

7.  Mix up the facilitation processes to maximize interaction. Instead of always discussing things in a large group, first give them individual thinking time (see above), then have them discuss it in small groups. The smaller the number (3-5 is best), the more the interaction. You can also use round robins as a tool for ensuring that everyone weighs in on a topic. Mix up where you start each round robin to keep people on their toes. This is especially effective for keeping participation high in virtual meetings.

8.  Call on introverts to respond to direct questions – but use this tactic sparingly and carefully. Make sure that they can answer the question effectively – you might need to make clear why you are calling on them in particular (e.g. because of their expertise or experience with this issue). Must be careful not to appear to label them as introverts and someone in need of your help or protection from the extroverts – they can speak for themselves if they are given the opportunity.

Look for Part 3 - What to do if you are the introvert - coming soon!