Meetings – the good, the bad, the ugly
I was observing a team meeting . The leader took command, hitched through the agenda as set, the rear-view mirror standing reports (took 60% of the time). I looked around. People were on their phones, staring out the window, at the floor.
Then came the grunty discussion and decision-making topics, in the last 20 minutes of the meeting. The leader led with their ideas. Little discussion and input from the team. Everyone agreed. The meeting ran out of time and screeched to an end like a Swiss train. Bang on time.
Enter one of the six most common problems in meetings.
The leader’s role.
The most senior person in the room holds the power. They can chill or warm a meeting. Commonly leaders jump in first with their thoughts. Perhaps they’re trying to be helpful in getting the conversation going. Perhaps they’re trying to influence the final decision.
When leaders advocate for an outcome, they are inadvertently censoring the room.
Most leaders underestimate the impact of this on people in the room. People play follow the leader. They don’t contribute or challenge if they believe the decision has already been taken. Instead, people agree with the decision. It’s easier. Those nods around the table when the boss says “so we’re all in agreement?”. Outside the room they share “it’ll never work”. That flows into negative collective commitment and lack of accountability upstream – “not my idea, not my problem”. We’ve all been there.
Great leaders start with inquiry. Asking powerful questions to get as many different perspectives as possible. Different perspectives leads to better decision making.
Research on high-performing teams
Research published in the American Behavioural Scientist journal indicates that high-performing teams have a telling-to-asking ratio of 1:1. That means equal currency around asking questions and telling. In low-performing teams, it’s closer to 20:1. What this means is that in low-performing teams the common currency is telling. Telling people what to do is twenty times more common than asking. Whilst it might be quicker, it’s not good for igniting innovative and self-directed problem-solving.
Questions to get you started:
- What do we need to think about in solving this problem?
- What’s important in this issue?
- What would be the best and worst outcomes?
- What roadblocks might get in the way of solving this?
- What are we missing here?
- What are you thinking and feeling, but not saying, that is important to this issue?
Take notice
As leaders notice your inquiry v. advocacy ratio. How much time do you spend advocating for a decision versus how much time asking questions, getting more information on other ideas?
It’s the leader job to be right at the end of the meeting, not at the beginning.
Inclusive leaders speak last.
Want to find out about the six most common problems in meetings? We run a short, sharp focused program ‘Conversations that Matter’ (a.k.a. ‘Re-designing crappy meetings’). You’ll learn how to reinvent your meetings so people go away feeling energised, inspired, involved, and committed to the decisions made. We run this in-person or virtual.
Photo: Unsplash+
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