How many times have you been a bit disappointed in meeting engagement? You want to involve the team, but everyone is bored out of their minds, stepping out for phone calls or just tapping their pen incessantly. No one is speaking up, sharing ideas, or engaging in any way. Meetings like this are pointless.
Fortunately, your meeting engagement levels don’t have to stay that way. There is a solution for ditching mediocre or even dead meetings. You can improve meeting engagement (Yay!)! How? Let’s start from the top.
What is the Meaning of Meeting Engagement?
If the only words the team speaks during the meeting are during roll call, you’ve got an engagement problem. Meeting engagement is the participation and attention level of the meeting attendees. Meeting engagement can be low, or it can soar. Which do you want for your meetings?
Why is Meeting Engagement Important?
Have you ever attended a meeting where you sat quietly and added nothing to the conversation? Maybe you listened to 2-3 people speak in a group of 20…that’s low meeting engagement. In this situation, the voices of 2-3 people speak for everyone – even though everyone has different ideas.
With low meeting engagement, organizations become stunted. They rely on the brains of a few instead of many. Imagine how much more the team could accomplish with ten times the brain power! Meeting engagement matters because it brings people together, invites creativity, and helps to escape groupthink.
When a dozen people are engaged in group thinking, what would happen if just one person outside of that group played devil’s advocate? Groupthink is suddenly challenged.
With higher meeting engagement, there is a greater chance for diverse thoughts. It’s essential to have the ideas of every different mind involved in meetings because that’s where you plan the action. With actions designed by many instead of a few, innovation and creativity thrive.
What is Stopping Meeting Engagement?
Maybe you’re thinking, I’ve tried getting people engaged. It doesn’t work.
If that’s on your mind, you may need to examine the barriers to meeting engagement. What’s preventing the team members from taking part in the conversation? There are a handful of common reasons:
One-Man-Show
When the meeting leader acts like a presenter, there is little opportunity for anyone else to engage. It’s a one-man show, so sit down and shut up. Except, don’t really. Because that’s a barrier to meeting engagement.
You can’t expect team members to attend a meeting where one person speaks to them but never listens. Meetings are useless when used this way. Don’t make it all about one person, even if what they have to say is profound.
Fear or Anxiety
Sometimes speaking up in a room full of people can be intimidating. Fear and anxiety can take root even if someone doesn’t fear public speaking. It might be fear-inducing to share ideas with people who have worked in the industry for decades longer than you. Or, it could bring about some anxiety to say something against a higher-up’s idea.
Letting meeting-goers know that they are in a safe space is vital to meeting engagement. Often, this is a cultural issue. If there is fear that there will be reprimand or jokes at their expense, it is often because people have experienced it before. By telling people that thoughts and ideas are welcome and then actually welcoming those ideas, you reinforce the idea that meeting engagement is encouraged.
Uncertainty
When you’re invited to a meeting and given few details, you might be uncertain about what you should do while present. Are you supposed to develop new ideas? Are you the note-taker? What kind of input are you expected to provide?
Knowing the reason for attendance can be enlightening and encouraging for meeting engagement. When a meeting invite is sent, note the reason. The note might say, “seeking additional thoughts regarding recent marketing failures” or “requesting input on policy changes.”
Give people certainty of what they are supposed to do in a meeting, and they’ll be more likely to do it.
Unpreparedness
How much notice do people get for a meeting? Imagine being approached at the end of the workday and told, “Hey, we’re having a meeting first thing in the morning. 8 o’clock sharp. Don’t be late.” Uh, what?
Could you prepare yourself for that meeting? Of course not! You have no idea what the meeting is for or what you will be asked to comment on. You won’t be able to bring any data or information because you didn’t receive the required notice or details.
Allow team members to prepare for meetings. Send a notice ahead of time along with what will be discussed in the meeting. If they need to bring any information, they need to know beforehand.
Unnecessary Meeting
How many meetings have you attended and thought, why am I here? What’s my role in this? It’s more common than you thought! So many attendees believe they are missing vital working hours to sit through a meeting they don’t need to attend. Even this could have been an email indicates that it’s unnecessary and likely killing the meeting engagement.
How Do You Create Engagement in a Meeting?
Meeting engagement can require a combination of things. No one single action guarantees meeting engagement, even if it’s done really well. Try these five meeting engagement tips to increase collaboration within your team meetings.
1. Use Icebreakers People Want to Participate In
How many awkward, goofy, childish icebreakers have you been involved in that fail to inspire participation? No one wants to choose a smelly shoe from a pile and chat up its owner.
Perhaps equally terrible in the world of icebreakers is the human knot. Coworkers holding hands and bodily maneuvering themselves in and out of one another’s space does not sound like anything aside from awkward and potentially harassment worthy.
So, what kind of icebreakers do people want to participate in? Firstly, those that are quick. We have work to do. There’s no need to keep people from their work for a 15-minute game of heads up, seven up. My advice? Keep it to a simple but fun question.
People love to talk about themselves. So, let them. Ask a different question for each meeting so the team can get to know one another. Questions you might use include:
- What’s the most exciting thing on your bucket list?
- What is your favorite childhood memory?
- If you could share a meal with three people in the history of the world, living or dead, who would you choose?
- What hobby have you always thought about trying and haven’t?
- If you had to write a 3 sentence eulogy for yourself, what would it be?
- What song would you choose for karaoke?
Get creative with your questions, and you’ll learn much about your team! Plus, people are typically more willing to share ideas and thoughts with people when they know more than their name and occupation.
2. Give Each Person the Opportunity to Speak
Have you ever sat in a meeting where just a few people dominated the conversation? Even if you had an idea, you couldn’t get a word in edgewise. Those meetings are difficult because it seems like something is getting done – but in reality, it’s just a few people blocking others from sharing.
Every person should have the opportunity to speak. Go around the room and ask for input. In larger meetings, it might be beneficial to break into smaller groups and have one group member summarize the ideas discussed. Make sure everyone has a voice and everyone is represented.
3. Use What is Shared
Close your eyes and imagine a meeting. The meeting runner has collected the thoughts and input from others and closes the session with, “Hey, thanks for your comments today, team! We’ll still go with my ideas, but I love the meeting engagement!” Do you feel inspired to add your thoughts to the next meeting? Of course not! Especially if this is a recurring issue.
Not only do you need to appreciate meeting engagement, but you also need to use what you’re given. If Tommy suggests a bi-weekly project check-in when you’ve always done it monthly, try his suggestion. If Jodi has an idea to change the ineffective email marketing strategy you’ve never tried, do it.
If someone shares bright ideas, use them! You can’t expect people to provide input in meetings and then never put that input to use. The comments will stop if they are not valued.
4. Avoid PowerPoint, But Go For Interactive
You’ve been there: death by PowerPoint. Slide. Slide. Slide. Monotony.
Please don’t do it!
If you’re a pro at giving a PowerPoint presentation, go for it. But, if you’re like most people who click through the slides and fail to make it interactive, avoid it like the plague. PowerPoint is an engagement killer. (Sorry, Microsoft!)
You’ll likely want to use a visual aid. Seeing creative and colorful notes in real-time makes for the most excellent engagement tool. If you have an outstanding creative thinker on the team, ask them to use the whiteboard to take notes for the group (ahead of time, of course!). If you prefer technology, many software options are available for an interactive whiteboard experience.
There are even online whiteboards where the team can add notes to the collaborative whiteboard. Give it a try and see how your team responds.
5.. Be Open to Meeting Feedback
Leaders can always work to improve meeting engagement. However, improvement starts with feedback. You can’t improve much if you don’t have the thoughts on the meeting from those who attended. So, ask.
John, what are your thoughts on how the meeting went today? What did you love? Was there anything that you didn’t love? A handful of conversations like this can be illuminating! Anonymous comments on the meeting’s success could be another alternative. Whichever way you want to gather feedback, just be sure you get the feedback.
When you get the feedback, be open and learn from it. Take the information and make changes.
High Meeting Engagement Results in Higher Team Engagement
Organizations with high team engagement levels are more likely to collaborate well and innovate often. How do you increase team engagement? While there are several ways, increasing meeting engagement is an ideal place to start. You already have meetings, so why not simultaneously improve them and the team?
High meeting engagement can be organization-changing. Are you ready for it?