HBR Guide to Making Every Meeting Matter (HBR Guide Series)

by Harvard Business Review

Take anonymous polls. Ask people to write down questions or concerns on index cards, put them into a bowl, and read them aloud without using names. Better yet, use a polling app or device to query meeting participants and see their answers in real time. Heat map the topic. Put poster-sized charts of the components of an idea or plan on the wall. Ask participants to place yellow dots on the charts where they have a question and red dots where they have a significant concern. Use the dots to guide the conversation. Break up a big group. People are more likely to participate in small group discussions, so divide people into teams with specific instructions to discuss any challenges to the proposal at hand. Appoint a representative from each group to summarize everyone’s thoughts. Ask them to empathize. People are often more willing to speak on others’ behalf than on their own. So when you solicit opinions with a question like “What objections or concerns might your direct reports have?” it can open the floodgates of reaction. That’s because it allows those in the room to externalize criticism. It’s not what they don’t like. It’s what they think their people won’t like.