Being in a long, boring meeting can be painful. UGH. But did you know with a little gumption you can say something here and there to affect a more productive outcome? It really is easy. Turn pain into productive.
PODCAST TRANSCRIPTION
Katie: Welcome to this week’s Hot Flash – the weekly instructional video for feminine leadership skills from Skirt Strategies.
Carol: I’m Carol.
Katie: I’m Katie. You know that by now – maybe. I don’t know – maybe not.
Carol: Well, then right now…
Katie: This week’s meaty topic is something that I have brought out as a suggested topic. Actually, it could be more than one topic. We’ll make it into more than one topic.
It’s about – “Leading Painful Meetings.” Have you ever lead a meeting? Now, different topic is being in a meeting where it’s like – “Oh, crap! We’re going down really fast here.”
Carol: Right.
Katie: But what if you’re the one that’s in charge and you’re running the meeting? Of course, what’s running to your mind is – “What is going on here?”
Carol: “Why is everybody quiet?”
Katie: “They’re hating me. We’re not getting anything done. ”
I personally love meetings and it’s not because I’m an extrovert, it’s because there are so many things that you really cannot get done without human interaction and human creativity. Did we overdo it? Yes.
Carol: Yes.
Katie: We overdo it. And the people that hate meetings – I think live in organizations that overdo it and have unproductive meetings.
Carol: Yeah. I agree. I mean, because I work in an atmosphere where we are small – it is small and we can talk in the hallway, we can go into somebody else’s office – which is something I’m… we’ll talk about that – emailing somebody down the hall as opposed to talking to them.
Katie: I’ve done that.
Carol: Well, we do it. And we do it often because it’s convenient. But there are times to go talk to somebody.
Katie: Yeah, rely on.
Carol: But leading a painful meeting or being in a painful meeting. That’s the topic today and I’ll let Katie go into this because she had some ideas.
Katie: Well, so there are some very specific things that you can do. First of all, if a meeting starts to get stuck and you’re in charge, give it structure.
Carol: Yeah.
Katie: Get the group addressing something very specific. And there are ways of doing that. If you’ve heard of a tea chart – and what we ought to do it put it on the website when we talk about this on the blog.
But there’s something really simple. It just looks like a plus and minus. But a tea chart – where you’re identifying what’s working and what’s not or what’s the item that we’re stuck on? What’s moving towards it and what’s eliminating us or barriers for us – moving forward on it?
Ask folks what they think the problem is. Give them two minutes to write down what they think the problem is and then share it around the room.
There are ways of engaging people very specifically – that force them. I shouldn’t say force them – encourage them to be participative.
Carol: Yes.
Katie: One of them is that – give them a task, ask them a question, have them answer it themselves on a piece of paper in front of them and then go right around the room and hear what everybody says.
I promise you – that always gets things going and it gets everybody involved so that the ones that are kind of hanging out and hiding out and not participating…
Carol: Right. Yeah.
Katie: Any other idea?
Carol: Well, in a meeting like that – pulling people out because I have some people in my organization that are very strong and they will always give their opinions and always give their thought.
Katie: Yeah.
Carol: But there are people who won’t. And so to pull them out – that’s a great suggestion.
Katie: Yeah.
Carol: And there are other suggestions. Just asking them – “What do you think about this? I know you work in this area and your opinion is very important.”
Katie: “Your opinion is valued.” And then shake them by the shoulders and… the old airplane method.“What’s wrong with you?” Slap, slap, slap.” I don’t suggest doing that.
Carol: It may not help the painful meeting.
Katie: No. It makes it more painful, doesn’t it? Here’s what I would leave everyone with.
Remember that as a leader, you may be responsible for the process of the meeting, but you’re not always responsible for the expert content that has to go on – forgetting everybody to interact.
Carol: Let others be expert.
Katie: And the way that you do that is to become a facilitator to a certain degree and toss it out, put it back with the group by asking powerful questions like – “Where are we folks? What do we need to do to move forward? Does anyone have a great idea for this? What were the last three suggestions we heard?”
Those sorts of questions move people towards productivity and process to the end. So once you get good at a few small things, it’s really not too bad.
Carol: No. And that’s it for this week’s Hot Flash.
Katie: God! I’m exhausted! Shaking people by the shoulders and slapping them.
We’ll see you next week with a Hot Flash – with a whole different topic. Have a good one!
Carol: Okay. Bye.
[END OF TRANSCRIPT]