How to help silent team members participate?
Best technique to equalize introverts and extroverts during meetings and events
In most teams, the way we talk is the problem.
Last week, I attended a workshop with 30 people in the room. Here’s what I observed:
same 5 people took every decision
quiet people were…quiet
the “agreement” in the room was mostly… compliance
I mean… it was a successful session led by an experienced facilitator. We hit the agenda and all.
But… it was incomplete.
During the coffee break, I was speaking with the facilitator when one of the engineers walked up to us and said:
“I had ideas that could have changed our approach… but there was never a good moment to jump in.”
This was awkward for the facilitator.
And I was, once again, reminded of the below antipattern:
Most meetings “accidentally” reward the loudest voice, not the best idea.
And if you (as a facilitator) rely only on “who speaks up,” you are systematically underusing the people who often do the deepest thinking.
In today’s post, I’ll walk you through a simple way to “silence” the room on purpose so that both introverts and extroverts can contribute equally.
Let’s get started.
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