Episode #8 - Don't be the only one talking during team meetings
Hello and welcome to Tricky Management Situations !
Onirio delves, just for you, into all those delicate, sometimes seemingly improbable (but oh-so-real!) challenges that the world of management throws our way. In each episode, you'll find tips to gain some perspective and expertly navigate through your tricky managerial situations
In today's episode, we talk about a ritual that can quickly become a burden: the team meeting. Happy reading!
If you haven't already done so, you can also :
Read all episodes published to date
Discover theOnirio team and follow us on LinkedIn
Subscribe to our newsletter to receive future articles by email
🛶Today's struggle: How to stop being the only one talking in team meetings?
You are a manager, and every week, you lead a team meeting. You appreciate your team, and everything is going well within the group. However, during these meetings, you are the only one speaking... No one participates... and, even you, you get bored!
How can you make your team members more engaged and these meetings more dynamic?
Avoid the roundtable trap!
Typically, when managers become aware of the lack of interactivity in their meetings, they tend to speak at the beginning of the meeting to address important topics (and this can last for about twenty minutes!). Then, they initiate a roundtable to give each team member a chance to speak.
The problem arises as the manager is already familiar with everyone's topics, and team members tend to patiently wait for their turn, not paying attention to what others are saying and checking their emails in the meantime.
As a result, the meeting ends up being unproductive, and you all feel the need to grab another coffee at the end! 😮💨
Here are a few best practices to help you get the word out during team meetings!
Rethink the agenda and the meeting facilitation with your team
You are aware of the room for improvement in your meetings, but what do your team members think? You could reconsider the organization of your meeting with the team: "What do you think of our team meetings? How could we approach them differently?"
Use facilitation techniques to energize your meeting
The Mood Wall: this icebreaker allows participants in a meeting to share their current mood, based, for example, on a character or an image that represents their feelings. This technique demonstrates an interest in the opinions and well-being of your colleagues. There are dozens of similar icebreakers available online, and with a little imagination, you can even create your own! 😉
Example of a character wall
The 'Victory- pain-Info’": In this exercise, each person must write on a sticky note their weekly victories, as well as their “pains” and an important piece of information the colleague would like to share with their peers. This concept allows everyone to express themselves on various topics.
Brainstorming: It's an effective way to engage team members in ongoing and upcoming projects, and involve them in advancing the subjects. Brainstorming involves presenting a project or topic during a meeting and working with the entire team to solve it. To make it a bit more engaging, you can use "reverse brainstorming", which involves sharing bad practices or ideas first and then finding the good ones. For example, "How can we sabotage our team meeting? Give us your worst ideas!
Lean coffee: At the beginning of the meeting, each person suggests one or more topics they would like to address during the meeting. The topics are then voted on by all team members, and the first topic is discussed within an 8-minute time slot. After these 8 minutes, individuals choose whether they want to continue with the same topic or move on to the next one.
Adapt your own posture during the meeting!
Ask open-ended questions: Open-ended questions invite more detailed responses. They allow team members to share their ideas and contribute to the discussion. For example:
Instead of asking: " Do you have any questions?"
Ask, " What are your comments or questions about this topic? "
Control your speaking time: During your team meetings, it's important to involve all your collaborators, but sometimes you have important messages to convey, and they should not be overlooked.
In this case, manage your speaking time. Prepare your 2-3 key messages in advance: you should be able to express each message in an effective sentence.
If you tend to talk a lot, you can also set a timer for 5 minutes, for example, to force yourself to be more concise in your communication.
You've understood it: for a meeting to be effective and dynamic, it must be prepared and structured.
From now on, no more monologues, it's time for participatory meetings! 😉
À for the next episode!
In each episode, Onirio explores a managerial situation and gives you advice on how to take a step back and adopt the right reflexes!
To find all the episodes already published, go to here !
To discover discover upcoming management challenges, you can follow us on our LinkedIn page or subscribe to our mailing list below.
Have you experienced managerial difficulties? Inspire us!
We're sure you've been in plenty of situations that would merit an article 😉. And we're always looking for inspiration for our next episodes. So drop us a line with a description of your troubles! We'll be delighted to explore your situations!
This management galley explored with 💙 Onirio was told to you by Blandine Brielles