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Don’t Tell. Don’t Lead. Engage: Part 1- The Speakers Perspective
The Rules the Speaker Must Follow
Meetings, primarily work meetings, can be quite a tricky topic. You cannot avoid them. They allow leaders to bring issues and policies to the attention of everyone in the room. It allows for potential discussion and feedback, and if done correctly, they get everyone on the same page. Now let’s try a little mental exercise: if you were surrounded by your coworkers right now and mentioned the word “meeting,” what do you suspect might happen in their mind? Do you think they will be excited? Will the creative juices begin flowing? Or might they sigh and shut down a little more? What if... there was a way for the word “meeting” to have a positive connotation in their minds? You can help change how people view meetings by implementing some of the following tips. Rule #1: Establish Topic(s) & Purpose One of the biggest meeting mistakes you can make remains hiding the topic of the discussion. This can be done intentionally or unintentionally. The unintentional hiding might be just holding a weekly meeting and not labeling it. For example, the calendar might read “Tuesday Work Meeting.” Usually, individuals stay tuned in to their radio wavelength channels of WIIFM (What’s In It For Me?) Bring their attention to why they have been included, mentioning something like, “Everyone in this room is here because their expertise will aid in the decision-making process.” It gives everyone in the room the answer to the way they attend, and they will be more likely to engage. Pro Tip: If someone in the meeting does not have a purpose, they do not need to be in attendance. Rule #2: Start a Discussion Throw the meeting off its feet with a fun discussion activity, which should take no more than 5 minutes. Share an off-the-grid statistic or quote and ask the individuals in the room to discuss it. Ask what it might mean or how they interpreted it. Remember all answers are correct. This exercise gets the creativity flowing and stimulates the meeting environment. To supplement the activity further, you can use a statistic or quote that will tie right into what will be discussed. This segway technique, when used correctly, has started some of the best work meeting engagements. Rule #3 Tell a story If your meeting contains content that all should remember, a story will help. It should be quick and straightforward, no 30-minute sagas. But by telling a story, people will have a much easier time remembering it. People resonate with stories and tales; it remains the oldest method of remembering in human history. By incorporating this into the meeting, it will stimulate the brain to retain the information being discussed. By utilizing these three rules, work meetings blues will become a thing of the past. Colleagues and coworkers will look forward to an active and engaged discussion where they feel their voices will be heard. Effective decision-making will ensue. |
Further reading
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Cobalt Community Research is a national 501c3 nonprofit, non-partisan coalition that helps local governments, schools and membership organizations measure, benchmark, and affordably engage communities through high-quality metrics, mobile geofencing data, surveys, and dynamic population segmentation. Cobalt combines big data with local insights to help organizations thrive as changes emerge in the economic, demographic and social landscape. Explore how we can help by calling 877.888.0209, or by emailing [email protected].
Cobalt Community Research is a national 501c3 nonprofit, non-partisan coalition that helps local governments, schools and membership organizations measure, benchmark, and affordably engage communities through high-quality metrics, mobile geofencing data, surveys, and dynamic population segmentation. Cobalt combines big data with local insights to help organizations thrive as changes emerge in the economic, demographic and social landscape. Explore how we can help by calling 877.888.0209, or by emailing [email protected].