Do you struggle to get people engaged in your meetings?
Do you know how to kick off your meetings with a bang?
Our amazing Talk About Talk podcast production team tells me this all the time:
Andrea, you need to engage your listeners as soon as possible when the episode starts. If you don’t get people’s attention asap, they’ll check out.
True. And the same goes for your meetings!
Are your meetings a snore fest?
I often remind the leaders I coach that your meeting participants are PARTICIPANTS, not just attendees. If they don’t need to participate, then they don’t need to be there. You can send them the meeting summary later.
Productive meetings require engaged participants.
So how do you get your participants engaged and keep them engaged?
I have a few suggestions for you.
- Tell them where the BUS is going
- Encourage the NOD
- Get them talking EARLY
1️⃣ Tell them where the BUS is going!
Would you get on a bus if you didn’t know where it was headed?
Of course not!
The same applies to meetings. If you want your meeting participants to pay attention, you need to tell them where you’re headed.
This is about more than just sharing the meeting objective. What do your meeting participants care about?
- What is at stake here? Why does it matter to me?
- What decision can I influence in this meeting?
- What problem are we solving?
- What will I learn?
Tell them where the bus is headed! 🚌 🚌 🚌
2️⃣ Encourage the NOD
This is one I definitely strive for with my podcast episodes. Get them nodding.
This is about alignment.
The best communicators seek the nod because they know that a nodding person is an engaged person. The science backs this up. Research on rapport and engagement shows that physical agreement cues like nodding your head (or giving a thumbs up) increases your sense of alignment with a speaker. It’s like our brains believe our bodies, just like our bodies believe our brains.
How can you get people nodding in your meetings? Three suggestions:
Open your meeting by highlighting your participants’ shared reality.
- “I know it’s the end of the day and we’ve all been working very hard…”
- “It’s about time we solved this issue…”
Ask questions they care about. Focus on their pain points.
- Are you tired of…
- Does this resonate?
- Do you ever…?
Nod yourself and encourage the meeting participants to mirror you.
- You’re not manipulating anyone here. Look around the room. Make eye contact and nod. Smile when they mirror you.
3️⃣ Get them talking early
Here’s the principle:
The EARLIER someone participates in a meeting, the more engaged they will be for the ENTIRE meeting.
This isn’t just Andrea’s intuition; this is backed by research on group dynamics. I like to think of it as encouraging momentum.
When participants contribute early, they develop a sense of ownership over what’s happening in the meeting. They’ve got momentum. Staying engaged stops feeling like a chore and starts to feel like following through on something that you’ve already started.
I experimented with this one and I promise you – it’s a game changer! I ran the exact same workshop twice last year, once with breakout groups at the beginning and once without. There was no comparison in the success of the workshops.
The next time you’re leading a meeting, design the agenda so that as many people as possible have an opportunity to talk (or somehow engage) in the first five minutes of your meeting. Here are a few specific suggestions:
- Kick off your meeting with a quick round of self-introductions
- Ask everyone to answer a question with a hand gesture, like a thumbs up, a thumbs down, or a count
- If it’s virtual, ask people to answer a question the chat
- Whether it’s in person or virtual, if it’s a larger meeting, put people into breakout groups. (Pro tip: How many people per group? THREE, of course!!!)
Try it!
I encourage you to experiment with these 3 ways to encourage meeting engagement. Scrutinize your next meeting agenda and identify the earliest possible opportunity to tell participants where you’re headed, get them nodding, and get them talking.
You can learn more in Talk About Talk podcast ep.209 How to Lead ENGAGING MEETINGS Where People Actually Pay Attention on Spotify, Apple, YouTube, or wherever you listen.
Before I go, I want to say thank you for the birthday wishes I received last week. One of our Talk About Talk team members suggested I share that fact that I’m an April Fool on LinkedIn. I received hundreds of Linkedin messages and emails from old friends and new Talk About Talk listeners. Thank you, thank you! (And for the record, I’m much older than 40…)
Have a great week.
Talk soon,
Dr. Andrea Wojnicki Executive Communication Coach – Talk About Talk
