Running Effective Meetings For Dummies

Chapter 19

Ten Ways to Bolster Participation

IN THIS CHAPTER

Dishing out duties before the meeting begins

Finding ways to bring focus

Using technology to your advantage

If you want your meetings to get high marks in terms of satisfaction and effectiveness, focus your efforts on pulling out even participation amongst attendees. Almost everyone likes to feel like they’ve been seen and heard. (We say “almost” because we acknowledge there are indeed those who would rather just hide in the corner, literally and figuratively.)

Barring those exceptions though, the road to a productive meeting is paved with active participation by those who are gathered for it. We talk quite a bit about participation in Part 3 of this book, especially in Chapters 10, 11, and 12. This chapter is designed to give you our top ten ways to get everyone engaged in the meeting in a meaningful way … yes, even those who want to hide in the corner.

Assigning Agenda Items to Other Attendees

Here’s one way to drag that person from the shadows into the spotlight. If you make that individual responsible for a particular topic on the agenda, they can’t exactly take on a passive role. Now, this shouldn’t be punitive. ...