In the public arena most presentations follow a set formula. I speak, I stop, you ask me questions and then I finish up and leave the venue. Inside of companies though, there will be different types of presentations. We may be creating a new project, getting the team members together and taking them through what we need to do. It might be a report on the progress of the section, where we are with revenues and clients etc. In some cases, we will be leading a discussion on where we go from here or how we will approach the project. We want people to buy into the direction, by helping create it. We might be doing a SWOT analysis as a group, to gauge where we are and what we need to be.
In these cases, we don’t want to be doing all of the talking and we want others to get involved. One of the problems though, is that people are hesitant to speak up in meetings. They do have great ideas and good insights. However, they keep them to themselves and leave the room with these little gems still stashed away out of sight. People are not stupid. They have been taught the dangers of speaking up by bad bosses or evil colleagues.
At some point it has happened to them directly or they saw it happen to a peer. An opinion or comment is shredded on the spot and humiliation is being handed out in big gobs. Once you experience that for yourself or witness the shredding, you are cautious about what you say and who you say it to. Never forget, that the people in our building are up against a bunch of people in another building somewhere in town. The quality of our ideas and our execution of those ideas, is what determines who wins in the marketplace. If the ideas of our team are being traumatised at birth, then the other crowd will win.
In any meeting, the same confident three people will dominate the airwaves and all of their ideas will be adopted. There will be others sitting there with better experience, insights and ideas who are never heard. There are also cases where the politics is so rife, that jealousies and petty quarrels impede the development of an all team approach to beating the competition. We are too busy for them because we are fully occupied squabbling amongst ourselves. Or the boss is so dominant, no one dares to speak up, so the whole meeting becomes a monologue, with the boss talking talking, talking. This is where the facilitator’s role becomes important.
Often it is better to bring in an outside facilitator who has no axe to grind, no revenge to extract, no agenda and no dog in the fight. They don’t care about the past or hierarchy and are focused on getting the most out of the group in front of them. They are strong and can shut down any crap that some people want to pull, when trying to drag the proceedings back into the usual quagmire. I often play that role for senior executive groups, so I have seen all the typical shenanigans up close and personal.
If you are using the DIY approach, then set yourself up for success. Set some clear ground rules at the start or some of your colleagues will try to hijack control away from you and engage in their own agendas. Control who gets to speak and for how long. This is important because if you want to suppress the few noisy ones, you have to have the authority to tell them, nicely, to shut up and let others speak. Sounds good except when the person who is talking too much is the boss or one of the senior heavyweights, who enjoy throwing their weight around. Bit of tricky situation there for your career. If you do the right thing, you may be in the big shot’s bad books and future retribution is headed your way.
Set the rules and get everyone to agree to them up front, including the corporate nobles as well as the hoi polloi. When you want to shut them down, you just cut them off while they are droning on and sweetly say, “thank you for your insights and I want to follow our agreement, that we will seek enough time for everyone to contribute, so let me ask you to please finish your current point and then I will get some other comments”. You won’t get fired for that one!!
The other problem is getting people to speak up, without someone else trying to destroy them, because they disagree with what they are saying or because they have a grudge or whatever. We set the rules that any comments will come in two forms – what you like about what they just said and your suggestions for taking their idea to a further and better place. Also, that except for you, no one else is allowed to cut anyone off, when they are speaking. It will happen and then angelically, you say, “Thank you Tom, and please allow me to play my role as facilitator and note that I am glad you are ready to weigh in. Also please let me allow Mariko to finish her point first, then you can tell us what you liked about it and then how we can make it even better”. You won’t get fired for that either, if Tom is one of the big bosses!!
Make the meeting rules the sole arbiter of correct behaviour, rather than yourself. Get everyone to agree before you start. Be an exemplar of tact, good manners and humility, when you assume the regal crown of controlling the meeting. Internal facilitators are walking around in a mine field, so always nobble the boss before you agree to take the role. Get their support and agreement to allow you to shut them or any other worthies down, if you have to. This facilitator gig is not for the faint hearted.