How can you advance or shift the meeting's focus, when you're in the middle of a meeting?
Recognize that team members contribute (or detract!) during meetings in any of three dimensions: task, maintenance, and procedural. The research presents some variation in typologies, but I find these three types of tasks useful to consider.
You may find that you tend to focus on one of these three aspects of how the meeting is going. Being aware of this can be useful, because you can try playing different roles (to develop your own skills), rebalance or reorient your group if it is too focused in one domain, and appreciate the work that your colleagues are doing.
- Task behaviors accomplish work, move the group towards desired outcomes
- Accomplished by participants, scribe/recorder, note taker
- Maintenance or relationship behaviors address the group's ability to perform, work together, participate
- Accomplished by participants, facilitator, observer, leader, note taker
- Procedural or process behaviors guide the group's focus, use of time
- Accomplished by timekeeper, meeting caller
Let's suppose that you'd like to bolster one of these domains in a team meeting to avoid a knock-down, drag-out team storm. The key is to inject the right kind of shaping comment into the discussion. If this kind of thing doesn't come naturally to you, it's useful to have a few options already up your sleeve for how to make such a contribution during the meeting that's helpful to the group discussion. I've listed some ideas for such comments:
Relationship/Maintenance Contributions
"I need to catch up to where you are. Please say again how you got to that conclusion."
"Have we heard from everyone? Who else would like to contribute?"
"Yes, and...." (instead of comments that include "but...")
"How will doing things differently affect us?"
"What would we need to put in place to make this work?"
"What doesn't feel right about this?"
"Thanks for sticking with the process. We had a lot of give and take, which is what we needed to come up with the best ideas."
Task Contributions
"That's definitely a pro. Who has a con?"
"We've listed a lot of cons; what are the pros?"
"What other ideas does anyone have about (the specific issue)?"
"What do we know from past experience that can help us right now?"
"What else contributed to the problem?"
"Why?" (asked five times)"
"Can we come up with any other options?"
"Any analogies come to mind here?"
Procedural Contributions
"What's on the agenda?"
"Who'll facilitate today? Who will record? Take notes? Be timekeeper?"
"What's our next step?"
"Let's sum up:....."
"What would someone not familiar with our discussion say right now?"
"That's a good idea. Let's put it on our list for later."
"What additional information do we need to make a decision?"
"Is there anything I can do to come to the meeting more prepared?"
Other transitions in a team meeting that move the conversation
Note that not all contributions take the form of such comments or questions—you can also shape and guide your team's meeting process by introducing a transition that helps you to break out of a rut, stalemate, or other difficult situation (or to slow down a group that's converging too quickly).
- Use a quote
- Supply data
- Ask for help
- Make a statement
- Paraphrase what you just heard
- Summarize what's been accomplished so far in the meeting
- Change your physical location
- Change visuals
- Change media
- Pause or create silence
- Ask a question and have people write their answer down, then share with the group right then and there or come back to this later
- Use a prop—inject some playfulness, or invoke a meaningful symbol
- Change activities
These draw on Jana Kemp (1994). Moving Meetings. Burr Ridge Il: Irwin Professional Publishing.