Meeting Dodo Bird

Aloof to the meeting. Inattentive and overall, mentally not present.

The Meeting Dodo Bird, while physically present at the meetings, isn’t mentally there at all. The Dodo Bird doesn’t talk much in the meetings they attend, for the most part they will keep to themselves and not contribute much to the meeting at all. The Dodo Bird could very well be a high performer when working solo. But in a group setting doesn’t contribute as you would expect.

Meeting Effectiveness Is Engagement

With the aloof behavior from the Dodo Bird, it is important to keep them engaged throughout the meeting. One way to ensure this meeting animal is prepared is send out an agenda before the meeting starts. (24 to 48 hours before) This way the Dodo Bird will have an idea of what to expect (as well as all of your attendees) and may feel more comfortable expressing themselves during the meeting. But you can’t expect this meeting animal to all of a sudden become a chatter box just because you sent out the meeting agenda. Be sure to give all attendees a chance to speak, but especially the Dodo Bird.

Not Simpleminded, Just Withdrawn

Now, the Dodo Bird has a bad reputation for being simpleminded when in reality if this meeting animal wasn’t an asset to our business and our meetings, they simply wouldn’t be there at all. Typically, these types of individuals work very well by themselves, but in a group dynamic they are withdrawn and unsociable. Talking with the Meeting Dodo Bird in a one-on-one setting could give you more insight on why they would rather work alone. At times they may appear to prefer to work alone but may just not feel comfortable in a group setting.

Communication Is Key!

Understanding why this creature acts as it does is half the battle. Consider suggesting to the Meeting Dodo Bird to work with a team to help them come out of their shell, if they resist the idea, they more than likely just prefer to work by themselves. As we all know it is important to keep your team organized and we do that through communication. If there is a lack of communication with the Meeting Dodo Bird there is a potential for the work that is done by this meeting animal to be incompatible with the rest of the teams work, or they may complete work that has already been done by another attendee.

Summarizing Techniques

Encourage communication with the Meeting Dodo Bird. This can be done through agenda items sent out before hand and following meetings up with a meeting summary report. This will ensure that all attendees have a clear understanding of what content was captured during the meeting and what needs to be done moving forward. Using summarizing techniques such as asking attendees (the Dodo Bird specifically) to sum up what was just discussed is a good approached to getting this meeting animal involved in the conversation. This meeting animal is often intelligent and works well on their own. They are skilled in their field and are an asset to the company.

Did these tactics help engage your Meeting Dodo Bird? Do you have stories of a Meeting Dodo Bird in your meetings? If so, how was it handled at the time and was it effective?

Feel free to share your experience, past and present with this meeting animal. Feedback on the Meeting Animals series is always welcome, tell us what you think!