Meeting Mouse

Has valuable contributions but rarely speaks up.  Typically, is introverted and will not interject. A mouse must be drawn out by actively seeking to engage them.

 

I think we all know the meeting mouse. The mouse knows what’s going on and has good ideas. The issue with this Meeting Animal is the lack of willingness to contribute their thoughts. The meeting mouse needs to be engaged in order for them to contribute, some may believe that the quite mice are not present mentally in the meeting. What tends to be the case is that the mouse takes time to process and organize everything in their minds. They are thoughtful and although may not speak often when they do it is valuable content for the meeting.

Techniques For Meeting Engagement

Let’s discuss some methods that may help the mouse feel more included and valuable as they should.

Pre-Meeting Planning

One way to help the mouse prepare is through pre-meeting planning. What this does is helps the mouse collect their thoughts on the subject. Sending out an agenda for the meeting a day or two in advance will give all meeting attendees head start on what to expect from the upcoming meeting. Giving the attendees an pre-meeting assignment, such as reading, and also requesting that the attendees be prepared with opinions on the meeting subject is a great way to help the mouse prepare and be more engaging during the meeting.

Taking turns

This brings us back to our first years in school. A very simple yet effective way to have everybody engage in the meeting is simply going around the table to ensure everyone gets a turn to express their opinions on the subject matter. If this used in tandem with the “Pre-Meeting Planning” strategy, every attendee should be prepared and ready to share there opinions. Be sure to use words of encouragement to help the mouse feel more confident in sharing their opinions with other attendees.

Anonymity

Anonymity is a great tool for the mouse. This lets the mouse express their opinions without the feeling of being scrutinized over those said opinions. For example, when sending out a meeting summary report on your recently concluded meeting ask for opinions on the topics that were concluded and ask for any concerns your attendees may have. Any potential content that is created after the meeting can be easily added into the MeetingResult software to ensure the content is captured and reviewed by all attendees it concerns.

Meeting Participation

Holding a meeting without the right attendees can be like attempting open-heart surgery without an anesthesiologist in the operating room, then inviting family members in to lean over the surgeon’s shoulder to watch. There are a specific set of people who are required to be in that operating room to ensure a successful outcome, and there is little room for extraneous staff. To keep our meetings focused on achieving our objectives, we must treat our meeting rooms more like operating rooms and less like hospital waiting rooms where most anyone is welcome.

The point I am making is only invite the attendees to the meeting that need to be there. Having a busy meeting room can be overwhelming for attendees, especially the mouse. Inviting the right attendees not only helps keep your meeting more efficient but will help these little mammals feel more comfortable at the same time.

Asking follow up questions

It is always a good practice to summarize what has been just discussed. This helps keep all attendees on the same page. When summarizing, you may choose to ask the mouse to do a quick vocal summary for the group. Here are a couple example questions for that mouse in your meeting:

“What have we overlooked?”

“Could you summarize what we have just discussed?”

Stay on Target

As we have said, the mouse is a creature of preparedness. As the meeting leader it is important to keep the meeting on topic. Not only for the efficiency of the meeting, but these little creatures will not have much if anything prepared for the off topic discussion, effectively silencing them and letting the Gorillas in the room take over. If off topic discussion has some key points arise it is best to use the “Capture and Move on” technique.

Here is an example of what Capture and Move on might look like:

Meeting Leader: OK, it’s clear we’re not going to solve this issue during our time today, and I want to be sure we use our time wisely, so I will capture this as an open item and ensure we have enough time allocated in our next meeting to resolve. So let’s move on.

 

The goal is to bring the discussion to a close so that it can be addressed at a more optimal time (that is, when you have sufficient time and attendance to resolve the matter). Like all the other redirect tactics, the first step is to interrupt the discussion, followed by three steps that allow for a quick transition back to your meeting:

 

• Interrupt the stalled discussion.
• Explain why it’s important to table the discussion (for example, in the interest of time).
• Ensure attendees that the matter will be captured.
• Assign (or take) an action item to do whatever needs to be done next.

Attendees need closure on open items and want to know that some action is going to be taken as a result of the discussion. Capture and move on provides them what they want so that you can productively move forward with the rest of your meeting.

Brainstorming

Having an open brainstorm session in the meeting room can be quite daunting for our little mouse, especially will larger animals trying to get their point across. The mouse will more then likely sit back and let the other animals speak while not speaking up for themselves. As we know the mouse has valuable contributions for our meetings, but how do we draw these contributions from them? Very simply, piggy backing off our section on anonymity, we either allow for more brainstorming ideas via e-mail after the meeting or even start a brainstorm via e-mail before the meeting even starts. This will give all attendees the ability to share there valuable ideas.

Give Credit where Credit is Due

Everybody likes to know when they’ve done a good job. Whenever anybody contributes positively to a meeting be sure to reinforce their behavior by complementing their contribution. This is a great practice to use with all attendees but especially for the mouse. This will build confidence and encourage the mouse to speak more frequently.

What’s Your Experience?

Did these techniques help engage your Meeting Mouse? Do you have stories of a Meeting Mouse 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!