Meeting Rabbit

Skeptical and wary. Always skeptical of new ideas, possibly slowing down the flow of the meeting overall.

 

The Meeting Rabbit is a meeting animal that tends to be overly skeptical of ideas that are presented during a meeting. Although skepticism is great to have in your meetings an over abundance of it can start to bog down the meeting flow. It’s important to understand that we don’t want to silence the Meeting Rabbit (or any meeting attendee) because their skepticism has the potential to lead to other ideas.

Skepticism May Lead To Meeting Content

Even though the constant skepticism may bog down the flow of the meeting, the content that arises from the Meeting Rabbit might be valuable to the meeting. We will want to capture the content without interrupting the flow of the meeting. We can use the “Capture and Move On” method to do this effectively.

We’re Not Prepared To Discuss That

Capture and Move On is a method used when a discussion, although has substance, has no real means of concluding within a short time frame. These discussions may arise when our skeptical Meeting Rabbit brings up a point on a topic that wasn’t initially planned for the agenda. The skepticism is welcomed as it potentially can create new meeting content, but often when a new topic arises attendees are not prepared to discuss it, or maybe the team doesn’t have the resources to handle that particular discussion at that time.

Capture And Move On

Here we have an example of a team that has come to an impasse and how you as the meeting leader can handle it.

 

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:

(a) Interrupt the stalled discussion.

(b) Explain why it’s important to table the discussion (for example, in the interest of time).

(c) Ensure attendees that the matter will be captured.

(d) 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.

 

Did these tools help keep your meeting on track? Do you have stories of a Meeting Rabbit in your meetings? If so, how was it handled at the time and was it effective?