Meetings – Managing Attendees & Disruptors

In July I delivered an hour of training on running effective meetings for a group in Saint John. Attendees were well engaged with lots of questions and comments.The training was based on this e-book I published earlier in 2022 https://amzn.to/3E2XQKF

We talked quite a lot about the subtle dynamics present during work meetings.  For example, some attendees new to their companies were not sure how to manage some awkward situations. Longer term employees don’t typically struggle in these situations as experience has taught them to understand the dynamics of the room well. I will offer a couple of examples.    

One participant described a situation where an attendee regularly prolongs the conclusion of team meetings with items not on the agenda. The attendee will often launch into long, passionate, descriptions of opportunities or problems. I searched for a term that describes such behavior. Interrupter or disruptor seem insufficient, but I think will have to do.  “Nudnik” showed up as an interesting option, but I believe it’s too harsh. Here is that definition https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/nudnik

When such interruptions occur, other attendees, while remaining respectful, can be left wondering “why are we discussing this topic now?” I’ve been there and experienced these scenes.  I’m sure you’ve experienced similar scenes. An attendee can have tremendous interest and regard for his topic and needs everyone in the room to understand why.

How An Agenda Helps

How can you manage such situations? First, I’m a proponent of sticking to a planned agenda, and only allowing significant deviation when the group concurs. There should always be a stated purpose to the meeting and an agenda with time estimates, even if it’s very simple. For example, the purpose might be to address a revenue gap and the agenda might be to;

1)     define the revenue gap (15 minutes),

2)     brainstorm ideas (20 minutes), and

3)     select three or four ideas to act on (20 minutes).

The meeting leader should stay true to the agenda as it’s an implied agreement with the invitees. If the agenda needs significant variation once the meeting is in progress, the leader should get the concurrence of those assembled. That demonstrates respect for all attendees, and once the purpose is achieved, the meeting can and should conclude.

How “One Thing at A Time” Helps

As a practice, the meeting leader should also assert the principle contained in parliamentary procedure of “one thing at a time.” In the sample agenda above, that means completing the agenda item defining the revenue gap, and only then progressing and completing the agenda item on brainstorming, and only then progressing to and completing the agenda item of selection of 3 or 4 ideas. Manage the closure of each item in order to avoid revisiting the closed items. You likely don’t want to be entirely rigid in enforcing this, and there may be some late breaking brainstorm ideas which you want to capture, however a meeting leader needs to show discipline and respect for the group in completing each item.

Such simple meeting discipline, and a history of adhering to an agenda and the collective will of the attendees, provide the meeting leader with the power to manage interruptions. The meeting leader may have position power to expect compliance, but the power granted and supported by the assembled group, in my opinion, is more valuable. Such granted power is referred to as referent power which derives from being respected and trusted.

 

Adhering to one thing at a time enables the leader to manage interruptions and distractions.

 

Name It, Assign It, Move On

Now back to the question of the disruptor prolonging the end of the meeting. If someone introduces a new topic for which he has great passion, and is generally interrupting meeting flow or preventing the meeting from ending, then there are a few ways the meeting leader can manage this.

Here is my preferred way. First, the disruptor is undoubtedly a valued member of the team and wishes to be heard.  Everybody wants to be heard and understood. The meeting leader can say ‘Luke, I think I see where you’re going, can you share this within a couple of minutes as we’ve completed our agenda for today?”

Should Luke exceed that time allotment or be on path to exceed the allotment, the meeting leader can say “I think we all agree that this is a problem we need to manage, so let’s define what information we will need to understand to choose an approach?” Then put that question to the group; what information will be needed. The meeting leader can take control.

If Luke then starts on a long description of the information requirements, then label it, assign it, and ask what other information is required. For example, the requirement could be that there is a perceived problem with accounts receivable. Name that for someone to research and define, assign it to someone, and move on. There are likely other informational needs. Name them, assign them with a delivery date, and move on.

By acknowledging the problem, labelling the steps required to assess the problem, and assigning the responsibility for the steps, Luke is respected and heard, the group has chosen an approach to assess and manage the problem area, and the meeting can end.  A leader might need to ask something like ”Luke will that enable us to make progress on this issue?” He may keep going, but others will feel free to depart.

Respecting Participants

These situations are tricky because we are dealing with people. People want to be heard, and need to be respected.

Another participant to my training indicated he was new to his company and the nature of his job in public relations required that he be very quick and responsive in managing demands and timelines. He described sitting in a meeting, receiving an urgent text about an issue, and recognizing that everyone he needed to consult with about the issue was in the room. He was unsure if he should interrupt to take advantage of their presence or send them an urgent email afterwards.

In our room we agreed his best approach in such a situation is to briefly interrupt and say something like “look before this group leaves, I have received an urgent message for which I need the input of everyone here.  Before we leave today, can we talk about this item?”

In this manner he can assert that he needs their input while not derailing the meeting and momentum. 

Who Is Most Likely To Interrupt?

When writing, I usually try to vary the pronouns I use for example using “he” sometimes, and “she” at other times.  However, in choosing the pronoun for the passionate meeting disruptor the choice was obvious. My point of view is supported by this article titled “Who tends to speak too much?”  According to this clinical psychologist in this Washington Post article. It’s us guys.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2021/02/18/men-interrupt-women-tokyo-olympics/

Situational Leadership & a Slight Wobble in Shanghai

Early in August 2022 I presented to Shanghai Leadership Toastmasters Club (SLTMC).  It’s a large Toastmasters group with almost 50 members.  The club is full of young, ambitious achievers and virtually all reside in the amazing city of Shanghai, China, although these days with online meetings and hybrid meetings, it’s easy for people to join or participate from anywhere in the world. Coincidentally, on my first visit to China in 2008 I visited this club in person. At that time there were 60 clubs in all of China, and 14 years later there are ten times that number.

I was invited to speak on the always relevant topics of communication and leadership skills, and my experiences. Here is a link to a 45-minute cut out from the full meeting https://youtu.be/wea6ua3LaK8

There are some interesting elements here;

1.     Hybrid Meetings We all need to learn effective methods to lead hybrid meetings based on technical talent, available equipment, room setup, mix of attendees, wi-fi capacity and more.  SLTMC has access to tremendous resources including a massive screen, multiple cameras and tremendous technical talent.  This meeting went well, although those online, including me, lost communication with the room at one point late in the meeting.  That’s not on the video unfortunately, but understandably, however the in-room team managed the temporary outage well.  They needed to ask in-room attendees to limit their wi-fi consumption in order to reconnect and provide a good experience for all. Although it wasn’t obvious until a group photo was taken at the end of the proceedings, there were about 50 people in the room and more than 30 people online.

2.     Screen-in-screen There’s quite a mesmerizing screen-in-screen video effect at the 5:20 mark as the image on screen projects an in-room speaker. Notice the time delay in the multiple images projected.

3.     Opportunity To Connect I typically help audiences realize that leadership, and public speaking, are skills and skills require some knowledge, some feedback, and I believe most importantly practice. To illustrate this, I usually reference talented athletes who practice basic skills, much like we need to practice basic speaking and leadership skills. Considering this audience in Shanghai, I recognized the opportunity to show respect and connect well by referencing retired Chinese basketball star Yao Ming, who was born in Shanghai and played for the Houston Rockets, the Shanghai Sharks, and the Chinese national team.  By the way, his autobiography A Life In Two Worlds is a great read about the sport and cultural differences as he describes his experiences in China and in Houston.  

4.     Slight Wobble For this presentation I worked almost entirely without slides although I had a few ready. I had prepared my presentation to deliver some core material and then leave a couple of options to address if there was time, and based on any other discussion that took place prior to my presentation or during my presentation. In this case I decided to share my favorite leadership model, Situational Leadership from Hersey-Blanchard, with the Shanghai Leadership Toastmasters club, and this portion of my speech was a little wobbly. It starts around the 27:00 minute mark.   I share this because, while I know this material well and speak about the model often, I wasn’t as prepared and organized on the topic as I could have been for this presentation. I believe the message landed adequately, but I could have presented this much more clearly if I had committed to present this material beforehand instead of leaving it as an option.

5.     Q&A Management There is a Q&A session at the end of the video hosted by the Toastmaster of the day Rob Sherman.  Rob lives in Shanghai, and is originally from Boston where he was vacationing at the time of this presentation. Rob does a very good job managing the audience for the Q&A, including the last participant who struggled to concisely state his question. Rob provides a good example here of managing a Q&A session.

As Toastmasters nears our 100^th year as a not-for-profit organization, I’m proud of our presence in 144 countries around the world. As a comparison, the entire United Nations is comprised of 193 countries. 

This recording of my presentation to the Shanghai Leadership Toastmasters Club enables me to see what went well and where I can continue to improve. I appreciated the opportunity to connect again with the group. 

 

 

When Your Speaking Time Is Cut Short – Fastcompany Interview

Have you ever prepared a presentation and just before you are about to take the stage, you’re asked to reduce the planned presentation time? It has happened to me, and if you’ve delivered any quantity of presentations, I’m sure it has happened to you.

I suppose you might have the option to say that you’ve prepared a certain amount of material and will do your best to condense. However, a lukewarm commitment, or rushing through your material is usually unsatisfying for you, and the audience might not receive your message and be left only with the impression that you speak very quickly.  It’s better if you can agree to condense and then deliver on your commitment.

When I receive this sort of request, I will do my best to work within the new time parameters. I somewhat enjoy such an unexpected challenge, and I like to assist the organizer if I can, and as long as I perceive that the presenters are being treated fairly.

So how can you prepare for this scenario? In 2016 I was interviewed by FastCompany about such situations.  I will elaborate on the article which is available here https://www.fastcompany.com/3062235/five-secrets-to-deliver-a-short-presentation-without-sacrificing-the-message

First, understand and use your speech structure. Your structure should be simple. As a test you should be able to describe your speech in 20 seconds.  For example, that might sound like “I start by briefly building some camaraderie with the audience, then I speak a little on my background and credentials, I introduce a problem we all face, and then I describe three options I’ve found successful for similar problems.”

If you understand your structure in such a manner, and you’re not entirely bound by a script, you can make a last-minute adjustment. Considering my example above you could reduce part or all of your background material, or you could allocate most of your available time to discussing what you consider your most impactful option, while still speaking briefly to the other options. Such last-minute changes aren’t ideal, but are manageable when you have a plan and approach. 

A second approach is to start with your slides, but based on your new time allotment prepare to abandon the slides at a specific point.  Slides can be a trap. It isn’t helpful for the audience for you to flash a slide and say ‘I don’t have time to cover this slide.”  Slides can also be a trap if you decide to offer a brief comment, but then talk too long, which will add to your time stress.  If you show a slide, you’ll want to speak to your content, because you prepared it and you’re justifiably proud.

You can feel confident abandoning your slides when you understand your structure, your overall plan, and your key messages, and know before you take the stage that at a specific point, you’re going to stop using them and simply speak to your material. You may want to jot down some reminders of key points you wish to speak about to enable you to work without your slides.

When you do abandon your slides, this will appear extemporaneous and will show that you’re in control of your material. The meeting organizer should be very grateful that you’ve assisted to get the overall program back on track. 

It's disappointing when other speakers continue longer than their allotment, or in some other way a program gets off track. However, if you have a plan for such situations, you can earn the respect of organizers and the audience, and still do a great job of landing your message with the audience.

 

 

Your Past Doesn’t Define Your Future – My Lesson in Adaptation

 In April 2019 I was invited to speak to District 9 Toastmasters in Yakima, in eastern most Washington state. Yakima may sound familiar to you as there is a company that makes carrier racks for bicycles and other sports equipment with that name, although they are no longer resident in Yakima.

Metro Yakima is quite populous with about 250,000 people but planning the trip was challenging from my small city of Saint John, New Brunswick.  The nearest airport to Yakima was an hour away by car and it would have required me to take four flights. Instead, I decided to fly to Seattle, stay a couple of nights, then drive the 3 hours to Yakima, and after the conference to drive to Portland, Oregon where I would visit and then fly back from Portland. I had not previously visited Portland.

Seattle Visit

When flight details were confirmed with a stop over in Seattle, I emailed some local Toastmasters to let them know I’d be in their city for about 36 hours and they invited me to speak to a meeting of some local Toastmasters.  When I can fit such presentations into my schedule, I’m happy to do so. This keeps my skills sharp, I’m able to offer some thoughts to an audience, and Toastmasters audiences in particular are engaged listeners.  They’re great audiences.  This presentation was titled Your Past Doesn’t Define Your Future. It’s a message about continuing to use and refine one’s skills regardless of past achievements.

I had a free day in Seattle, and some years previously a friend and I had visited and played tourist in the city. At that time, we saw the Major League Baseball Mariners host the Oakland A’s, who had New Brunswick born Matt Stairs in the lineup, although he didn’t play that game. Of course we visited the Pike Place Market along with other sights. This time on my free day in metro Seattle, I spent a quiet day in Edmonds, a beautiful small town where a former colleague Betty Eisenzimmer used to reside. Later that evening I presented to the local Toastmasters. Most of that presentation was recorded and I share it here and will comment on the presentation https://youtu.be/eL7lYRY32Ds

Analyzing My Performance 

I usually don’t watch such recordings until some weeks later. I remember being somewhat displeased with myself immediately after this presentation, but looking at it again it went quite well.  Here are some observations from the event.

The event It was held in a large, private room at a local brew pub which was a very good venue for the presentation. When I arrived, I saw there was a portable audio system available.  If there is a microphone and speaker system available, I advise presenters to use them as the organizers have a pretty good sense that the room swallows sound and amplification is required. Some people believe they project their voices well, but if you’ve not had experience with the room, trust the organizers and use the audio equipment.

Prior to my presentation the audio system was used and it performed well, however just as I began my presentation, the system stopped working, or more accurately it started squealing. The video starts with me then moving to a more central location in the room so I could be heard by all attendees without amplification.  This change threw me off a little as my cheat list of speech topics I planned to cover, that had sat inconspicuously in front of me, weren’t easily accessible.  Such is life.

As I re-watched the video, I can hear my voice straining as I work to project to the full room without amplification. It wasn’t a major issue here, but it’s not quite my normal voice, and a longer presentation would have placed further strain on my voice.  As I watch the video, I can see I’m a little thrown off by the change in room positioning, but all in all it came off ok.

In the presentation I speak of the benefits of developing and practicing leadership skills in Toastmasters, but further exercising these skills outside of Toastmasters, where many organizations need people with such skills.  I also take the audience through a model of a basic leadership speech. I did a sufficient job of describing this, but I would only score myself at 75/100 for clarity.  The audience still would have received good value.

Finding Room For Improvement

It’s a gift to be able to watch yourself on video. I’ve shared some observations about my performance. The one thing I would plan to do and hope to do differently in a similar situation would be to ground myself after repositioning from the initial speaking position to the new position. Watching the video now it looks like I rushed and simply continued my presentation from the place where it had been interrupted.  It would have been better to place my cheat notes somewhere accessible, do a simple check in with the audience, and then proceed. 

Live and learn.  And adapt.