Did your meeting get ambushed?

The ambush

It's happened to all of us.

The meeting, workshop or online session has been arranged.

You've got an agenda lined up that will generate the outputs you need to make progress.

The stakeholders have been identified. A suitable time has been found. The room is set up. Ready.

Then you get the one person who appears to be on a mission to make it fail.

The no-shows are an annoyance, but you can always pick up with them afterwards.

This person is a bigger problem because they can potentially derail everything.

How do we deal with this?

We'll tackle this in two ways. First we'll try and prevent it from happening. After that, we'll consider what we can do if the situation has occurred and we need to manage it.

Prevention

We always start with setting out the purpose of the meeting. We should be able to define this well as we know what we want to achieve.

There then follows a temptation to invite along anyone who might have something to say; or to make sure that you have invited a representation from each team and function in the business.

Each of these activities has a potential trap.

For the meeting purpose, although the aim and purpose is clear to you; it may not be perceived as such by your invitees. Imagine responses such as:

• Why is he asking about X? We've always done it that way.

• Why is she having a workshop about Y? Can't they just do their job and not get us involved?

• Not another attempt to go over Z! So many people have tried that and given up.

Then we need to consider who we are inviting.

• Through their personal experience and knowledge, can they bring some clarity to your question?

• Can they come up with possible solutions; or explain why a solution has failed previously?

• Do they have the influence and/or authority to escalate the issue if required?

And is our meeting or workshop the best way to extract this information? Would a direct conversation get you the full story; or would an email circular lead to someone sharing the exact document that you need?

We learn from this that we need to do our research before even finding a slot in the diary.

We need to know that we are asking a good question and that we are asking it to relevant and motivated people.

Resolution

So following the above, we're going to have a great meeting.

But what if that didn't go according to plan?

What do we do about our trouble maker?

We can't ignore them completely and we don't want to get into an argument.

Here are a few steps we can take instead:

Keep calm.

It's important to stay calm and composed, even if you feel frustrated or upset. Take a deep breath and try to remain objective.

Listen.

Try to understand the concerns of the attendee and listen to their feedback. It's possible that they have valid points.

Stay focused.

If the attendee is being overly critical or disruptive, redirect the conversation back to the goals and objectives of the meeting.

Let go.

If the attendee really doesn't see the point in being there, then don’t force it. Suggest that you can give them their time back right now, with the offer of an informal conversation at a later point.

Fundamentally, we want to achieve something for the benefit of the organisation and at times we will need to engage our colleagues and stakeholders so we can learn from them.

Not all people will be willing or able to do this.

The skill is to find the relevant people and engage them in a way that encourages them to share their knowledge and insights.

Setting up and facilitating meetings and workshops is a skill that can be developed.

At Datazed, we can help you to engage your colleagues to support the success of your data project. 

Have a wonderful week,
Charlessh