Contributing more in meetings

• If this is your development need, then is listening your strength?
• If you're listening more than talking then are there some things you observe that those too busy talking overlook?
• What things are not being said? Who is behaving unusually? What recurring patterns do you notice?
• To find something to contribute, it's necessary to listen actively, to be observant rather than listening too passively.
• There are 2 types of contribution (content and process) and two forms of contribution (statements and questions).

Two types of contribution

• Most people focus on - content.
• If they have no content to offer, they say nothing.
• What about process contributions?
• Can you help the group keep to time, get organized, focus on the agenda, make decisions, resolve conflict, ensure that everyone is involved, ensure that critical issues are covered, help avoid premature decisions?
• Process is just as important as content.
• Managers think process, adding good value.

Two forms of contribution

• Most people again focus on statements.
• They make statements about content.
• Why not ask questions about either content or process?
• Throughout Coaching2Grow's pages are lots of questions you could use as models.

Examples of content questions

• The merits of your view are clear, what are its potential pitfalls?
• How would you address these pitfalls?
• What are the implications for X, Y & Z?
• What will it cost?
• How will our customers benefit?
• What advantage will that give us over our competitors?

Examples of process questions

• Who else should have an input on this topic?
• How much more time do we need to spend discussing this issue?
• Who else do we need to get input from to obtain the full picture?
• What involvement should we seek from our customers/partners?
• Where does this matter stand in relation to our other priorities?

The morale? Ask more questions as a way of contributing instead of sitting silent.

• Could you contribute more by asking content and process questions?
• Good listeners are often better at asking excellent questions than contributing content statements anyway.
• Notice that all these questions are OPEN. This means that they can't be answered by a yes or no. It's not as easy as it sounds.
• Practice asking open questions and note down every time you ask a closed question so you can think how you might have asked it in open terms.

In short, become more of a facilitator, less of a DOER (someone who needs to come up with all the answers, score all the goals.) After all, isn't management about getting things done through people? Keep in mind that working through people means more than just delegating tasks. It also means involving them in deciding what to do. You can only do this effectively by asking good questions.