Kindly note that our meet-ups are a space for personal learning and sharing of opinions. Consequently, this summary is a high-level aggregation of participants' diverse views and opinions.
In our Community Meet-up conversation, we explored and brainstormed the question "How to boost engagement - the most powerful questions to ask in meetings".
Key points from the introduction to the topic
Engagement is increasingly challenging in meetings as people are increasingly located apart, distracted, checking emails, etc.
Enabling mutual listening experiences seems to be more important for engagement than working.
For listening to happen, questions are the best tool to use - they allow participants to move from consuming a meeting to actively contributing - but not every question builds engagement
Asking 'how' questions in meetings can open up conversations to engagement with a most immediate effect
Check-in rounds with consciously chosen questions can increase meeting engagement.
Scale questions can be used to visualize progress specifically in relational assets, such as trust, during meetings
Rather than telling people what to do, questions can help individuals reflect on their responsibilities and contributions.
Allowing appreciation and gratitude to be expressed through guided questions can strengthen relationships.
The discussion was opened by Dr Eva Bilhuber Galli, who shared her best practice questions for engaging in meetings.
During the discussion, we collected some more questions and also touched on how to engage people not only at the beginning of the meeting (e.g., through a check-in round) but also over a longer period of time. It was shared that authenticity and social role modeling can also influence the level of engagement and create a natural psychological safety that allows for open sharing and vulnerability. Our discussion also revealed that, ideally, we would like to have a genuine interest in each other's point of view - and that good questions are simply a bridge to stimulate this interest in a professional context.
Two books were shared as sources for powerful questions:
THE ART OF POWERFUL QUESTIONS: Catalyzing Insight, Innovation, and Action Copyright © 2003 by Eric E.Vogt, Juanita Brown, and David Isaacs (free ebook to download)
Making Questions Work. A guide to What and How to ask for Facilitators, Consultants, Managers, Coaches and Educators von Dorothy Strachan (2006).
What are YOUR most powerful questions to increase engagement in meetings? Thank you for sharing your experiences below, I am sure they will inspire others here too!
Overview quarterly open PLA Community meet-ups 2024
6 December 2024 | The most useful tools you have found to help you in your professional and personal life Register here
20 March 2024 | How to create buy-in from executives to invest in a cultural shift (towards a more partnering culture)?
21 June 2024 | How can we guide meetings back into the zone of productive partnering?