How to get people to actually speak up in meetings

Sometimes the research says it best. In one analysis, academics from the University of Nebraska and Clemson University collected nearly 200 studies of meetings to figure out how to run a great one. Consider their checklist on how to encourage productive contributions, with simple principles like “let people weigh in on decisions, and communicate if a decision is already made,” and “intervene when interpersonal communication goes south.”

“If I’m facilitating an in-person meeting, I’ll get to the room early to scope out the seating configuration,” writes Atlassian’s Mark Cruth on how to have more collaborative meetings. If the tables move, Cruth adds, try placing them in a horseshoe formation so team members can look each other in the eye—and feel more comfortable piping up. The same advice can apply to remote meetings: Tools like welo help customize a workspace for distributed teammates to gather in.

“It’s really good practice in the beginning of the meeting to say, ‘This is the topic of this meeting. If you don’t need to be in this meeting, go ahead and sign off now,’” Harvard Business School professor Frances Frei told Quartz in 2020. That can help keep a meeting to people who actually have something to contribute.

One simple method for meetings is the 1-2-4-All, Douglas Ferguson, president of consulting company Voltage Control, told Quartz in 2021. First, Ferguson said, have everyone quietly think through a problem solo. “Then you get people in groups of two to talk about it, then you get groups of four to talk about it, then you bring everyone for a group discussion.”

If someone’s having trouble speaking up, a peer will likely raise an idea on their behalf. “You end up having people advocating for other folks,” Ferguson noted. It’s a handy facilitation tactic to make sure all opinions get expressed.

Another popular format is called Popcorn. Once you speak, “your kernel is considered popped,” writes former Quartz reporter Lila MacLellan. Teammates won’t contribute again until everyone’s had their chance to talk.

At top design firm IDEO, one phrase helps make brainstorming meetings more productive: How might we. The approach is simple but elegant. According to global head of talent Duane Bray, each word of the phrase serves its own purpose. “How” prompts teammates to be descriptive, “might” suggests there are plenty of possible answers, and “we” evokes inclusivity and teamwork, he explained. It’s a well-worn tactic: The approach is also popular at companies like Google and Meta.

Other teams have adopted the idea of the silent meeting, where everyone gathers to get things done without talking. At Amazon, for one, senior teams sit and read a multi-page memo at the start of a session. They only begin to talk after everyone’s spent half an hour gathering their thoughts and feeling prepared to contribute.

Meanwhile, at Square, meetings are held via Google Doc. “The group in the meeting reviews a Google Doc in silence, asking and answering questions via Google Doc comments,” writes software engineer Pierre-Yves Ricau. “After 30 minutes of this, we’ve identified key points that need to be discussed in person, and can then have a short, focused conversation. More importantly, we’ve given everyone a chance to be heard.”

“Meetings are often a place for status updates, which can be intimidating,” writes Matt Tucker, founder of productivity software Koan. It’s especially intimidating if people feel like they can’t share bad news.

Here’s one tactic Tucker suggests for encouraging more honest discussions: Name challenges all together. “Next time you’re tracking a deadline on a project with your team, ask everyone to write down their confidence level—green, yellow, red—of completing the project on time,” he suggests. Then show them all at the same time.

Back-to-back meetings drain our ability to focus. That’s especially acute in virtual meetings: Cognitive research finds that fatigue sets in after just a half hour of Zoom time.

But studies also show that taking breaks between meetings can stop stress and fatigue from building up, boosting positive chemical connections and giving our brains a chance to reset. So try a microbreak, or a 60-second recharge, with music, photos, or videos that help everyone reenergize for the next discussion.

Research shows that in recent years, workplaces have added many, many more meetings—which doesn’t actually inspire anyone to participate more. So some teams are experimenting with what’s known as a meeting reset: Deleting all recurring meetings from the calendar for a set period, then adding only the necessary ones back.

Companies like Shopify, Dropbox, Asana, and Zapier have all piloted versions of meeting resets, from 48-hour calendar freezes to weeks where conversations went fully asynchronous. Pilots have shown that a full reset can save everyone more than 11 hours a month, giving us all a chance to be more intentional about (and active in) the meetings that remain.