Facilitating More Inclusive Meetings for Introverts

groupmap-shares-useful-techniques-designed-to-make-meetings-more-inclusive-for-introverts-using-an-agenda-keeping-meetings-short-exploring-meeting-preferences-and-allocating-tasks

Good facilitators use a variety of techniques to build inclusive meetings. One approach is to consider the different personalities in the room and then design meetings around people’s preferred working styles. 

Ever since Carl Jung first defined the terms ‘introvert’ and ‘extrovert,’ people have been interested in how our personality affects our lives. Workplace stereotypes suggest introverts want to be alone and work independently, while extroverts are loud collaborators. 

Introverts often –  

  • Enjoy low stimulation environments.
  • Reflect before making decisions.
  • Prefer quality time with one or two people rather than larger groups.
  • Think deeply before speaking.
  • Provide written over verbal feedback.
  • Have a tendency to listen more.

Extroverts on the other hand often – 

  • Prefer high stimulation environments.
  • Make decisions and speak quickly.
  • Like the company of others.
  • Talk out their thoughts.
  • Make verbal contributions over written ones.

As a facilitator, you know people can fall anywhere on the introvert-extrovert spectrum and not to think in binaries. 

At least one-third of people are introverts, according to Susan Cain’s book Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking.  With that said, making meetings more inclusive for those who may be introverts benefits all meeting participants. Introverts feel more comfortable and engage more, and extroverts benefit from their insight and input. 

Here are five tried and tested techniques to facilitate more inclusive meetings for introverts.

1. Send an Agenda in Advance

Introverts can be unnerved by the unknown, so they will likely want to know what will be included in a meeting beforehand.

Sending out an agenda before a meeting is a great place to start. It will let people know exactly what may be expected of them, and they won’t feel caught off guard should they need to participate. Introverts tend only to speak when they have something meaningful to add to a conversation, so sending out an agenda in advance gives them time to prepare and increases their likelihood of participation.

Not only is a pre-circulated agenda an effective meeting facilitation mechanism, but it could also save the introverts on your team a lot of anxiety. They will feel far more comfortable knowing what is coming up in the meeting and can think about what they would like to say and contribute at that meeting.

2. Keep your Meetings Short

Believe it or not, short meetings are inclusive meetings.

People who are unnerved by meetings will be less inclined to speak if a meeting goes on for too long or over time—providing certainty as to what topics will be discussed and when is more likely to keep people engaged and comfortable in the meeting space.

In the case of introverts, activities or events that go overtime can lead to overstimulation (sometimes called an introvert hangover); an introvert’s reflex is to shut down in an attempt to reduce the stimuli. They may appear to go quiet, switch off, or even walk away.

In the later stages of a long meeting, introverts may seem distracted and start to appear restless; this is a protective mechanism kicking in that’s trying to protect them from that overstimulation.

With this in mind, break it down into shorter ones rather than holding a single lengthy meeting. If a long meeting is unavoidable, allow people to ask for a break if they feel their minds wandering or exempt themselves if the discussed topic doesn’t apply to them. This is an effective meeting facilitation technique regardless of personality type.

The simple act of setting a timer on a meeting signals the length of the meeting to the team.

Wooden hourglass symbolizing time management for keeping meetings short and focused.

3. Discuss Meeting Preferences

The more you know about your meeting attendees, the more inclusive your meeting will be.

Knowing people’s meeting preferences is the best way to ensure you’re facilitating their most effective meeting environment.

The best way to do this is to send a quick email inviting people for a brief one-on-one chat to discuss their preferred approach. This will allow everyone time to consider their preferred meeting style and share it with you outside the context of a large group.

Introverts may be more comfortable –

  • Talking over issues in smaller groups.
  • With the opportunity to share ideas anonymously.
  • With asynchronous meetings that allow them time to consider their input.
  • For questions to be posed at the end of a presentation.
hand-raise

4. Find Opportunities to Include Introverts in Meetings

Exploring the ways in which people feel comfortable contributing to a meeting will make it more inclusive.

If people simply do not wish to say anything during a meeting, they are the perfect person to be the scribe. Have them capture the meeting minutes and ask them to follow up with participants to ensure action items are delivered. Allowing them to express themselves in writing so that they have more time to consider their answers is a fantastic way to equalize the process. You’ll find that their input is often far more considered and detailed, so it’s important not to skip over their contributions and ensure their ideas are heard.

They can also be invited to comment on other ideas, add more descriptions, and provide deep dives for the group.

Provide enough thinking time and reflection time. If you are having an online meeting, this is an excellent time to have people turn off their cameras and mics so that they have some quiet time to think.

Finally, they may be comfortable stepping into the role of meeting observer, gauging the effectiveness of the meeting ground rules or the timekeeper for the meeting.

Flat lay of notepads, crumpled paper forming a brain shape, and a pencil on a green background, symbolizing inclusive strategies for introverts in meetings

5. Enlist Introverts as a Resource

Introverts may be more comfortable contributing outside the meeting. 

They may be happy to – 

  • Identify gaps in the agenda.
  • Deliver tasks aligned to action items.
  • Compile information needed to inform the discussion that can happen during a meeting.
  • Explore innovative ways to deliver effective meetings.
  • Research and provide data that can be use in the meeting.
  • Provide their thoughts before the meeting that can be used as examples.
light-bulb-idea

Start Facilitating Inclusive Meetings Today

It’s always helpful to know the strengths and weaknesses of your team and how you can support them as they continue to learn and grow. 

Meeting tools such as GroupMap have been designed with inclusivity in mind. Boasting features built to support equity and psychological safety, GroupMap can help you deliver inclusive meetings and create a comfortable meeting environment for all involved.

  • Create a simple agenda that people can add to.
  • Timebox the meeting and each step to keep things on track.
  • Create a quick survey to find out more about your meeting attendees before the meeting.
  • Use individual brainstorming mode to give people their own space and time to think.
  • Open up the meeting beforehand for asynchronous meetings and collect ideas beforehand.

Facilitating a meeting has never been easier with the help of GroupMap.

Sign up for your free trial today.

Have more questions or would like a demo?

Meeting facilitation tools to give quiet team members a voice

When it comes to effective team decision making and group brainstorming, it seems to be hindered by those who shout the loudest that get the most attention, even in the digital space. As an extrovert, my (wrong) approach has always been that introverts are just broken extroverts. They need to learn to speak up, think faster and just learn how to fit in with the way we get our teams to brainstorm and generate ideas.

Susan Cain’s book “Quiet” highlights that Western culture misunderstands and undervalues the traits and capabilities of introverts.  While extroverts recharge around other people and process their thoughts out loud introverts generally recharge on their own and process thoughts internally, sharing only when they have reached conclusions. Blend this into the traditional ways team generate ideas, brainstorm and make decisions, means that team decision making is skewed to those who speak the most, the loudest or the last.

This was really evident in one of the companies I led where in our management meetings, we would make decisions and regularly the day after the same team member would come back with an email expressing why they didn’t agree or had a different perspective. It was frustrating not just because they clearly weren’t behind the decision, but because they often had very valuable reasons that would have really helped the decision-making process – had they just given that input the day before when we were making the decision.

From Cain’s perspective, the team member in question was an introvert who processed his thoughts differently to the other members of the team. What we needed to do was find a different way to get his contribution into our brainstorming sessions. As Cain says “There’s zero correlation between being the best talker and having the best ideas.”

“Introverts are not broken extroverts”

Quiet, shy, introverted people are some of the best thinkers we have in our organisations and we need to find ways to help get their input. GroupMap is one of the meeting facilitation tools that helped me with this. The facilitation process can be customised to our needs – but most importantly it gave each individual their own thinking space – which can then be combined to reveal the group perspective in real time. As an online tool – it also means – people can be given time before the group session to add what they are thinking so it can be captured in that quiet place – rather than only by speaking up in a group meeting.

The bite is this. 40% of our workforce is actually considered to be introverts. That is a significant percentage of our team that we must recognize in order to truly get the results we want. For the collaborative leader, the skills needed to bring everyone into the conversation are key. Greater participation and engagement in the decision-making process can be improved by considering the way we capture and share ideas and solutions to problems.