8. Listening - involvement and understanding Archives

Diversity - orb showing a tower of hands representing do digital meetings support diversity?

Do virtual meetings support diversity?

Diversity is a hot topic. What initially began as an ethical, and then a legal issue, is fast becoming a creative and competitive one. Organisations … Read more

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Six easy ways to increase participation in your next virtual meeting

Keeping everyone fully engaged during meetings has always been a challenge. With the sudden increase in work from home and the use of tools like … Read more

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4 good reasons keep your webcam on

Why does Teams focus on the faces of the most vociferous and active participants in a meeting? Why does Adam Grant report studies of determining … Read more

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Breakout Groups within meeting sessions

How to use breakouts to increase participation and ownership – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – … Read more

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Techniques to Advance Listening and Shared Understanding

Listening is a skill. However, because it is often not seen that way, many people listen poorly. The result of this can be entrenched debate, … Read more

Presentation Timers

The one thing we all know about presentations is that unless they are properly controlled, many of them will overrun – often to the cost … Read more

Tracking Audience Mood and Responses

There is a skill in presenting at the right pace and detail for your audience. In a physical meeting, this is facilitated by watching your … Read more

Blob Tree 300 - image of Blob tree illustrations to address mood and reactions

Using Blob Trees to Assess Mood and Reactions

Blob Trees are an excellent inexpensive resource for assessing the mood of a group either at the start of the meeting, or at various points … Read more

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Engaging Attention

The level of attention people give each other in a meeting is a big factor in both efficiency and buy-in. So how can we increase … Read more

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PMI

PMI stands for Plus Minus and Interesting. It is a simple technique which Edward de Bono developed to help people quickly explore a situation or … Read more

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Honeycomb Diagram

The honeycomb diagram is essentially a tree diagram laid out in a more graphically attractive manner. This can be helpful in gaining a better psychological … Read more

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Bringing the best version of yourself …

You have probably heard the phrase ‘bring your “A game”‘. It reflects the idea that we can turn up in different states of preparedness and … Read more

Meaningful Conversation

The Vital Role of Inner Condition in Meeting Effectiveness A big factor in the effectiveness of any meeting is the attitudes of the people within it. … Read more

Card Sort

Card sort is a means of drawing out dialogue from an individual or group through asking them to prioritise, rank, order or position a series … Read more

Pictorial Visioning

Using visual images to work with our hopes for the future can prove very motivational – – – – – – – – – – … Read more

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‘Active’ Listening

Active listening is wonderfully parodied by the actor Robert Lindsay in ‘The Helping Hand’: “Active listening? How am I supposed to listen ‘actively’? What do … Read more

Walk and Talk Meetings

Walk and Talk is a different type of meeting. It takes place outside, between two people (or a series of two people by mixing pairs … Read more

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Task Skills and Maintenance Skills

Kurt Lewins’ model provides a really helpful insight into keeping your team on track. – – – – – – – – – – – … Read more

Diversity and alienating language

Ways to encourage people to bring their whole selves – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – … Read more

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Transactional Analysis (TA)

The word Transaction relates to the units of dialogue we engage in with others. When these transactions go smoothly, we can make efficient progress toward … Read more

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A cup of tea – gaining full attention

First impressions count. This Zen story is about gaining full attention for your ideas. – – – – – – – – – – – … Read more

Opening a Presentation | Pyramid Principle

In her book ‘The Pyramid Principle‘, Barbara Minto lays out a powerful model for engaging people from the outset of your presentation or event: Statement … Read more

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Basic Facilitation – an introduction

Facilitation is about two things. It is about having a process which people will follow, and it is about intervening to enable the people to … Read more

Kolb’s Learning Cycle

It used to be thought that learning was something people did when they were at school or on a training course of some type. This … Read more

Affinity Diagram

The Affinity Diagram is one of the Seven Management and Planning Tools and is deceptively simple. It is a means for looking at patterns and … Read more