Meeting dynamics can be a fascinating subject. This simple mapping tool helps you to monitor what is happening in practice, and can provide real insight into the psychology of the meeting.
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What are meeting dynamics?
Meeting dynamics is all about who speaks when, and in what way. We tend to take the flow of conversations for granted, but often there are patterns within it. Some of these patterns can be helpful, and some may not. Some may aid inclusion, and some may tend to exclude or diminish contributions.
Mapping interactions is about seeing these patterns; about tracking the flow of conversation in a group. This can help identify the dominant and quiet parties, and any factors in this. It makes it possible to see the influence of bias. And it can be an excellent aid to discussion and improvement within the group.
Furthermore, it is a surprisingly rewarding activity. However, you need a significant period of time which is not going to require serious input from you. Or, alternatively, you can record the meeting using a transcript tool like Otter.ai and do the mapping retrospectively.
Mapping meeting dynamics
To begin with you need a map of the meeting room, with each person identified/located within it. For physical meetings, the actual seating locations can provide additional insight. For online meetings, you just need a set of names arranged in a circle.
As the conversation begins, place your pen in front of the map icon of the first person to speak. When someone else speaks, move your pen across the map to the icon of that person, and so on … criss-crossing the map with pen lines as the conversation changes. In this way, the meeting dynamics become more visible within your map.
If people talk for longer than 30 seconds, make a note of how long they are speaking for. Write each of these times behind their icon. Similarly, if people attempt to engage in the conversation but fail (e.g. somebody else talks over them) place a dot near their icon where it won’t get overwritten by a line. If you wish to, you can use different colours of pens for different feelings within the meeting. For example, green when the atmosphere seems comfortable, and red when it is not.
Avoiding the pitfalls
As the conversation ensues your map will become a bit of a mess. That is okay, but stop mapping if there is a danger the mess will spoil the analysis. You can always have multiple maps of one meeting. Comparing these can show you whether there is consistency in the patterns or whether they vary. Also, you will need to discipline yourself to keep focused on the map and not get so drawn into the conversation that you miss mapping bits of it. As you get better at it, you will easily be able to see the degree of dominance in the meeting. And also the degree of people not engaging in that.
Reflecting on the map
At one level, simply engaging in the mapping activity can provide you insights – without looking at the map. By taking yourself out of the detail to look at the flow, you become more intuitively aware of that. You already have a sense of how the meeting is working and where issues may lie.
That said, looking at the map can augment those impressions with further insights. When you look at the map, you may find it the following questions help you better understand the meeting dynamics. As you look at the questions, also ask the question, why might this be?
- Are there people who speak more than others (represented by more lines connecting to them)
- Is there someone who might dominate the meeting (possibly represented by more times they spoke over 30 seconds)
- Are there significantly more lines between two people than elsewhere (could this reflect an alliance or a niggle?)
- Are there people who speak much less than others (represented by fewer lines connecting to them)
- Do the patterns change to make the meeting more comfortable and/or uncomfortable
- Could the patterns reflect an unconscious level of social, ethnic, sexual or other bias within the group
Our article on meeting analysis has further questions that you may wish to reflect upon to build upon this.
Using the map to bring about change
At some point, if it will be productive, show your map to the group, and ask them what they make of it. Ask them if they are happy that the map represents a healthy discussion which is getting the best from its membership. Then, if they are not, ask them what they want to do about it.
Or altenatively, if they are not ready yet to work out an answer for themselves. Or if your map would clearly put some people on the defensive. In these cases, you may need to follow different strategies through facilitation:
- Facilitate the meeting in a way that circumvents the issues you identified, and allows new norms to emerge
- Have a quiet conversation with certain individuals about how shifts in their behaviour might change the outcome
- Provide coaching for some of the participants on how to improve their influence
Author: Mike Clargo | Culturistics
Track your progress to ensure the efficacy of this strategy.