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We are often involved in meetings in which people is not listening.
If they don't interrupt, they just wait for their turn to say every time the same things no matter what has been said / discussed / decided.
Which techniques are you using to cope with this disease?
PierG

PattiBarcroft's picture

It may sound cliche here but have you tried giving them feedback? :?

PierG's picture

Touché! :)

To tell the truth I was trying to adress a more general 'distributed' wrong behaviour, that the bahaviour of a person in particular.
For example, are you using techniques to "induce" a good listening process in your meetings?

PierG

kklogic's picture

Pier,
Having a parking lot board on the wall is a good way to go if the topics they are bringing up are tangents. Let everyone know they are free to put anything up on that board.

If they are providing valuable insight, but are just interrupting - my gut says it's a difference in personalities. I'm a high D and high I. It's all I can do to bite my tongue and keep these ideas and thoughts to myself. Whereas the high Cs and high Ss I work with are very measured about when they speak and how they speak.

M&M did a series of members only podcasts on each DISC letter that were very insightful. If you think what I've said might be the issue, perhaps doing some teambuilding where you discuss your DISC or whatever methodology you use will get people to be aware of their behavior.

PierG's picture

Parking lot: great suggestion. Thank you very much kklogic!!!

And yes I do know the DISC model and have listened to all the podcasts. This suggestion is great for colleagues you have a certain relationship with (directs, close colleagues). It might be harder with 'others'.

PierG

sklosky's picture

PierG,

You'd be better off if those people did not attend the meeting.

My suggestion is to limit invitations where possible.

Regards,
Steve

rwwh's picture
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The parking lot will work fine if they are parking lot issues. If it is a scheduled issue that you have everyone give their most important issue in turns, it may also be useful to take public notes on a whiteboard and interrupt their duplication after a few seconds with a polite "thank you for your point, we already have it marked here, next please?".

rwwh's picture
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[quote="sklosky"]You'd be better off if those people did not attend the meeting.[/quote]

Are you sure? Many cases if you are trying to come to a decision in such a meeting, the power of the decision comes from the fact that everyone was present and heard. This will make it more likely to be effective.

TomW's picture
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[quote="PierG"]We are often involved in meetings in which people is not listening.
If they don't interrupt, they just wait for their turn to say every time the same things no matter what has been said / discussed / decided.
Which techniques are you using to cope with this disease?
PierG[/quote]

I think this might be a place for a combination approach.

I like the white board idea, writing down what they say, then saying something to the effect of "Thank you for that. Now what do you think of what we were just talking about?"

PattiBarcroft's picture

PierG,

Are the meetings something you run or are you an attendee? If you run them, have you implemented ground rules? I have found it's never too late to start. If you don't run them you may want to suggest implementing them. If the parties in the meetings agree to the ground rules then you have a foundation to work on aberrant behaviors within the group. If they don't agree, you have a different set of behaviors to address.

Following are some of the ground rules we have begun using in our project update meetings:
1 - We will allow and support open and honest communication in all aspects of this project
2 - We will at all times attempt to keep the project in the best moral standard
3 - We respect the power of honesty and cooperation and apply it for the benefit of the project
4 - We listen carefully to others and expect others to listen carefully to us
5 - We respect all people involved in our industry and deal with them professionally
6 - We are sensitive to and considerate of the ethical and social issues regarding our project
7 - We will avoid conflicts of interest and will not condone conflicting roles at the same time
8 - We respect others opinions and points of view as we expect others to respect ours
9 - We accept and expect feedback on our roll and will give the same

One more question for you. Are the people you are describing being heard? Maybe they aren't listening because their ideas are not being heard either.