You're leading a healthcare team meeting. How can you ensure every discipline has a voice?

Prepare and communicate meeting agenda within an optimal time prior the meeting to give the participants enough time to look through the objectives and provide supportive feedback and streamline the communication efficiently and effectively.

Communicate. Communicate. Communicate. When setting expectations, err on over communication vs less. Your team/audience will appreciate that you're thinking ahead by setting the tone, establishing the rules of the game, and a focus on what is the goal of the meeting. Too often, we have meetings without a goal or a meeting about an upcoming meeting. By sharing an agenda, creating an 'all-person should raise their hand', and reiterating the True North, you will have a successful start to the meeting.

Listen more than you speak. Active listening is a critical skill that a leader can develop in order to manage more people and facilitate your team in a meeting. At the onset of the meeting, it is important to establish where things are, go around and get a sense of urgency, simply ask 'How is everyone?' because if someone has something taking up a lot of headspace, he/she will not be productive or may not contribute in that moment. So just understanding how everyone is doing as a person first then as a professional I have found to be very helpful in facilitation. Last, write things down. If you have a white board, write out things in the meeting as they get accomplished. Seeing progress facilitates a meeting but also keeps team on track.

Whiteboard or an easel can be your best friend. Low tech is still tech. Because healthcare is a team sport, a busy team sport, leverage tech in the following ways: to keep everyone on the same, provide easy means of access of the meeting information, and a way outside of the meeting to share/communicate. This keeps people engaged and with an active voice. People range from introvert to extrovert, so having tools in place to share and keep everyone in meeting active is key. Often pollev or other means can be leveraged to give a voice to someone who isn't likely to share their voice in meeting.

In my experience, I embrace and call out the diversity in the room when it is there. This makes everyone feel more welcome and at ease. In healthcare, team members often don't know what the other person is doing in the grand scheme of things: patient care. So listening for diverse POVs to reiterate and acknowledge is key. I have often seen that when you make people in meetings feel comfortable by embracing different styles, they are more likely to contribute openly and actively in the conversation. They are more likely to be honest & authentic, accelerating progress in the meeting. As my mentor Amy Edmonson of Harvard says, you have to create a safe space to bring up a medical error or a protocol that needs adjustment. Progress.