Planning a team meeting with diverse perspectives. How can you ensure everyone feels heard and valued?

To foster a truly inclusive and productive team meeting, create a safe space where everyone feels valued. Clearly communicate meeting objectives and ground rules beforehand. Assign specific roles (e.g., timekeeper, note-taker) to encourage participation. Employ active listening techniques, and paraphrase ideas to confirm understanding. Encourage diverse perspectives by asking open-ended questions and avoiding interrupting. Implement strategies like round-robin sharing or written idea-sharing for quieter members. Respect different communication styles and pace the meeting accordingly.

It is important to understand the needs of the meeting. Ideally, one must know the history of the topic happened regarding the meeting with smaller group. This will help in setting clear objectives and another important thing is to provide space for other team members to share their perspectives and make a note of the same if its meeting with the business vision.

Creating a safe space for team members whether it's a junior most member or the senior most is very important. One must have open mind to understand the perspectives of others and if needed an open communication regarding the points discussed should be followed by. This will foster an environment of being heard and valued.

Each member involved in the meeting are the ones who are aware of the topic or new to the topic who will be involved. So, it's important to classify two groups. One group who can share what went good/ wrong, what are the expectations/ needs, what is being done? And another group who can ask questions, bring in the new ideas. This must be involved keeping in mind where all the team members get their turn to speak. Later the groups can have united discussion.

To foster equal participation, consider implementing structured turn-taking techniques. One effective method is the “round-robin” approach. In this method, each participant is given a specific turn to speak, ensuring that everyone has an opportunity to contribute. This can be particularly useful in larger groups where some voices might otherwise be overshadowed.

Listening Actively is being present in that moment for what is being told. You don't listen to respond, you listen to get insight about the issues at hand, then through verification questions, you make sure what you interpreted is what was intended to be communicated. To get information that is crystal clear and unambiguous is crucial!