What do you do if team members are not actively participating in meetings?

1 Identify the reasons

Before you try to solve the problem of team members not participating in meetings, you need to understand why this is happening. Potential reasons could include confusion about the meeting's purpose, agenda, or expectations; lack of interest or motivation in the topic or outcome; feeling uncomfortable to share opinions or feedback; technical issues, distractions, or interruptions during the meeting; and feeling overwhelmed by the meeting's frequency, duration, or size. To identify the reasons, you can ask your team members for feedback, observe their behavior and body language, or review the meeting's data and outcomes.

3 Engage the participants

To address the issue of lack of participation in meetings, you can engage the participants actively and creatively. Consider beginning the meeting with an icebreaker, a warm-up, or a check-in question to break the ice and build rapport. Utilize different methods and tools to facilitate the meeting, such as polls, quizzes, surveys, brainstorming, or breakout rooms. Additionally, ask open-ended questions, invite feedback, and recognize contributions from the team members. Encourage collaboration, interaction, and discussion among the team members and provide positive reinforcement, recognition, and appreciation for their efforts. By engaging the participants in this way, you can make the meeting more interesting and meaningful for them while boosting their involvement and motivation.

4 Follow up and follow through

The final tip to address a lack of participation in meetings is to follow up and follow through after the meeting. This could include sending out a summary of the key points, action items, and decisions, checking in with team members to see if they need any support or clarification, monitoring and tracking progress and performance, providing feedback, coaching, and guidance as needed, and celebrating successes. Following up and follow through demonstrates that you value your team members' participation and contribution, which can help create a more productive and collaborative meeting culture.

5 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?