3 ways to redirect a meeting, when you feel like the odd person out

There have been occasions in the past, where I've felt alone in a room full of people in a presentation where I seem to be the only one shaking my head in a room full of folks nodding their heads at the presenter.

Over the years, as I've thought about these occasions, it's dawned on me that perhaps not everyone is really in agreement, but who wants to be rude and disagreeable? Perhaps not EVERYONE does in fact agree, but no one wants to be the only one objecting. Yet, not being the "twelfth man in the room", or the lone juror in a room full of guilty votes that has reasonable doubt,  can be to the detriment of everyone around you. 

You might think it takes a certain amount of self esteem and security to feel like you could stand up to a number of people in opposition, yet what you may find when you speak up and (in a polite way) push back on the idea, that you'll often be asking the questions everyone else has around the room as well and it doesn't take much courage if done the right way.

How can you be sure though, if where you stand? Well, there's three clear steps you can take without stepping on anyone's toes and approach the situation in a way that doesn't put a big target on your back. 

1. Ask A Clarifying Question

The first step is to make sure you clearly understand where the individual is coming from, which starts with asking about anything you're not 100% clear on. Your mind can run away with a particular phrase or bullet point, where you start to say to yourself "well that just can't be right", so making sure that is in fact what was said and meant is key to making sure you're on the same page with the presenter. 

If someone states, for example, a statement such as "We've beat all previous sales quarters from last year, with this quarter's numbers in" and you know that the company actually had less profit on the sales made this quarter due to a number of liquidation sales, it could be a misleading statement to say the company did good even though sales did go up because of those discount sales.

You don't want to correct the person in the meeting, so approaching it by saying something like "On the previous slide, you mentioned our sales last quarter exceeded all previous quarters from 2015. Is that based on gross or net revenue?" is getting everyone on the same page that it was based on gross sales and the net revenues weren't actually great. 

2. Repeat back what the person said

If you're clear on what the presenter said, rephrasing a particular point that came to mind as a means to revisit the stated point is a polite way to open the topic up for dialogue. You never ever want to come after the person and state they're wrong, so rephrasing what they said ending with your interpretation of the statement is a less direct way to further probe that particular point.

For example, if someone makes the statement about twitter being dead and no one using it anymore, you could re-state their point by saying "So if I understand you, Twitter is no longer a viable marketing channel for us (rephrasing their statement) and we should abandon spending on promoted campaigns as soon as possible? (your interpretation)". 

This allows them to further clarify what they meant, and eliminate any hyperbole or misguided confusion in the audience while allowing the speaker to save face if in fact they overstated or misspoke on a particular point. 

3. Consider what elements you might change, and propose that to the individual in the meeting or afterwards, depending on which would be more appropriate. 

Using steps 1 & 2 will help make sure you and the audience are crystal clear on what's being spoken about, so step 3 is helping to re-direct the statement if that's warranted. 

For example, if the speaker is recommending staff reductions in a critical area of the business you feel is pivotal for the companies growth, you could bring up your point by saying "I understand the need to cut headcount, and agree that we are in crunch mode, but I've seen first hand the work that team is doing to contribute to our team's growth and would be curious if you'd be open for a conversation on another area that may be less impacting to our company's roadmap?". Typically that person won't say no, especially if you bring it up in a meeting (depending on the folks in the room of course), and often unless the person has an agenda you don't know about then they're going to be open to saving money in the best manner possible.

These steps aren't fool proof, but hopefully gave you some ideas on how you can speak up in meetings and not feel like you're the odd person out when something questionable comes up in a meeting. We've all been there, and I for one haven't spoken up in the past which lead to bad decisions being made down the line.

So keep these tips in mind, and feel free to contribute your own tips in the comments below as this is far from the complete list!