Meeting Success:
Handling 'Microwaves' and 'Percolators'
 A workshop participant asked me recently what to do about people who don't contribute anything to meeting discussions. (Some of you might be thinking, "Just don't invite them.")
Not so fast. If they otherwise contribute well to the organization, maybe there's something about meeting-type discussions (conference calls, etc.) that makes them clam up.
'Microwaves' and 'Percolators' I'm not talking about shyness here, but more about a discussion phenomenon I've come to call 'Microwaves' and 'Percolators'.
'Microwaves' are those people in the discussion who "cook" an idea or response really fast, whereas 'Percolators' want to slowly bring it to readiness.
'Microwaves' jump into the discussion--sometimes with great ideas, occasionally not-so-great. It often happens that the rest of the group cedes discussion power to them, concluding that they are better contributors, better leaders, or maybe just discussion hogs!
'Percolators,' on the other hand, prefer to collect a lot of information and impressions before speaking up, so sometimes they end up saying nothing at all. They can make a meeting leader want to tear his or her hair out with their after-meeting contributions: "I think I have a solution to the problem we were discussing at yesterday's meeting." Oy!
Three Tactics Here are three remedies some of you may have already discovered:
1. Make the best use of your meeting agenda. If you send it a day or two ahead and ask people to come prepared to discuss Topic X, most people will deliver.
2. Hold a two-stage discussion. When feasible, start the discussion in one meeting, ask for follow-up ideas, and finalize the discussion decision in a second meeting.
3. Make it safe to contribute imperfectly-baked ideas. One way I do this is to have a quick go-around to tap questions/concerns/likes before closing a discussion. Use index cards if you feel anonymity is important--then collect and deal with them as a group.
Avoiding Bigger Problems Ultimately, both 'Percolators' and 'Microwaves' can water down the quality of your discussion. Perhaps worse, they can make it hard to reach true consensus on decisions, opening the door to post-decision faction building that saps a lot of organizational energy.
See if any of the above tactics help you maximize discussions you are leading--and send us your ideas if you have a tactic we should've mentioned. We'll pass it along in our next issue.
Copyright 2011, Diana Brooks Associates. All rights reserved. | 
