www.fastcompany.com: When communicating in meetings, leaders generally fall into one of two categories: those who methodically think through their ideas and formulate a response before speaking, and those who take a less structured approach, sharing all of their thoughts out loud to spark discussion or reach a final decision.
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Naturally, I am a thinker and analyzer. So during meetings, or classes, I tend to do a lot of sitting back, listening and processing to the conversations being had. In a theatrical field, with so many creative minds and so many people who enjoy having their voices heard, there is always so much to digest and process at a single time. I find myself either being the last person to speak or not speaking at all. This isn't because I do not want to speak or I have nothing to say, it's simply because I am taking the time to sit with what's being discussed. I do realize, though, how that ends up making me look to others. Also, when I do go to speak, there is so much running through my head that it comes out as a whole lot of disorganized words. So the idea of creating a space where it is okay to speak in draft is definitely helpful for people who are processing as they speak. Though, I think being able to properly speak and express during meetings will always be a challenge for people like me.
I think I have always employed a strategy that is both spontaneous but also something that I have prepared for. I think it is a nerve wracking idea to me to walk into a meeting ready to wing it as things come up. I think what I try to do with the spontaneity aspect is to keep my mind open to what the other people are saying if they are not on the same wavelength as me. But I am definitely an advocate for being well prepared and as aware as possible of the situation or the topics at hand when at a meeting just because it makes things so much more efficient. A meeting goes on faster and is more useful if everyone in there is well versed with the topics at hand versus them reading about the topic as people in the meeting are ready to talk.
I most definitely fall into the second category of sharing ideas but I have been trying most desperately to be able to think through and formulate topics before I speak. When I try that, however, it seems that the time passes for me to get to my comment and we have moved onto the next thing. I feel in the culture of theatre, especially for production and stage management, others expect people in these positions to be so precise and factual even though design teams definitely work in category two communication, it seems management cannot. I actually really appreciated the “Communication in Tweets” concept because sometimes when you are the type of person that has to say something out to loud for things to make since you can have a hard time figuring out when and how to stop. That concept can also go with setting time limits or maybe that could even turn into comment limits in meetings.
I find it hilarious to be reading this article right as I walk back to my dorm from a Scotch and Soda meeting. It is ironic not because “I struggle to get my point across”, but because I was just giving a friend advice on giving presentations– they tend to get nervous and shut down as a response during large production meetings. Believe it or not, I’ve actually just forwarded this article to them. Haha! Now, in terms of the content of the article, I could not agree more with Sugar’s breakdown of 5 key tips: (1) Share what you are thinking out loud, (2) Communicate in “tweets”, (3) Think and speak in an outline, (4) Set a time limit on ide sharing, and (5) Emphasize your strengths. Overall, I do believe the main takeaway is to keep comments coherent and focused. Attempt to stay on task and not diverge into meaningless tangents. We all hate meetings that could have been emails, so why waste everyone’s time?
I definitely fall in to a pattern with meetings where I will be silent if I do not have something prepared. Thinking out loud is not something I feel I do very well. I feel like I do not make any sense when I attempt to respond on the spot. “I’ll get back to you on that” is a great response that I love to employ. A lot of the time, I know the answer, but my brain refuses to function when other people are waiting on me. I think a way I can work on this is to have paper in front of me and not feel like my notes need to look good or be super organized. I think over organizing or over analyzing is usually what stifles me. Prepping ahead of time more than I currently do would also be useful. I also think the advice of communicating in tweets is good for me. I tend to monologue a bit, not because I like to hear myself talk, but because as I talk, I figure out more ways to communicate my meaning, and I keep adding that on to a point that is not actually useful.
I think these are really useful tips!! Especially the first one. I think out loud almost all the time, and I never really considered how in a meeting space that could come off as disorganized. The strategies put in place by the author for the woman in the example are really thoughtful and sound effective. I hope that moving forward, people are able to practice self awareness to make their communication the best it can be. I also hope that we are able to offer one another understanding and patience as we work through communication issues, because a positive and supportive environment is the best kind for fostering improvement. Perhaps with the time limit on idea sharing, there can be a pause at the end for anyone to share one last burning idea they really want to put on the table. For emphasizing your strengths, maybe those in supervisor positions can make it a point to publicly recognize the strengths of each of their employees! Things like this will allow people to feel appreciated and comfortable, and not only will this encourage more effective communication, it can improve productivity and workplace culture overall.
I first heard the phrase “speaking in draft” in my anti-racist theater course last year and it changed my life. I often have a hard time coming up with an answer or solution on the spot, and being able to preface my rambling with, “I’m going to speak in drafts,” has definitely made me feel more comfortable when it comes to explaining my thoughts and realizations as I come to a solution. On the other hand, this does in fact often lead to me rambling about whether or not what I had just said was correct or not. I think the tip to set a time limit on idea sharing is kind of a good idea. I think it could really help to pause and check-in with the group periodically to keep me from being the only one who is talking, but I also feel like I worry enough about speaking for too long and watching the clock or waiting for a colleague to time check me would only cause me to ramble on more and faster. Regardless, I do think that, for the most part, this article can be helpful to a lot of people, but it’s important to find a balance between naturally having a [structured] conversation with a group and focusing too much on the structure part.
The tips given in this article were extremely eye opening on how to approach meetings about all kinds of topics. In high school, I had many leadership positions in a variety of areas, so I recognized some ideas in this article that would have been nice to know first starting out. Now, I think trial and error is important whether you discover the tips in this article on your own or work with the information given to find how you want to interpret it. When I was running student production meetings in high school, the strategy mentioned to “communicate in tweets” was something I had to learn on my own in the moment, however, I now realize another tool that would have really allowed me to communicate clearly with my team is to “share that I am thinking out loud”. I believe explaining that you are brainstorming before you elaborate is important because it lets your team know where you are headed and that they should listen with an open mind.
I found a lot of these tips quite helpful, especially the points about outlining what you want to say and speaking in tweets. I'm very much a "must process before I speak" kind of person and in many theatrical settings, it can sometimes feel like my ideas get bulldozed from my brain by the onslaught of other interesting thoughts and topics being thrown around by the voices in the room. And I don't say that in a bad way, that's one of the things I enjoy most about this community. The uniqueness and individuality in what each person brings to the table with each breath. But it can be difficult for me to keep my thoughts together, respond coherently, and also listen and understand what is being said in real time. Speaking in short, planned out snippets would probably be very beneficial for that. Speaking in draft was a concept I only heard about last year and I love when I hear people using that phrase. It makes my thought process feel seen as I too feel like I'm speaking in a disorganized way and it's good to know that's perfectly fine and people understand what I mean.
A couple things from this article, first the idea of adding something to an email later. I have had too many experiences in theatre where the pressure for having a decision made was mounting for a variety of reasons in different scenarios. It usually comes with a result that not everyone is happy with, it was usually in a room where many people didn’t get the chance to express ideas or be prepared for the meeting, or to work those ideas around and be able to come back to it. It wasn’t last minute, there was just no time. More of those more casual brainstorming sessions would have been so helpful compared to one or two formal and final meetings, as well as good planning to enable everyone involved to get what they need. I for one am a big fan of less formal meetings as I know they tend towards less of a good discussion.
The setup for this story about how a CEO was throwing an employee “curveballs” is sort of strange to me because that sounds like the issue resided on the CEO who is no just asking straightforward and frank questions, but rather trying to catch their employees off guard. This does not sound like a healthy setup. I personally like the method that they talk about of “speaking in draft” and putting everything on the table because it will at least spark an idea. My personal biggest complaint from meetings is one’s that take a long time because everyone feels the need to put in their two cents or meeting that could be consolidated down into an email. I really do like the plan of keeping the meeting on schedule by choosing a hard end time so that the meeting does at least eventually get out. I read an article here freshman year that said brainstorming is useless so it’s interesting to see an article take the counterpoint.
As a leader I find myself going back and forth between thinking out what I am going to say and just jumping in without thinking through my thoughts fully. The latter is where I stumble into trouble. I have been known to through random thoughts into a conversation that widely steers the conversation off-topic. I don’t intend to derail a meeting or flow of a conversation but sometimes I’m curious about an idea and the thought just comes out. I have tried to stop myself by keeping a pen and notebook near me. This can help me collect my thoughts and sometimes stops me from steering a conversation off course. I have trouble articulating my thoughts sometimes. I find it frustrating when I have the same thought as someone but cannot communicate it. I am still working on it but I know that it isn’t one of my strengths. I liked the section about emphasizing your strengths within a meeting. No one is perfect but if you are aware of what works best for you, there is always a way to contribute in a positive and useful way. I know that at CMU my classmates have been very kind to me when I am attempting to communicate, they try to help me out rather than judging me for not being the best communicator :)
I found this particularly interesting because I really struggle with being put on the spot. I found the idea of saying “this is just a brainstorm” or making it clear that I’m thinking as I talk really helpful, this way if it doesn’t come out as I mean it there is far less pressure. I think that also seems as though it would open the floor to allow more discussion. However, I think some of the skills, such as removing words or watching the time, are very useful skills, but for those like myself who freeze up when I can’t get my point across properly or my mind goes blank, it was a concern. I appreciated the example of the CEO, in which the person being questioned was occasionally able to write a follow up email to explain and clarify thoughts further. I think in a situation, especially for a person like myself who struggles to be able to get my thoughts across verbally, to be able to figure out a way to do that in a professional way is brilliant.
Communication in meetings is absolutely key to achieve high efficiency among different departments. I really liked this article because it gives me permission to more or less speak in drafts during a meeting. I have definitely found myself in a meeting where one individual dominates the conversation because they seem to have a better understanding than anyone else. This has led me to come up with questions and concerns after the meeting once I had processed what had actually been said. After reading this article, I would feel much more confident with asking more questions to get to the root of the concern and would also limit talking time to ensure that everyone has time to apply what has been said to their department. My favorite tool from this list is to communicate in “tweets” this makes ideas and solutions so much more easy to digest and process than long winded all encompassing solutions coming from one person.
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