Encouraging Participation

Techniques to encourage participation from all meeting attendees:

Guiding Principles

• Ensure that everyone participates
• Minority opinions are allowed to be expressed
• Focus on ideas, not personal endorsements

Best Practices

• Use round-robin techniques when seeking responses from the group
• Ask for input using specific questions as much as possible, rather than asking for more general feedback/comments
• Use brainstorming techniques effectively – combine with round-robin techniques and ensure that ideas offered are not immediately critiqued – make analysis and review of the brainstormed ideas a separate phase of the process
• Use visual aids such as a flip chart/white board/projection from a laptop to display the list of ideas being generated.
• Break into smaller groups when appropriate and have the groups present their ideas to the larger team
• Utilize specific roles such as a “devil’s advocate” to help ensure that alternative viewpoints are represented