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Ever show up to a meeting expecting your ideas and comments to be taken in consideration only to be cut short by the clock? Or perhaps you have had the experience of participating in a Q&A session only to see it morph into a sustained dialogue between two parties that goes on for ninety minutes without end?
In a different article, I identified seven types of meetings (or dialogues) we commonly have at work. In this blog entry, I want to highlight the five levels of involvement required by meeting participants. For more on these different levels of involvement (or the different types of workplace dialogues), I recommend reading Sam Kaner’s book, The Facilitator’s Guide to Participatory Decision-Making. It is one of my favorite books on the topic.
Here is the list of the five levels of involvement from Sam Kaner’s book. Each level of involvement requires greater levels of participation by the meeting participants and a greater role for the facilitator.
So what happens when the meeting organizer does not plan for the appropriate level of involvement when inviting participants to a meeting and establishing their agenda? If you do not follow the guidance outlined in Collaboration Explained for meeting preparation, I normally see three common outcomes to poor meeting planning.