Making Meetings Welcoming

Creating a welcoming and inclusive atmosphere in meetings is essential for productive and positive interactions among participants. Here are some strategies to make your meetings more welcoming:

Before exploring how to make meetings welcoming, let’s see what makes people feel unwelcome in a meeting:

• No welcoming smile greets them.
• They have no idea of the purpose of the meeting or their role.
• No one asks for their opinion and if they do speak up, it is clear that they should not have spoken.
• If they happen to come late, everyone ignores them.
• They are asked to talk for 5 minutes on a topic they know would take 30 minutes.
• The meeting room reeks of power and privilege. They immediately understand that they have neither power nor privilege in the meeting.

This is how Dick and Emily Axelrod suggest how to make small meetings welcoming:

• Offering a personal invitation, explaining the purpose, and stating why you are inviting them to join you goes a long way towards reducing the threat that is present when a person enters a new situation.
• Engage in small talk prior to the start of the meeting. Use this time to build connections so that you know people and they know you. This helps the conversation flow later in the meeting.
• Conduct a two minute clean slate drill to help people become fully present at your meeting by clearing their minds before the start of the meeting. It can be done by asking, “What do you need to do or say so that you can be fully present in this meeting?” Some responses are: – I need to let go of the rotten meeting I came from. Or I need to forget about all the emails piling up etc.
• Prepare the room, just as you do with your house, when guests are coming.
• Be a good host, by bringing in your best self, greeting them, and making sure they know that you want them to be there.

Reference: Let’s stop meeting like this by Dick and Emily Axelrod