To Build an Inclusive Culture, Start with Inclusive Meetings

Chances are you’ve attended a meeting today. Was it time well spent or a soul-draining exercise in futility? Although no two meetings are the same, their collective impact on the culture of a company is significant. Meetings matter. They are the forum where people come together to discuss ideas, make decisions, and be heard. Meetings are where culture forms, grows, and takes hold.

So it stands to reason that if an organization desires a more inclusive culture — and leaders want to model inclusion — then meetings are the place to start. But, from what we’ve seen, executives often miss the mark. Like a plate spinner at the circus, leading a meeting requires eyeballing a dozen different details: agenda setting, time management, conflict resolution, decision-making, and more. Inclusion? Who has the bandwidth to keep yet another plate in the air?

But leaders must.

Decades of research show that diverse organizations are more engaged, creative, and financially successful. Diverse hiring can be measured and managed by crunching the numbers, but when we take this best practice out of the lab and apply it to everyday work settings, like meetings, positive results are more elusive.

Our previous study, an examination of 360-degree feedback collected from over 1,000 female executives, gave us insights into why some people feel shut out in meetings. We learned that women are often uncomfortable speaking up and are more than twice as likely to be interrupted in group dialogue — particularly in industries and organizations that are male-dominated. Our more recent coaching experiences reveal that men from minority groups feel similarly. If organizations fail to address this issue, women and minorities will remain on the periphery, and in turn, your creativity and innovation will suffer.

Setting a diverse workforce up for success requires a commitment to the practices of inclusion. This means more companies need to create meeting cultures where diverse contributors have equal impact. As a leader, it’s your responsibility to actively and intentionally give them opportunities to do so.

The problem is that many leaders don’t know where to start. Inclusive behaviors in meetings can be wide ranging, from making sure everyone has a seat at the table to giving each person a chance to speak. To simplify what amounts to a complex equation, we coach leaders to focus on three key areas.

Customs. Priya Parker, author of The Art of Gathering emphasizes the importance of setting the stage for inclusion before your meeting even begins. Focus on structural behaviors that make people feel comfortable. This could be as simple as sending a pre-meeting email to attendees, and inviting people to come “ready to share as well as listen.” It may sound like a little thing you can delegate to another employee, but in our everyday work, we hear loud and clear that leaders are in the best position to make people feel safe in this kind of setting.

Priya also suggests leaders demonstrate what she calls “gracious authority”— a polite demeanor that nonetheless leaves little doubt about who is in charge. To set the tone, welcome people by name as they enter the meeting room, and make sure the seating accommodates everyone.

In the meeting itself, customs and expectations should be established upfront. Let people know they can speak openly and offer a dissenting opinions without fear of retribution. If you have introverts in the room, start with a brief round robin activity that includes everyone and helps the attendees get to know one another better. If it is an especially large group, either break people up into smaller teams or rotate the seating halfway through the exercise.

Conduct. The role of the conductor in an orchestra is to manage the tempo of a performance. They listen critically to keep musicians playing in unison and actively control the dynamic to prevent one instrument from overpowering the rest. The same goes for leaders in meetings — you need to manage conduct and give everyone space to play their part.

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