Understanding and Confirming Agreed Actions in Group Meetings

G'day, It's Oscar Trimboli

I've set myself a little challenge and I was wondering if you might be able to assist.

Over the time I've been working with people around their listening, whether it's the deep listening quiz, the 90 day challenge, our webinars, our workshops, people who've bought the book or the playing cards or people who are interacting with our deep listening online masterclass for managers - questions, keep coming up about listening.

I've realized that by writing down all these questions over time, I'm well over a thousand questions.

Now don't worry., they fall into themes and I've set myself a challenge to answer these questions between now and the end of the year.

I'll be posting regularly here with my reply, to the questions that people are asking.

These questions come in the context of one on one conversations, , around group conversations, how to have effective listening face to faces. , as well as how to do it on video conferencing.

There's also a number of questions that come about, not just which levels are people listening at.

How do you listen through the context of different cultures?

How do you listen through the context of conflict?

How do you listen through the lens of complexity?

How do you listen to it through the lens of collaboration?

When people say to me, Oscar, , this listening is, very specialized.

I've come to realize this impacts people across many professions, whether that's sales, whether that's technology, whether that's human resources, whether that's manufacturing, whether that's engineering, whether that's leading an organization.

Listening has a pretty big impact on all of those.

So here's how you can help with this challenge. If you've got a question about listening.

Just put it in an email podcast@oscartrimboli.com that's podcast@oscartrimboli.com and.

I might even come back and clarify that with you, but I will definitely answer it.

How to listen in meetings for actions. This question comes from Sophie and she says, Oscar, what I struggle with the most when it comes to listening is turning what I hear into appropriate actions.

Well, thanks Sophie.

Three things for you to consider is

1 who takes the notes in the meeting.

2., how do you define what was actually agreed?

3, what would be different, if the agreed action was actually taken

Now Sophie,, I sense you might be asking the question in the context of a group meeting,

in a group meeting, gained the agreement from the host. if you're not the host at the very beginning of the meeting. Who's taking the notes.

If you are the host, then explain to the group how actions will be captured during the meeting.

It's really critical for this process to be exposed right at the beginning of the conversation.

Now, by the way, Sophie, if you're in a discussion with just one other person, just agree with them as part of the dialog, who's going to take that action.

Now in a group meeting, the second element of actions is to confirm what was actually agreed.

This is the biggest misstep I see people taking. And as a result, it's a common area where when you come back, on the follow up for this meeting, a lot of people are confused because they delivered what they thought they heard rather than what the group agreed to.

So when it comes to agreeing to the action, when it's delegated to the person responsible in the meeting.

And by the way, you can only delegate to the person in the meeting.

You can't delegate an action to someone outside the meeting.

You can delegate it to somebody else or explain it to the person outside the meeting, but again, a critical thing when it comes to group actions is you can only delegate it to the person who was listening to the context.

Now you need to ask the person that's delegated to, to verbally confirm what they're agreeing to not by saying yes or no, I agree to that, but to confirm what they actually heard and to confirm the specific action they're going to take now, when this happens, it surfaces any misunderstanding really, really quickly.

It does so in the moment, rather than after the fact when it's way too late and there's wasted effort on everybody's part.,

Finally, we're appropriate ask what would be different as a result of taking this action, particularly in a group meeting, this helps people to understand the value of what they've decided and helps the group to prioritize its important.

So Sophie, thanks for the question, and a quick reminder, remember who is taking the action in a group meeting ensure during the meeting, what is agreed is verbalized, and then finally, what will be different as a result of taking this action?

If you are like Sophie and got a question about workplace listening, just put it in an email podcast@oscartrimboli.com that's podcast@oscartrimboli.com .

I'm Oscar Trimboli and along with the Deep Listening Ambassadors, we're on a quest to create a hundred million deep listeners in the world.

And you've given us the greatest gift of all.

You've listened to us.

Thanks for listening.