How Leaders Should Participate

Consultant and collaboration expert Evan Unger joins Brian to share practical tactics for leading more engaging, effective meetings that actually get results (and don’t drain everyone’s will to live).

Overview

In this episode of the Agile Mentors Podcast, Brian Milner welcomes longtime consultant and facilitation expert Evan Unger to dig into one of the most persistent workplace headaches: remote meetings.

With decades of experience helping leaders shift from “presenting at” to true collaboration, Evan shares how a simple POPRA framework can change the game, why simultaneous chat might be your new secret weapon, and what leaders get wrong when they step into the (virtual) room. From deprogramming the HIPPO effect to humanizing remote collaboration, this conversation is packed with real talk, useful tools, and just enough snark to make you want to fire up your next Zoom meeting with purpose.

References and resources mentioned in the show:

Evan Unger
Collaborative Leadership: A Virtual Immersion™ Program
#138: The Bad Meeting Hangover with Julie Chickering
#142: Communication Patterns Keeping Your Team Stuck with Marsha Acker
Agile Skills Video Library Use code PODCASTSKILLS for $10 off
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This episode’s presenters are:

Brian Milner is a Certified Scrum Trainer®, Certified Scrum Professional®, Certified ScrumMaster®, and Certified Scrum Product Owner®, and host of the Agile Mentors Podcast training at Mountain Goat Software. He's passionate about making a difference in people's day-to-day work, influenced by his own experience of transitioning to Scrum and seeing improvements in work/life balance, honesty, respect, and the quality of work.

Evan Unger is a collaboration expert and consultant who’s spent over three decades helping leaders turn messy meetings into meaningful progress—even in a post-pandemic, Zoom-fatigued world. As managing partner at Schwartz + Associates, he now trains leaders in the art of virtual facilitation and high-stakes collaboration, so teams can stop surviving meetings and start making decisions that actually stick.