Silent/Shy Persons
If silent people are meeting dropouts—reading a newspaper, yawning, rolling their eyes, almost reclining in their chairs—you might consider their purpose in being at the meeting. They may be indifferent to the topic, think the meeting is a waste of time, be bored, or feel that they will have nothing to contribute. One way to get them participating is to stand close to them. Establish eye contact, call them by name and ask them a question. If they don't answer quickly, say, “I'll give you a moment to think” and call on someone else. One thing you should definitely do is ask them to put away their reading material.
On a break, ask them why they are not talking. Just showing them your attention may help them tell you the reason ...
Get Meeting Management now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.
