How to make small meetings welcoming

Here are some ways you can help people feel welcome in small meetings.

Offer a personal invitation. If some people are new to your meeting, a simple phone call welcoming them to the meeting,explaining the meeting’s purpose, and stating why you are inviting them to join you goes a long way toward reducing the threat that is present when people enter a new situation. Yes, you can use e-mail, but it doesn’t have the same power as a personal invitation.

Engage in small talk prior to the start of the meeting. Use this time to build connections so that you know people in the room and they know you. This will help the conversation flow later in the meeting.

Conduct a two-minute clean-slate drill. The purpose of this drill is to help people become fully present at your meeting by clearing their minds prior to the start of the meeting. In today’s world, people are juggling so many tasks, it helps to take a few minutes to clear their brains of the chatter that may prevent them from being fully present in your meeting. This helps reduce the threats that people may bring with them to the meeting and creates a welcoming environment.

Here is how the drill works. Each person responds to the question, What do you need to do or say so that you can be fully present in this meeting? Here are some typical responses:

• “I need to let go of the rotten meeting I just came from.”

• “I’ve got to make sure I’m out of this meeting on time so I can pick up my son from day care.”

• “I need to forget about all the e-mails piling up in my in-box while I’m at this meeting.”

At the end of two minutes, all participants have wiped their mental slates clean and are ready to do the work at hand. A a sense of relief occurs when people are able to name what is on their minds that then allows them to do the work at hand.

Yes, you can adjust the time up or down, depending on the number of people attending your meeting. The idea is to quickly clean the slate by making explicit the things that prevent people from being present in your meeting. This simple act of making distractions explicit clears people’s minds and allows them to proceed.

Prepare the room. When you receive guests in your home, you like to make sure your home is ready. Be it a party or having someone over for tea, you put effort into making sure that everything is ready for the task at hand.

The same goes for meetings. A well-prepared room gives the impression that the meeting organizers care about the work. It provides a sense of security for participants and lets them focus on the task at hand, rather than be distracted by missing information or equipment. Just as you created a clean slate in everyone’s mind to do the work, the physical environment must support the work. Hold your meeting in a room that has natural light. Sit at round tables because the circle is the best form for supporting meaningful dialogue. Ensure that the tools necessary to do the work (e.g., flip charts, whiteboards, and computers) are available.

Be a good host. Treat meeting participants as valued guests. Help them feel comfortable in their surroundings. You wantthem to bring their best selves to the meeting, so bring your best self to greeting them and making sure they know that you want them to be there.

Provide advance materials so that people can be prepared to contribute. These may include the agenda, a list of participants, and background material.