A minority of people do a
majority of the talking at most work meetings. Here's how you can stop these
conversation hogs in their tracks.
By Leigh Thompson
FORTUNE -- The next time you go to a team
meeting, surreptitiously get out a sheet of paper and bring a watch. Record who
talks and for how long, and at the end of the meeting, add up how many minutes
each person had the floor. If your meetings are anything like the hundreds
studied by management scientists, you probably noticed that a minority of
people did a majority of the talking. The rest of the folks did not get a word
in edgewise!
This problem is known as the uneven
communication problem. There are a few dominant people in most groups who
control and monopolize the discussion. For example, in a typical four-person
group, two people do 62% of the talking. In a six-person group, three people do
70% of the talking; and in an eight-person group, three people do 70% of the
talking. The topper is that the dominant people do not realize this. In fact,
they vehemently argue that the meetings are egalitarian. They lack self-awareness.
The question becomes: Why are the rest of
us here? A dysfunctional self-fulfilling prophecy starts to unfold week after
week in these meetings: the dominant people begin to feel that the silent
people are unprepared or simply don't have any opinions, so they dominate more;
similarly, the quiet folks feel that it is futile to try to be heard, so they
stop trying. Left unchecked, this creates a self-perpetuating doom loop in the
group. Team members may blame one another for the unsatisfactory team meeting.
In order to get the most out of collaboration, it is important to neutralize
the too-dominant people and encourage the too-submissive people. However, just
saying, "Shut up" or "Speak up" does not work. We need a
more effective technique.
