The Participation Map
When your meeting grows to more than 15 attendees or if you have a
more complex meeting, such as a learning meeting, consider using a participation map. A participation map can help you recognize common patterns of problem meetings, such as one or two people dominating the meeting, certain members contributing nothing, and helping shy attendees
turn on their camera or engage.
Use our template or make your own. On the left side, write every participant’s name, in alphabetical order by first name so they are easy to find. On the top, write your key goals or time marks. For this first participation map, you can use “Logged In, Checked In, Chat, Share, End.” When you conduct your meeting, make a checkmark or write a comment anytime someone participates. If someone participates too much, make sure to call on other people. If someone does not participate at all, make sure to check in with them. Remember that you can allow them to “Pass.” Checking
in with them lets them know they were given an opportunity to contribute as opposed to feeling ignored or left out. You can use a spreadsheet if you have multiple screens or you can print the map if that is more comfortable for you. Inclusion is a powerful engagement tool and it will help engage all your attendees of various personalities and styles. This can be difficult for one person to do, so this is one of the first roles I delegate.
In this participation map, you can see the attendees’ names on the left. The names are sorted by first name so it’s easy to find them. On the top of the document, I have the plan for this meeting. I have the Planned Time and the Actual Time, which I fill in with the time I start the activity. During the meeting, I can enter the time I start and it will help me calculate if I’m ahead or behind schedule. The name of every activity is at the top so I know where I am in the agenda. You can see comments made by the attendee in the Air Traffic Control column. All of these notes help the host know if they have engaged everybody. The host can create more engagement by reusing
comments that were made earlier.
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