Have you ever found yourself in a meeting, which has been dragging on for far too long. There is usually one person who has to have their say on everything. That usually wouldn’t be too much of a problem if they were succinct and kept things brief, however, that is not the case. This person seems to have skill of using 100 words when 10 would do, and as a consequence meetings always run over and everyone feels frustrated.
What about finding yourself in a meeting where the conversation manages to keep going off track and deviates to other matters other than those which are supposed to being discussed. As a result, you find yourself getting increasingly annoyed at the time being wasted.
A third possible scenarios is where there are one more dominant figures who may take pleasure in disagreeing with everything with the aim of bullying to get their own way in the decision making process.
You may be an assertive person who has no trouble interjecting and cutting the conversation off, but many people are not sufficiently assertive, and shutting down conversation is hard. I have certainly found myself in many meetings where one or more of those scenarios often played out.
One technique I came across on the internet a few years ago is to use the Yellow and Red card game to help bring meetings back on track in a way that does not offend and does not require interjecting. I’ve found the game is also fantastic at training the verbose speakers to stay on track.
You start the meeting by setting out the rules of the game. Get everyone on board with the idea of trying something new to try and bring some focus to the meeting. I like to give everyone a printed copy of the rules to keep beside them and read for themselves. Everyone also gets two cards: A Yellow card and a Red card.
The rules go like this:
Anyone with a yellow card can hold it up, providing a signal to the person speaking that maybe they need to refocus or move onto a different topic.
If two or more participants raise a yellow card, this means that someone can hold up the red card.
When the red card is held up, this gives the speaker or the speakers 60 seconds to wrap up that discussion before moving on.
Using this very visual and clear tactic, you can keep meetings focused, on topic, and quite frankly, way more engaging for everyone involved.
This game makes everyone accountable for keeping the meeting on track and moves the sole responsibility for trying to bring the meeting under control from one person to everyone. By requiring two people to play yellow cards before a red card is played prevents the bully personality from taking control. The act of holding up a card does not require interjecting either which makes it easy even when it is hard to get a word in edgewise.
In my experience, the act of handing the cards out at the beginning of a meeting is enough to remind people to be on their best behavior. I have also found that as soon as someone has played one yellow card the speaker gets the message and tends to wrap things up pretty quickly.
I have also found that after a couple of meetings, people get trained and the cards are no longer necessary.
This game can work equally well for in-person meetings as well as online meetings. It is easy for a person to hold up their card to the camera.
Now days I carry a pack of cards and rules with me whenever I go to a meeting, just in case!
Feel free to print off your own rules and cards. I also have some template PDFs over on my website if you want to save yourself the hassle of making your own.
If you like what you read, sign up for my mailing list over on my website to get notified when I publish new articles.