How to Run Inclusive Meetings in a Diverse Workplace

Workplaces today are becoming more diverse than ever before, bringing together a rich tapestry of cultures, backgrounds, and perspectives.

With that comes the need for a culture that facilitates inclusive meetings. Technology can be a useful catalyst in this change, but achieving it also requires a shift in workplace dynamics. Ensuring that everyone's voice is heard, respected, and valued is important to truly harness the benefits of a diverse, equitable, and inclusive workforce.

In this guide, we'll delve into the benefits of inclusive meetings, along with practical steps for ensuring inclusivity before, during, and after meetings. But first, let's delve into the question:

Why should you care about inclusive meetings? 

A study conducted by the Harvard Business Review that collected 360-degree feedback from 1000 female executives found women to be twice as likely to be interrupted in a group setting compared to their male counterparts. Men from minority groups report similar experiences. These facts show the extent to which inclusivity might be a cry for many, especially in primarily white or male-dominated organizations and industries. 

However, the statistics on why inclusivity is beneficial are clear: inclusive companies are about 1.7x times more likely to be leaders in innovation than those that aren’t. They tend to have higher employee engagement and make more comprehensive and sound decisions. Making meetings and organizations inclusive seems like the logical solution to this problem. 

Benefits of inclusive meetings 

Maintaining the status quo results in organizations missing out on several key benefits that come with inclusivity. Some of these include: 

• Enhanced engagement and participation: Inclusive meetings lay the foundation for increased engagement, allowing every participant to make meaningful contributions. Given a chance to contribute, every participant offers unique insights and perspectives that make the discussion more comprehensive.
• Better decision-making: Gathering inputs from multiple stakeholders often results in well-rounded and sound decisions. These decisions are less likely to benefit any one group within the organization disproportionately and instead consider a wide range of viewpoints.
• Increased innovation: When more smart minds come together, companies stand a better chance of innovating and adapting to changing trends and market dynamics. 
• Creates a level playing field: Creating a culture of inclusive meetings can ensure that every team member benefits from a level playing field. This enables them to collaborate meaningfully with their peers. 

How to conduct an inclusive meeting

Conducting an inclusive meeting requires a fresh human interaction approach that ensures psychological safety and encourages every participant to contribute without fear of discrimination.

This section lists every step in the process of conducting an inclusive meeting by breaking it down into three stages: before, during, and after the meeting. 

Before the meeting

There are four key things to take care of before a meeting begins to ensure it’s run inclusively and efficiently. 

Set clear ground rules and expectations 

The first step to setting the stage for an inclusive meeting is establishing clear expectations. Every attendee must understand their role in creating an inclusive atmosphere where all participants can speak up. The rules must also extend to the overall conduct of every participant during a meeting. 

These rules include: 

• Using professional language
• Being respectful of one another 
• Not interrupting another speaker 
• Using gender-inclusive and appropriate language 

You can share these rules and expectations in the meeting invitation email to ensure every participant can access them beforehand. 

Be selective about meeting invites 

Limit the number of attendees to those whose presence is essential. Inviting too many people can lead to a less efficient meeting, where discussions become scattered and less relevant to some participants. It can also cause frustration for those who feel their time could be used more effectively.

Before sending out invitations, consider who has the necessary expertise, decision-making authority, or relevant information. For instance, when planning a product launch strategy, inviting the entire marketing team might not be necessary. Instead, focusing on key members like the product manager, lead designer, and marketing campaign manager can optimize discussions and expedite decision-making. This approach helps in meeting management and productivity.

Build a collaborative agenda 

Meetings that are called on short notice without offering prior knowledge about the agenda often waste an organization's resources and the participants’ time. The best way to solve this is to share the meeting agenda with everyone beforehand and gather their feedback on potential improvements.

The agenda should include any decisions to be made by the end of the meeting and what factors will be considered when making them. This ensures that the participants are aware of the key purpose of the meeting and helps them prepare to make informed contributions.

Assign a meeting facilitator 

Assigning roles in a meeting ensures it flows smoothly. A facilitator can help mediate the discussion and ensure that every participant gets a chance to voice their opinions. They can also ensure that the team conducts itself professionally. After all, an inclusive meeting is one that’s well-facilitated. 

What’s more, rotating the facilitator role in each meeting can give individuals greater visibility and confidence over time.

During the meeting

While setting expectations and assigning roles is crucial before a meeting, several strategies can help make it inclusive during its progress. 

Include everyone from the start 

An inclusive meeting is one where every participant contributes to the subject or the agenda. Ensuring that everyone is included right from the start becomes critical. Meetings that often start with one or two participants taking the lead end up being rather one-directional and less inclusive. 

To achieve this:

• Remind everyone to be respectful and not interrupt speakers.
• Begin by checking in with each participant, giving them time and space to respond without interruption.
• If someone interrupts, the facilitator should intervene, e.g., “I’d like to hear more about what James has to say on this subject.”
• Encourage the use of the "Raise Hand" feature in video conferencing tools to draw attention respectfully.

Provide different ways to contribute 

Since the primary objective of conducting an inclusive meeting is to ensure that every participant gets a voice, it only makes sense that they’re given multiple ways to engage in the discussion. While some people might be comfortable speaking up during a pause, others might prefer being invited to do so. 

A few ways in which you can encourage participants to engage in the discussion include: 

• Allowing participants to speak up independently when there’s a pause
• Letting participants request the facilitator to invite them to speak
• Typing out their opinions or feedback into the meeting’s chat box 
• Enabling participants to raise their hands when they want to share opinions or suggestions.
• Allowing each participant to offer their thoughts before or after a meeting in a form, all of which are collated and shared with the team in the form of a meeting summary
• Encouraging reflection on the discussion before contributing, catering to introverts or those needing time to formulate their thoughts.

Additionally, keep meetings on track with the agenda. If a topic shift is necessary, use the chat box for suggestions or create breakout rooms to avoid excluding anyone who has yet to voice their opinions.

Be transparent about decisions 

A meeting is bound to culminate with certain action items or decisions. By the end of the meeting, these decisions must be clear to every participant. To support this:

• Check in with participants to see if there’s anything they wanted to add but couldn’t.
• Recap decisions or action items at the end of the meeting.
• Allow participants to ask for clarity on roles and duties.

When participants see their feedback being considered, they feel more engaged and invested in decision-making.

After the meeting

A meeting doesn’t conclude once everyone leaves the room. A few key steps must be followed after a meeting to ensure that the participants retain the information shared and have the space to offer any feedback they might have. 

Follow up immediately 

Once a meeting is wrapped up, the first thing is to send every participant a summary of the discussion via email or Slack. While this was traditionally handled by a dedicated notetaker who would have to write a meeting summary by hand, today, AI-powered tools now offer transcription, summarization, and even translation services. Ideally, it’s best to send the summary within a day to ensure maximum retention.

Keep the meeting minutes accessible 

The meeting’s minutes must be accessible to every participant at all times. You can send them through a dedicated channel on your organization’s collaboration platform. This ensures that the participants can always access the meeting minutes if they need to refer to certain details at any point. 

Collect feedback to make improvements 

Last but not least, collecting feedback is crucial to ensuring meetings become more effective, efficient, and inclusive over time. You can request the participants’ feedback on an online form.

The meeting feedback survey can include a mix of objective and subjective questions, which can help you improve the quality and inclusivity of your meetings in the future. 

Strategies for virtual inclusive meetings

All the points above boil down to four key aspects that are critical to ensuring inclusive meetings: awareness, humanity, visibility, and accessibility. The same principles apply to virtual and hybrid meetings, too. 

Remote meetings come with various challenges, such as technological glitches, a lack of structure, lower engagement levels, and potential difficulties for those with impairments of some kind. However, there are a few things that can help address these issues and ensure remote meetings remain inclusive: 

• Encourage the use of the chat, particularly if someone’s encountering tech issues. 
• Lay down what’s expected from everyone right at the beginning. 
• Be on the lookout for anyone who raises their hand and gives them the opportunity to speak up. 
• Each participant should be provided with all meeting-related information, such as the agenda, the meeting link, and a list of the attendees, beforehand. 
• Keep checking in with the remote participants to ensure they’re following the discussion and can see when someone shares their screen or offers feedback. 

Just as remote meetings need special care to keep every participant engaged, so do hybrid ones. A few strategies that can help ensure hybrid meetings remain inclusive every step of the way include: 

• Share the meeting’s agenda and invitation online on a common channel or via email. This ensures that every participant (remote or in-person) has access to the information they need before joining the meeting. 
• Move all important conversations online. This ensures that those in-person don’t unknowingly dominate conversations and that everyone follows the norms of virtual meetings. 
• Encourage participants to show up five minutes earlier. This ensures that any technical issues can be resolved beforehand, respecting every participant’s time during the meeting. 

While the list of strategies extends beyond those mentioned here, these are a few critical steps that can go a long way in fostering a culture of inclusivity during meetings. 

Tools and technologies to facilitate inclusive meetings

Conducting inclusive meetings might have been a challenge at one point, but if there’s one less barrier to them today, it’s because of technology. Today, organizations have a host of tools they can use to ensure inclusivity and equity in meetings. 

Some of these tools and technologies include: 

• Video conferencing platforms with inclusivity features: Most enterprise-level video conferencing platforms offer a host of features that can make meetings inclusive. Some of these features include breakout rooms that allow smaller teams to discuss focused subjects, chat boxes that allow members to type in their opinions and feedback, and real-time captioning for those who might have hearing impairments. 
• Anonymous feedback tools: Gathering feedback is crucial to improving any process in an organization, and when the feedback is anonymous, it encourages greater participation. Using these tools can help them share their opinions without fear of any kind of backlash. 

Common challenges in conducting inclusive meetings

As with every operation in an organization, there can be several challenges to conducting inclusive and equitable meetings. While many of these challenges are natural, small changes can help overcome them over time.

Overcoming biases

Human beings are prone to bias, often translating into a non-inclusive approach to meetings. These biases can include those against a gender, a race, a sexual orientation, and so on, and often hinder equitable participation all around. 

Handling disagreements

Disagreements are a normal part of workplace interactions, but when they arise during a meeting, they can distract from the agenda and waste time. Effective conflict management strategies, such as setting clear discussion guidelines, using neutral language, and encouraging respectful dialogue, can help manage disagreements without derailing the meeting.

Encouraging team participation

Ensuring everyone contributes during a meeting can be challenging. Some participants may feel uncomfortable speaking up. Creating an environment where everyone feels encouraged to share their views can be achieved through inclusive facilitation techniques and prompting quieter members to contribute.

Balancing inclusivity with meeting efficiency

Allowing everyone to speak can sometimes lead to longer meetings. This is where the facilitator must step in to ensure the meeting doesn’t divert from the agenda. Additionally, the meeting must focus on the action items that require discussion. Any further information that needs to be disseminated can be communicated via email.

Over to you: transform your meetings into inclusive experiences

Conducting inclusive meetings not only ensures increased employee engagement but also benefits organizations at every level. 

This guide has listed the various steps involved in the process of making meetings inclusive. It has also highlighted how greater inclusivity can lead to greater innovation, aside from a host of other benefits such as better decision-making and enhanced participation, among several others.

For organizations aiming to stay future-ready, implementing these changes can foster a more inclusive workplace atmosphere and provide higher psychological safety for every team member.

Lead meetings with greater impact using these productivity tips.

Edited by Monishka Agrawal