7 steps to foster healthy group participation

While many nonprofit professionals are focused on building inclusive processes and achieving equitable outcomes, the nuts and bolts of how exactly to meet these vital DEI benchmarks can often be a hazy, frustrating challenge. After all, it’s one thing to get everyone who needs to be “in the room” in the room with you – whether that’s online or in-person. But it’s an entirely different challenge to co-create an environment where healthy group participation can happen.

No one person can single-handedly inspire healthy group participation, but here are seven steps leaders and facilitators can take right now to help create the conditions for success:

1. Consider power dynamics.

A great place to start is a quick analysis of the power dynamics in the room. While you are certain to be confronting a complex matrix of identities and experiences, it’s important to remember that it’s harder to get an honest response from someone if their boss is in the room. It’s also challenging to ensure all voices participate if you include voices who, historically, have taken up a lot of space in your organizational conversations. Group participation is often most accessible if folks feel like they are engaging on a more level playing field.

2. Be generous with time.

Time is another important consideration. While you certainly want to be respectful of everyone’s time, it’s also imperative that participants don’t feel rushed. This can look like having a “soft start” of 3:00pm for your meeting, allowing those first few minutes to be a gentle, spacious beginning to give folks time to arrive – physically, mentally, and emotionally – and settle in before diving into the work at hand. Facilitators can be explicit about this intention as folks arrive, encouraging participants to chat amongst themselves, grab any snacks or beverages they might need, and so on before a “hard start” at 3:05pm. It’s also important to schedule enough time to meaningfully engage and collaborate…and then some! If you think a conversation should only take 30 minutes, try scheduling a 45 minute minute meeting instead. If participants feel pressed for time or like time is running out, they are much less likely to speak up.

3. Name your norms.

Here at Big Duck, we often start group conversations and collaborations by aligning around meeting norms. If you’ve never used this tool before, The Equity Lab’s REDI Agreements are a great place to start. A meeting norm can be many things, but here are a few of our favorites:

• Be present — turn away from email/phone
• Notice patterns of participation — step up/step back
  • WAIT: Why Am I Talking?
• Consider power dynamics
• Recognize the danger of a single story
• Respect confidentiality
  • What’s said here, stays here. What’s learned here, leaves here.
• Respond from a place of curiosity
• Be ready to put topics in the “parking lot” or “bike rack”
• We have scheduled breaks, but take care of yourself as needed

It’s always a great idea to ask participants to voice any questions or clarifications around your norms, as well as allow them to modify and propose their own. By developing a shared set of expectations around how to participate and engage, you are laying the foundation necessary for healthier and more robust group participation.

4. Remember to step back.

Once all of this groundwork has been established, it’s time to dive into the conversation. As a leader in these spaces, it’s helpful to explicitly reiterate that you are interested in your team’s ideas and perspectives. But then comes the work of modeling this interest, which includes speaking and contributing much less than you might be used to. While everyone is guided by the “step up/step back” meeting norm, it’s often the leaders in the room who have to do the most stepping back to create the space and permission necessary for voices with less institutional power and influence to be heard. As a facilitator in these spaces, it’s critical to notice who needs to step back and give them that gentle feedback in real time. It’s also important to notice who is not stepping up and extend that invitation in real time or follow up with them after the meeting is over.

5. One size fits none.

Cultivating healthy group participation also requires creating multiple opportunities and avenues for people to engage and collaborate. While some folks feel comfortable speaking out loud in front of the group, others will prefer sharing their thoughts in the Zoom or Teams chat, in smaller and less intimidating breakout groups, and even privately in a one-on-one setting or anonymously. Some folks may have a hard time collaborating on the fly and would benefit from being able to submit ideas asynchronously after the meeting is over and they’ve had time to process and reflect. That’s also why we recommend sending materials (i.e. agenda, discussion questions, etc.) to participants in advance so folks have time to prepare. Everyone on your team will have unique access needs, so a one-size-fits-all approach to group participation won’t work! It’s important to build out the infrastructure and processes necessary to ensure optimal accessibility, particularly for your neurodivergent teammates.

6. Embrace silence.

We must all learn to embrace the discomfort of silence. Dominant workplace culture often values productivity and efficiency above all else, which can impede group participation. Leaders and facilitators in particular rush to fill silences rather than honoring the work that silence does for us. Silence is often necessary to give folks time to process, reflect, and generate a thoughtful and additive contribution. Filling silences with unnecessary filler, redundant commentary, or even more perspectives from already dominant voices will make it progressively harder to foster healthy group participation in the long run. Silence creates the time and space necessary for your quieter collaborators to contribute, and ultimately enriches the outcomes of your meeting.

7. Ask. Ask. And ask again.

In addition to implementing the practices outlined above, one of the best things you can do to foster healthier group participation is to ask your team for feedback and ideas on that front. Here at Big Duck, we try to do a quick debrief after big, collaborative meetings and even make time each year to survey our team and dig into questions about barriers and incentives to this kind of participation. These sorts of topics also appear in agendas for our team retreats and other professional development opportunities each year. After all, the best way to understand and address these challenges is by asking your colleagues directly.

Every team is unique and will require informed, customized approaches to build the inclusive processes and equitable outcomes you’re looking for. Cultural change like this won’t happen overnight, but a steady and consistent commitment to experimentation and improvement is certain to have a lasting impact.