Three ways to open a meeting with psychological safety

"Hi hi hi, let's get started. OK, so first on the agenda we have..."

 

Meeting leaders.... how do you normally open a meeting?

❎  “Ok, if we’re all here, shall we get started…”

❎  “Thanks everyone for coming, I just want to get us together to…”

❎  “Right, first on the agenda is…”

 

(Feel free to add more cringey meeting opening lines you've heard or said)

 

Two things are true.

1️⃣   Opening meetings can be awkward.

2️⃣   The start of a meeting is your best chance to set the tone and scope for the BEST possible discussion.

It’s not the only place, but it’s a really good one. Prime meeting real estate.

So let’s get over the awks and master the skill of opening meetings.

Now, all my openers create psychological safety. I do this not because it’s nice, kind, gentle. 

I do it because I want to create a strong space where people can talk candidly with minimal personal risk.

I want to set the tone for how people do this so they give candid opinions about the task, not the people. And so people hear candid opinions as helpful, not personal.

Here are three ways I do this at the start.
 

1. I connect us all together through our big shared goal

 

In most organisations, people share a vision. There is something that no one argues is the right thing to do that binds all your activities together. 

I tap into this to set a shared context for the meeting and remind us all that we may have different individual goals and opinions but what matters most is entirely shared.

 

Try my shared vision series:

Spell out the big vision: “We’re all working towards [this shared vision]

Acknowledge differences: “Inevitably the organisation is asking different things of each of us - and we all have different perspectives based on our experiences.”

Set the tone for today: “It’s this diversity of thinking that we want to bring out today. The value of this meeting is in understanding how different people see things and combine these to help us [achieve our shared vision]"

 

 

2. I give people a crisp scope for the session - and eliminate hidden agendas

 

Clarity is freedom. If my participants are not 100% sure what this session is really about, it’s hard for them to read the space and speak freely.

Likewise, if the meeting is supposed to be about one thing… but they suspect it’s really about another (hidden agenda territory), they won’t be forthcoming. 

So one way I create psychological safety is to be crystal clear about the scope.

 

Try my scoping series:

Creating a shared prompt: “Today, we’re going to try and answer this question together: [add your helpful meeting question]."

Provide an outcome goal: “By the end we should [explain what this answer will enable you to do]"

Eliminate hidden agendas: “And let’s acknowledge that [verbalise grey areas, conflicting goals or under-the-surface issues]"

 

3. I give clear Dos and Don’ts

 

Sometimes I find it helpful to be specific about what behaviours are desirable and which are unacceptable - particularly when I DO want to encourage conflict but I DON’T want there to be personal conflict. Giving specifics helps people be more candid - safely.

 

Try my Dos and Don’ts:

“Today, we really want to hear diverse opinions so please do share how you see things, even if you feel others might disagree or your views might be inconvenient or slow us down.”

“We may explore ideas and opinions that we haven’t heard before in this type of meeting so we won’t interrupt or immediately dispute, even if we disagree.”

 

Or you can integrate it into a ‘safety statement’ - a positively framed ‘we’ statement in the present tense. Here’s one I use a lot:

“Today is about disagreeing as much as agreeing. We need everyone’s unique perspective. We always interrogate the facts not the people.”

 

Once you’ve set the tone, you have some great guide rails to use throughout the meeting.

“We said we would hear all perspectives in full - keep going, Jonah.”

“We said we’d answer [this question] today - your comment feels like a discussion for a different meeting. What do you think?”

"We're working toward [this outcome] today - let's bring our discussion right back to that goal."

 

Psychological safety is reinforced by you as the meeting leader throughout the session - in how you pay attention to and reflect back diverse contributions. 

By modelling this, over time others will develop a genuine curiosity and value for diverse voices.

Psychological safety is not created in one meeting. But it’s amazing how much more you can get from everyone on the day if you take 60 seconds set the tone and scope. 

Stack safe (or strong) meetings together and you will create a highly skilled group who can disagree in extraordinarily helpful ways.