Even if you aren’t the person calling the meeting, you can control the experience for yourself and others. In their recently published book, How to Fix Meetings, authors Graham Alcott and Hayley Watts use the term “steering from the back seat” to describe ways in which you can influence the outcome as a participant.

Did you know that only 5% of decisions are made by single leaders, and 95% of decisions require team collaboration? Despite this, technically talented teams are often hesitant to share their opinions due to social conditioning or lack of experience.

When an organization needs to make a series of strategic decisions, the ponderous rituals related to strategic planning just won’t cut it if answers are needed urgently.

To help your team get into high gear, start with coming together to build shared agreements on how you will interact with each other, so you can stop guessing and start communicating.

One of the challenges of taking on coach position for a team leader is to personally stay out of the details of the discussion. Here, the leader must stay above the discussion to see the big picture. The pay-off is that by encouraging a flow of ideas, like leaves on a stream, the team can capture the largest set of possibilities, and gain greater understanding. This optimizes decision making and it moves the needle on team growth.

Are you welcoming that upcoming meeting with the team today? What are your first thoughts?

• We are all in this together; that we will be in the right place at the right time.

• You’ve got positive vibes, knowing people in your tribe “get you”, and you can be yourself.

• You’re confident that your creative contributions will be honored and in fact asked for.