Question

How would you inspire members to go beyond “shallow sharing”?

Answer 1

"Shallow sharing" means sharing of thoughts, actions and feelings that is done on superficial level between individuals when they converse or interact with each other. Every individual is different when it comes to interaction. Some of them interact freely and are known as extroverts while some of them hardly interact and are known as introverts.

When people form a group for a common cause or have a discussion on a topic, not all the members in that group would speak freely since they would be few introverts in that group.

Few tips to inspire members to go beyond "shallow sharing" or open up and speak are;

1) asking them open ended questions about the topic that they are discussing about.

2) take views from them on what needs to be done in every situation.

3) motivate them by including activities between discussion sessions and this would bring out interaction between the members so that they get to bond between each other and share their ideas freely without any barriers.

4) conduct frequent meeting even if they are for a short duration so that they team members get to know each other.

5) have outdoor activities and lunch or dinner kind of social gatherings so that the team members get to speak to each other and share their thoughts and opinions

6) leave suggestion / opinion boxes so that members may drop their suggestions or thoughts that they would like to put forward for discussion.