The first speaker sets the tone for the rest of the conversation, anchoring the entire conversation, whether they agree with the first speaker or oppose them. Here’s how to change the conversation.The first speaker syndrome: the guy who opens his mouth first and anchors the conversation
The Impact of First Speaker Syndrome
People respond instead of think
- We run with tangents
- Some people don’t speak at all
- Our fast thoughts stop us from listening
- Researchers have clocked inner speech at a pace of 4,000 words per minute
- That kind of inner speed means that most of us can’t possibly be listening to everything someone else is saying…we’re already thinking about what we could say next.
We need time to think about what we think
If we’re not thinking in meetings and we’re in meetings all the time…when do we think?
- A silent meeting isn’t everyone in a conference room staring at each other in silence for an hour. It looks more like reading, writing, thinking, and processing ideas and solutions internally before sharing them with a group.
- Everyone’s voice can be heard equally in this way. Everyone has the same amount of time to speak their mind.
Try this Silent Meeting Agenda
A silent table read for the first 15 minutes on Google Docs
- Allow each person has time to gather and record their own thoughts (5 minutes)
- Capture those reflections in a shared document, and allow everyone to read those over
- Only then allow people to have an out-loud conversation as normal
