Make a Clear Ask in Discussions
Shared by Angela Ting, Director of Product at PicCollage
Work from home, in the office, hybrid — no matter where we are working from these days, there is always time when we get stuck on an idea & need someone’s opinions or feedback. And so, we reach out to these people, schedule a discussion, and host the session. However, even if everyone logs into the discussion on time and the office coffee machines work perfectly at last, feedback meetings can still get stuck, don’t lead to the answers we want to move a project forward, or the invitees don’t even know why & how they can help. One more step we can take to prepare for a great discussion is to make sure we are asking the right questions.
Here are some tips for improving the discussions by making our asks as clear as possible:
Know what we are actually asking
When setting up discussions to ask for approval, input, feedback, it’s common to start by providing context on the current status. And, so, discussions often begin with -
🧑🦰: Let me walk you through my plan
OR we just want to get feedback on something without knowing what we really want from the discussions.
🧑🦰: Should we choose A or B?
… and, oftentimes, we end up with C!
However, these introductions can lead to common failures and discussions that move off-topic. Here’s why:
- When we’re asking for approval for a plan
⚠️ Let me walk you through my plan ⚠️
While sharing the background of our plan, people may cut us off because they wonder why and how we decided to go with this plan. Ideas start brewing about different possibilities to go forward with. This leads to a brainstorming session where people are chiming in with ideas and considering various ways to progress through the whole presentation. Before we know it, the time for the discussion is up, leaving more unanswered questions than when the discussion began.
- Asking for choosing one of the options
⚠️️ Should we choose A or B? ⚠️
Alternatively, when colleagues are asked for feedback too quickly with limited context, they may not be able to choose. This can lead to searching for a third option “C” over making a clear call. When there isn’t enough information to make an insightful choice, it’s not surprising that they try to provide feedback rather than “sticking to the script”.
- People don’t know why they are in the discussions and how they can help
After reading through the materials provided, people ask “How can I help?”, “What do you need from me here?”
So, to avoid these mistakes & host fruitful, effective discussions, we need to
Identify the Type of Discussion
Addressing an intentional purpose to the discussion and a language to align with the purpose would help ensure people are on the same page.
If we’re not being clear about which type of discussions we are trying to have, it can make people think we are looking for alignment instead of a decision.
For example:
- When we’re asking for approval for a plan
“The PMs have decided to use MixerChat as the main online platform to hold their weekly sync due to its simple breakout room feature which helps a lot in follow-up discussions. What do you think of this plan?”
- Asking for a decision between options
“Hey, today we’re going to decide the main online video conferencing tool that we’ll be using for our next Team E-Meeting, it’s either MixerChat or Google Meet. Here are the pros & cons for …”
- Gathering everyone for team alignment
“This discussion is for aligning on the new format for Team E-Meetings & keeping everyone in the loop. We can further discuss more details in the breakout discussions.”
Prepare the right context
We have a tendency to spend our time explaining too much detail about the situation — work we’ve done, challenges we’ve overcome, various options, and even the solutions considered — but this could backfire because the other parties might lose focus or miss key information in a sea of data and background history.
The effort to be comprehensive actually makes it more difficult for people to understand the ask and less likely to get what we are asking for.
Key information to drive the discussion
Simplify the communication to be more digestible — focusing on the right information to provide, based on the discussion you want to have.
Another helpful tip is to have the right tool to facilitate these discussions. MixerChat, an online video call tool focusing on breakout rooms, encourages people to have free-form discussions where hosts can easily hold conversations to have clear asks on discussions. This way, both the host and the attendees get to discuss & provide the answers easily. Our team always uses MixerChat whenever we collect feedback, brainstorm, and sharing sessions to let members freely express their opinions & questions.
All in all, we can host a more efficient discussion to get the solution we want by categorizing and aligning the type of discussion we’re having with the attendees, and then providing relevant context to empower everyone to participate! This way, we can host more efficient discussions & get the answers that we actually look for.
