Ways to Deal with Negative People or ‘Prisoners’ in a Meeting

How often do you attend a meeting where some of the participants clearly do not want to be there? This can, and most often will, result in low productivity and lack of results. Meeting participants who are truly committed can produce amazing results. Most of us go into a meeting with “What’s in it for me” on our minds. Here are some things to consider:

1. Have the “right” people at the meeting, set agenda in advance
2. Establish Ground Rules, to minimize negativity (e.g. constructive comments only)
3. Ask for their objectives prior and evaluate post meeting
4. Be objective about negativity, deal with the issue, not the person
5. Engage the prisoner, find out their objections to being there
6. Get buy-in by negative people before the meeting
7. Pre or Post meeting with individual
8. Find their motivators and explain benefits (What’s in it for them?)
9. Positive reinforcement for contributions
10. Spinning negative comments into positive (e.g. “thanks for your honest comments”)

Your challenge: Meet with a negative participant and discuss the above. Get their input into why they feel the way they do. Make any changes that are possible.