How to manage dominant voices in retrospective meetings
Retrospective meetings are an important part of your team’s Agile workflows. They’re also a chance for team members to share their perspectives, ideas, concerns, and—
“—YOU’RE SO RIGHT!! This one time, I was in a retro with my team, and my colleague was saying how frustrated they were that we’d had to push back our launch date for a third time on this big project. I jumped in to say I was frustrated too, and not just about the deadline. You see, we were also facing a TON of pressure from our stakeholders, and we were in the middle of switching project management software. Anyway, that led me to another point about how our change management processes weren’t very well defined, and…”
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You know that feeling when someone starts going off on a long-winded tangent in a meeting, and it totally derails the discussion? Everyone’s eyes start to glaze over. People forget what they wanted to say. You lose track of the talking point you were supposed to be focused on. And they just keep going…and going…and going…
Dominant voices are all too common in retrospective meetings, and for facilitators, this can be a big challenge. Do you interrupt the person? Call them out on the behaviour? Hit the mute button on them mid-sentence??
Don’t worry, there are lots of ways to handle a loudmouth while staying polite and fair, and helping to move the whole team towards more balanced discussions. Let’s get into it!
In this article, we’ll explore the following topics:
Why do dominant voices emerge in retrospectives?
Before we jump into strategies and solutions for managing dominant voices, it’s important to consider: why do some people take up more space than others in meetings?
You might think that these people are inconsiderate or self-involved, but there are actually a range of reasons for excessive chattiness. Here are a few to consider:
Personality type: Some people are more extroverted or confident to share their perspective, so they speak up loud and proud. This can easily cause an imbalance, especially if others in the group are introverted or shy.
Position in the group: If one person has more experience, has been on the team longer, or has some kind of formal or informal authority over others, they might become a dominant voice—and others might give them more space to do so.
Social skills: Not everyone has the same level of social awareness and etiquette. In fact, people often have very different perspectives of what’s inconsiderate or rude, and this can lead to loudmouthing in a group situation.
Discomfort with silence: People often feel uncomfortable when silence lingers. To compensate, some fill the empty space with chatter. This can happen unconsciously or on purpose, often with good intentions of alleviating the discomfort for everyone.
It’s important not to assume negative intentions and to approach loudmouths with empathy. Most people want to help foster an inclusive and balanced group environment, and aren’t aware that they’re getting in the way of that.
The impact of a Loudmouth on a retrospective
So, what does it matter if someone’s extra chatty in a retrospective? Well, it’s likely that you’ve landed on this article because you’ve seen for yourself the impact a loudmouth can have on the productivity of a meeting.
But just to make sure we’re all on the same page here, let’s go over a few of the reasons why this matters:
A dominant voice steering conversations might lead to an imbalance in perspective among the group, and contribute to groupthink in your retrospectives.
If a loudmouth is interrupting or talking over people, it could trigger hostility, passive aggression, resentment, or frustration.
Over time, the sense of psychological safety in the group can be damaged by one person taking up all the space.
When one person is dominating the discussion, it often causes others to disengage and stop participating.
The team may fail to set goals or a clear action plan during retros, and could also fail to achieve them or follow up.
Simply put, an over-talkative team member (whether it’s intentional or not) takes away from the other participants’ time. They diminish the productivity of the meeting and the fruitfulness of the discussions.
2 Types of Loudmouths to be aware of
There are two types of dominant voices that are worth being aware of, because you might approach them differently. In Retrospectives Antipatterns, Aino Corry differentiates ‘Storytellers’ and ‘Breakers’ as distinct types of Loudmouths.
A storyteller is someone who takes more words than necessary to express themselves and goes on side-tangents as they speak. Corry put it succinctly when she wrote:
“Storytellers can’t stop talking once they have started.”
Breakers, on the other hand, are the interrupters, interjectors, and interrogators who need to counterbalance everyone else’s voice with their own. As Corry describes it:
“Whatever opinion another participant expresses reminds the Breaker of his or her own opinion, which must immediately be shared.”
Being familiar with these two types of loudmouths helps you effectively spot which one you’re dealing with, and respond accordingly. While storytellers might need to be cut short or encouraged to sum up their point, breakers might be better dealt with through a proactive approach to creating balanced sharing among the group.
With that in mind, let’s first take a look at how you can create a sense of inclusivity and balanced dialogue as a retrospective facilitator. Then, we’ll cover some strategies you can use to manage a dominant voice when it arises.
6 Tips to encourage balanced participation in retrospectives
As they say, the best offence is a good defence. One of the most effective ways to counteract a dominant voice in your retrospective is to set the stage for more balanced discussions from the outset.
Here are a few ways you can encourage everyone to speak up in your next retro—and avoid anyone becoming the meeting’s main character:
Start by establishing ground rules for all participants. Say something like: We want everyone to have a chance to share their perspective, so please be aware of how much time you take to speak, and how much time you give others.
Timebox sections of the meeting and peoples’ contributions. Break the agenda down for the team mathematically. If you have 5 team members and a 10-minute section of the meeting, that means each person gets 2 minutes. Set the timer!
Use the round-robin technique to give everyone a turn. Mix up the order of who speaks first and last, too. This will help alleviate any unconscious bias about what perspectives people remember or agree with most.
Introduce a talking stick for unstructured discussions. Have people pass a talking stick (or other physical item) as they take turns speaking. This reduces interruptions and brings more awareness to the person who’s talking.
Add self-reflection time to the meeting structure. Ask people to quietly reflect on what they want to share ahead of each meeting section, and write down their ideas. This gives them a chance to organize their thoughts, and speak more intentionally.
Implement a parking lot for off-topic discussions. When something unrelated comes up, you can make a note of it in the parking lot. If there’s time left at the end, the team can discuss parking lot items or decide when they’ll come back to them.
Proactively creating an inclusive space where everyone is heard helps you stay ahead of the loudmouth before they mouth off. And if you notice some people speaking up less, don’t be afraid to ask them if they have anything they’d like to contribute to the discussion. Maybe they won’t, but if they do, they’ll probably be grateful to have that chance.
Proper tooling supports inclusive facilitation
There are lots of different tools you might use to facilitate your retrospective meetings, from whiteboards to virtual meeting software and even old-school post-it notes. But having a dedicated platform to plan, host, and follow up on your retrospectives can make a big difference in their efficiency and effectiveness.
Neatro is a home base for your retrospectives, giving your team a place to share their thoughts, collaborate, and follow through on their commitments. With features like anonymous sharing and pre-built retro templates, it helps create a sense of safety to speak up while giving you the structure to make every voice heard. Sign up free to give it a try!
4 Strategies to manage dominant voices in retrospectives
So, say you’ve done all the work to create a balanced environment in your retrospective meetings and you’re reinforcing the boundaries and structure you’ve put into place—yet, you’re still dealing with a chatterbox.
Here are some strategies you can use to address the dominant voice in your group and bring more harmony to future meetings:
Intercept the behaviour
This works well if it’s a one-off situation where a team member gets a bit carried away or is feeling particularly talkative one day. As the facilitator, it’s your job to keep the retro on track. So don’t be shy to uphold the agenda and cut in when needed. Fast Company recommends:
“Interrupt and say, ‘sorry to interrupt but I know we have limited time and I’d like to make sure others also get heard.’”
It’s simple, polite, and direct, and most people will understand that it isn’t personal, especially if it’s not something you have to do repeatedly with them. But if you’ve had to do this a few times with the same person—or if you can tell they didn’t take it very well—it might be time to try the next tactic.
Bring it up privately
If one person is repeatedly dominating conversations in retrospectives, you’ll have to confront the situation head-on, and let them know that they’re being disruptive. In Retrospectives Antipatterns, Aino Corry recommends doing this one-on-one:
“[…] a private conversation shows respect for the Loudmouth, and he or she is more receptive to changing the behavior.”
Coming to the person for a private discussion is like extending an olive branch. Instead of being passive-aggressive, interrupting them, or letting them carry on, you’re providing them with essential feedback for the wellbeing of the whole team.
Highlight the impact
When you do decide it’s time to have a direct conversation with your loudmouth, try focusing on the impact that their behaviour is having on the team dynamic and the team’s collective goals. This will help bring things into perspective, so they can see that they’re hindering the team’s progress and potentially damaging relationships.
The person may not realize the extent of their behaviour, and if you communicate it with care and empathy, they will most likely be grateful for the constructive feedback—even if they’re a bit taken aback at first.
“Sometimes, explaining the effect their behavior has on other people is an eye-opener for Loudmouths, since they might not even be aware that they are talking so much.”
- Aino Vonge Corry, Retrospectives Antipatterns
Make them accountable
Ideally, you can get the person to align with you and spark a desire to change their behaviour. This is the best case scenario, because then it becomes a self-development goal that they’re intrinsically motivated to pursue—and you’ll be conveniently available to act as their accountability buddy!
But even if this isn’t the case, you can still hold them accountable in a way that’s productive and respectful. Keep the focus on shared team goals, and reinforce that maintaining balanced conversations is a part of your role as the retrospective facilitator. Here’s how Aino Corry suggests holding people accountable in Retrospectives Antipatterns:
“[…] agree on a discreet sign I can give them at the retrospective, so they know when they have to end the story and ask for questions instead.”
Managing dominant voices helps keep retrospectives inclusive and productive
Retrospective meetings offer a unique chance for teams to reflect, connect, and improve. But dominant voices prevent your team from getting the most out of this important time. As a facilitator, it’s important to implement the frameworks and structures that empower every team member to speak up—without stifling the voices of others.
With a bit of practice and the right techniques, you can turn the challenge of a dominant voice into an opportunity for growth, both for the loudmouth, for the team, and for yourself.
Proper tooling also supports the ongoing improvements that will help your team level up. Neatro is a retrospective platform that creates a safe space for people to share, exchange, challenge each other, and grow together. Sign up free to see what it can do for your team!