The Meeting Where Nobody Asks a Question
You are chairing a 30-minute project review with five people. You present a plan with a tight deadline: three deliverables in ten working days. You ask, "Any questions?" and get silence. Two attendees glance at each other. One, Priya, says "Looks fine to me" but does not look up from her notes. Later, in the corridor, she tells you she thinks the deadline is impossible and that two others agree. You have already told your manager the plan is "agreed."
1. Why did "Any questions?" fail to surface the objection?
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"Any questions?" invites public admission of not understanding or not agreeing in front of the chair and peers-a high social cost. Silence usually means "no safe way to object," not "no objection."
Priya's "looks fine" while not looking up is a mismatch between words and behaviour-a signal worth noticing. The glance between two attendees was another. The chair's job is to read those signals, not accept the verbal answer.
2. What should you do now that you know the plan was not agreed?
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Correct the record promptly and without blame. Tell your manager the plan was reported as agreed but a concern has since surfaced, and that you are re-checking feasibility. Do not throw Priya under the bus for speaking up late-that guarantees no one speaks up next time.
Then reopen the decision properly: a short round where each person gives a feasibility estimate, so objection becomes a normal part of the process rather than a brave act.
3. Redesign the question you ask in the next meeting so objections surface.
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Replace "Any questions?" with a specific, low-cost prompt that assumes doubt exists, e.g.: "Going round the table-on a scale of 1 to 5, how confident are you we hit ten days, and what's the one thing most likely to slip?"
Why: it makes dissent the expected answer, gives everyone a turn (no self-selection), and asks for a reason rather than a yes/no, so a "4" still surfaces the risk.