Promoting participation: 8 ways to be an effective and fair chair

According to our data  some ways to be an effective and inclusive chair include:

• Thoughtful agenda-setting – send round the agenda and essential documents well in advance of the meeting so people can prepare.
• Access requirements – know your participants in advance and find out any access requirements (eg live captioning/accessibility tools) and let people know what assistive technology is available.
• Communication expectations – at the beginning of the meeting, set clear guidelines about respectful dialogue and problem-solving, to avoid conflict.
•  Encouraging participation - at the beginning of the meeting, set out expectations about how people will communicate with one another. Encourage active participation from attendees (in whatever way is comfortable for them) Go through processes for getting involved e.g. chat boxes/raised hands etc.
• Camera use - encourage camera use but be attentive to personal preferences/needs and keep this optional.
• Encouraging participation – if people haven’t spoken, when moving to a new agenda item, invite those who haven’t spoken to speak first (or to write in the chat box etc).  
• Dominant speakers – manage interactions including interruptions and dominant speakers (e.g. don’ t let people dominate, don ‘t let people interrupt others)
• Inclusive language - use inclusive language (language that is not discriminatory or does not cause offence) and challenge any discriminatory or biased language you hear

Looking forward

Many of the valuable insights gained from our studies have informed our online course  Promoting Gender equitable Interactions in Online Work Meetings (currently in production). Alongside a session on effective chairing, this course also includes sessions on how to be a ‘good’ participant, the use of humour in online meetings and also the time demands of online meetings.  

We encourage organisations and individuals to explore a policy-informed and structured approach to running meetings, and recommend you look out for our online course.  

References

Alharbi, R., Tang, J., & Henderson, K. (2023, April). Accessibility barriers, conflicts, and repairs: understanding the experience of professionals with disabilities in hybrid meetings. In Proceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 1-15).

Dhawan, N., Carnes, M., Byars-Winston, A., & Duma, N. (2021). Videoconferencing etiquette: promoting gender equity during virtual meetings. Journal of Women's Health, 30(4), 460-465.

Howe, A., Wan, Y. I., Gilleece, Y., Aebi-Popp, K., Dhairyawan, R., Bhagani, S., ... & Orkin, C. (2023). Gender and ethnicity intersect to reduce participation at a large European hybrid HIV conference. medRxiv, 2023-02.

Krivkovich, A., Field, E., Yee, L., McConnell, M., & Smith, H. (2024). Women in the Workplace 2024: The 10th-anniversary report. McKinsey & Company.

Wang, S. S., & Roubidoux, M. A. (2020). Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), videoconferencing, and gender. Journal of the American College of Radiology, 17(7), 918-920.