The goal of any meeting is for colleagues to collaborate, make decisions, and exchange ideas. To do this, the right questions must be asked before the right answers can be provided. But what happens when employees do not ask the right and crucial questions?

The success and quality of a meeting hinge on the type of questions asked. Because knowing the right questions to ask in meetings can be challenging, we created a list of ninety-three questions you can ask at your next subsequent round-the-table discussion. At the end of our guide below, you will be armed and ready to take charge of your next meeting!

The Purposes Of Meetings

Meetings are a vital part of any organization. They are the perfect forums for discussing important matters that concern the organization and solving the problems that the organization faces.

In 2018, a survey showed that employees spend an average of one day a week in meetings. This roughly amounted to 50 days in a year.

Although times have changed since that survey, meetings, without a doubt, remain an essential part of an organization. Every employee within an employee will attend a meeting at some point within their professional journey.

Meetings, whether virtual or physical, are usually called for a matter that concerns an organization’s progress. Meetings always have purposes that need to be fulfilled or accomplished. However, the purpose of a meeting cannot be fully attained without proper employee engagement. Some of these purposes include:

• Information Sharing

Sometimes, the best way to share information in a company is via a meeting. This way, organizations can ensure that the involved parties are present and there is no excuse for misinformation.

Meetings are opportunities to communicate information like new changes within the organization. This ensures that every employee is on the same page, reducing the confusion that might have risen if a different communication medium is used.

• Decision Making

Meetings are a powerful tool for teams that work and make decisions together. During a meeting, a team can make certain decisions about projects or other aspects that concern the running of a business.

• Problem-Solving

It is almost impossible to avoid problems within an organization. A company has different working parts, which means friction is bound to occur regardless of how careful operational processes are. Meetings offer the best platform for teams or employees to table problems and reach the necessary solutions.

• Brainstorming

Sometimes, picking employees’ brains is the perfect way to discover new ideas. Meetings allow employees/team members to develop ideas for future projects. By airing their opinions, they can collaborate and generate innovative ideas.

Why Employees Should Be Engaged In Meetings

Meetings are a great way to strengthen communication. It provides an avenue to discover ideas, solve problems, build rapport, and, essentially, boost employee productivity. However, none of these can be achieved without proper employee engagement.

Employee engagement in meetings does not refer to simply attending a meeting. It does not mean pretending to take notes or doodling on a notepad. Instead, employee engagement refers to an employee’s ability to be part of a meeting.

Employee engagement in meetings is essential for various reasons. Some of these reasons include the following:

• To Encourage Active Participation: When employees are fully invested in a meeting, they play more active roles. They share insights and ideas that can help clarify certain topics, help other employees pay attention, and improve the efficacy or quality of meetings.

• To Gain Feedback: Engaged employees offer feedback. They point out information that might have been overlooked, thereby increasing the success of the discussed matters. When employees are engaged, they are more encouraged to offer honest feedback.

• To Ensure Everyone is on the right page: When employees are engaged during meetings, they are bound to be on the same page with their team members. By asking questions, offering opinions, and sharing insights, employees can tackle problems in unison and have their goals aligned without any misgivings.

• To Prevent Confusion: Employees that do not engage in meetings often find themselves confused about the purpose of the meeting or where the conversation is headed. The more team members engage in meetings, the less confused they will be about  

• To Reduce The Risks of Misinformation: How often do you misinterpret statements because you do not ask questions or join discussions? Although being an active listener in meetings is great, engaging with team members clarifies information. Asking questions and offering opinions creates a stronghold of communication among team members.

• To Encourage Inclusion: By asking questions, you encourage employees to be comfortable about airing their opinions regardless of their demographic. This makes it possible to engage all employees regardless of their age, culture, race, religion, and belief, and show them that you value diversity.

Employee engagement is undoubtedly an important part of any successful meeting. While there are different ways of engaging team members or other employees in meetings, asking questions is vital.

Asking Questions: The Best Type Of Engagement In Meetings

There are about 55 million meetings held globally every day. In fact, managers are holding too many meetings, and only a small percent of these meetings are effective.

An effective meeting is one where questions are asked, and answers are provided. Asking questions is easily one of the best types of engagement at any meeting. It triggers new ideas, opens doors to new conversations, can challenge or develop ideas, and get other team members interested in your point of view.

However, it is not uncommon to get tongue-tied in meetings for various reasons. In fact, it isn’t unusual to find employees that shy away from asking questions in meetings. One major reason this happens is employees sometimes do not know the right questions to ask. This is a big problem as a survey showed that ineffective meetings cost companies around $238 billion per year. This means the simple act of not asking questions is detrimental to development of a company.

Many workers fear asking questions because they do not want to risk being judged or offending other workers. However, this might defeat the purpose of a successful meeting.

The trick to creating engagement in a meeting is not asking just any question but thought-provoking ones that trigger an influx of opinions from attendees. Don’t know what questions to start with? We have compiled a list of important questions to ask at your next meeting.

What Are Some Important Questions To Ask 

Good questions should result in equally good communication. Good questions should make it easier to discover:

• Goals
• Purposes
• How to achieve them

Are you stuck on important questions to ask at your next company meeting? Here are 93 thought-triggering questions you can ask when you get the chance.

1. What is the purpose of this meeting?

2. Who is in charge of leading the meeting?

3. What is the agenda of this meeting?

4. Who is leading this meeting?

5. Are there any important updates or announcements to be made?

6. Who is required to attend this meeting?

7. What are the roles of those attending the meeting?

8. What are the main issues/problems/challenges to be discussed during the meeting?

9. How can we ensure everyone’s perspective, opinions, or ideas are valued?

10. How long is this project designed to go on for? What is the timeline for the project in question?

11. Are there any key milestones to be achieved? What are they?

12. Are there any potential risks or obstacles that may arise during the project? What are they?

13. What are the plans for tackling these problems?

14. What is our vision for this project?

15. What individual roles must we play to achieve our goal?

16. Are there different approaches to reaching our goal(s) than the one(s) discussed? What are they?

17. Are there specific action items that need to be completed? What are they?

18. What are the roles of team members for these action items?

19. What are the timelines for each action item?

20. Are there any dependencies or constraints that need to be considered?

21. What resources do we have to complete these tasks being discussed?

22. What resources do we lack which are necessary to complete these tasks being discussed?

23. How can we optimize and allocate our resources to achieve our goals?

In The Case Of A partnership

24. What roadblocks do we need to address during this project?

25. What are the potential risks and benefits of different partnerships or collaborations? (if the project involves collaboration

26. How do we measure or ascertain the success of our collaborations

27. Are there variable risks that we need to take note of in the course of this project?

28. How do we streamline our goals with that of our partners?

29. How can we improve communication and collaboration within the team? (in the case of a collaboration/merging between teams)

30. How do we ensure everyone is aligned with the project goals?

31. How can we manage risks and mitigate the potential crisis arising from the collaboration?

32. How do we encourage creativity and innovation among team members?

33. How can we address any conflicts or disagreements arising from the collaboration?

34. Are there any training or development opportunities that need to be considered for the team?

35. How can we foster a positive work culture and morale within the team?

36. What are the best practices that we can apply to our work?

37. How can we improve our communication with external stakeholders?

Questions For Team Growth

38. What are your thoughts on [insert subject matter]?

39. What do you reckon are the advantages and disadvantages of [insert subject matter]?

40. How does [point out a topic] fit the goal or mission of our team?

41. What do you think should be our next step concerning [insert subject matter]?

42. Does anyone have any idea they think will benefit our team goal?

43. What is our biggest challenge/obstacle concerning this team project?

44. What should be the priority as we begin this project?

45. What expectations are we expected to meet as a team?

46. How can we prioritize our tasks and projects to ensure we focus on the most important ones?

47. How can we ensure that everyone is staying on track and meeting deadlines?

48. How can we be more productive as a team?

49. How can we ensure that everyone is accountable for their responsibilities?

50. Are there any training or development opportunities that need to be considered for the team?

51. How can we improve the efficiency of our meetings?

Questions For Marketing

52. How can we improve our sales strategies and performance?

53. Do anyone have campaign ideas they think may benefit the company?

54. How can we improve our sales strategies and performance?

55. Is there any competition that may deter our goal?

56. How can we improve our online presence and engagement?

57. What resources can we maximize for our social media growth?

58. What are the potential risks of these different marketing strategies? (if the team is adopting a new marketing strategy)

59. What are the potential benefits of these different marketing strategies? (if the team is adopting a new marketing strategy)

60. How can we leverage technology to improve marketing productivity and efficiency?

61. How can we measure the effectiveness of our marketing efforts?

62. How can we improve our online presence and engagement with customers?

63. How can we address any concerns or criticisms from customers?

64. What are the potential risks of our different pricing strategies?

65. What are the potential benefits of our different pricing strategies?

66. How can we enhance our product or service offerings to match and exceed our customer’s needs?

67. How can we stay relevant and competitive in the market?

68. How can we continue to improve and innovate in our work?

Other Conversation-starting & Thought-Provoking Questions

69. What issues have we had in the past concerning [insert subject matter]?

70. How did we deal with these problems?

71. Why do you think X is our best option or [insert subject matter] right now?

72. What was the most difficult part about implementing [insert subject matter]?

73. How do you envision this problem-solving strategy working for [insert subject matter]?

74. What are your thoughts on the best approach to handling these [insert subject matter] issues in this setting?

75. What was your biggest obstacle when implementing the plan we developed [insert timeline]?

76. Is there anything we should have done differently?

77. If you could have changed something in our plan, what would it be?

78. How do you see this change fitting in with the goals and objectives of this [insert subject matter] project?

79. What were the outcomes of our previous meeting? Did the meeting lead to a positive or negative change?

80. What do you think about [insert subject matter] as far as bringing us together as a group?

81. What would be the best way to get started on [insert project subject]?

82. How will this starting method aid the objective of our project?

83. Did anyone have any ideas from last week that we should discuss today?

84. What can you tell us about the company/project/task that will help us do our jobs better?

85. What is the next step in the plan we are working on right now concerning [insert project subject]?

86. What would you do/have done differently if you were in my position?

87. How did we end up with this current problem, and how can we avoid it in the future?

88. What methods/procedures/plans have worked well in the past, and how can we make them work for us again right now?

89. What were the major factors involved in reaching this decision?

90. What were some of the contributing factors to our success?

91. How well did these factors work for us?

92. What were the most important lessons we learned from this project?

93. How can we apply [insert previous lessons] to other projects or situations in the future?

Asking Important Questions

Asking important questions is essential to the success of any meeting. Now that you have more than ninety questions for your next meeting, you can enjoy an interactive and effective meeting at work.

Do you know employees are more likely to engage at meetings when they are offered psychological safety? Here is why and how you can make psychological safety a priority in the workplace.