{"id":2360,"date":"2015-06-18T00:00:57","date_gmt":"2015-06-18T04:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/terrencemetz.com\/?p=2360"},"modified":"2026-04-21T13:44:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T17:44:16","slug":"political-risks-in-meetings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mgrush.com\/blog\/political-risks-in-meetings\/","title":{"rendered":"Interviewing Questions to Ask to Understand Political Risks in Meetings"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Interview participants to understand as much as possible about them, the people they work with, and their business.<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">To understand the political risks in meetings, speak with your participants. Preferably, sit with them one-on-one for about 30 minutes. Speak with each face-to-face, or at least by way of a teleconference.<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_2361\" style=\"width: 685px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"\/\/mgrush.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/interview1.png\"><img wpfc-lazyload-disable=\"true\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2361\" class=\"wp-image-2361 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/mgrush.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/interview1.png\" alt=\"Interviewing Questions to Ask to Understand Political Risks in Meetings\" width=\"675\" height=\"540\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mgrush.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/interview1.png 675w, https:\/\/mgrush.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/interview1-300x240.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 675px) 100vw, 675px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-2361\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>Political Risks in Meetings &#8212; Interviewing Overview<\/strong><\/span><\/p><\/div>\n<h3><strong>Political Risks in Meetings &#8212;\u00a0<\/strong><strong>Interview Sequence<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">First meet the executive sponsor, the business partners, the project team, and then the participants. Keep your interviews around twenty to thirty minutes each. Conduct the interviews privately and assure participants that their responses will be kept <span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><em>CONFIDENTIAL<\/em><\/span>. You want them to comfortably share the cultural dynamics, especially those who may not get along with each other. Because you will probably want to take notes, <span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><em>ASK FOR PERMISSION<\/em><\/span>. It sends an incongruent signal to claim the conversation is confidential and then to take copious notes, so ask for permission. Only a few will say no. More will compliment you for the courtesy of asking.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><strong>Political Risks in Meetings &#8212;\u00a0<\/strong><strong>Interview Objectives\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Interview the <a href=\"https:\/\/mgrush.com\/blog\/meeting-participants\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">participants<\/a> to understand:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">To become familiar with their job, their business, and their expectations<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">To confirm who should, or should not, <a href=\"https:\/\/mgrush.com\/blog\/facilitate-multiple-generations\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">attend<\/a> and why<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">How to help them show up better <a href=\"https:\/\/mgrush.com\/blog\/meeting-announcement\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">prepared<\/a> to contribute<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">To identify potential issues, hidden agendas, and other obstacles<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">To identify scheduling conflicts and other concerns<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">How to\u00a0transfer <a href=\"https:\/\/mgrush.com\/blog\/action-plan\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">ownership<\/a> of the purpose, scope, and deliverables<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><strong>Political Risks in Meetings &#8212;\u00a0<\/strong><strong>INTERVIEWING QUESTIONS<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">The following are well-sequenced questions that you should ask. Begin each interview by explaining your role and the purpose of the interview. Don&#8217;t forget to ask for permission to take notes. Use open-ended questions, sit back, and listen to the person\u2014discover their value and value add to the initiative you are supporting.<\/span><\/p>\n<h5 style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><em>Facilitator Style Questions<\/em><\/span><\/h5>\n<div id=\"attachment_2362\" style=\"width: 723px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"\/\/mgrush.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/interview2.png\"><img wpfc-lazyload-disable=\"true\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2362\" class=\"wp-image-2362 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/mgrush.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/interview2.png\" alt=\"Interviewing Questions\" width=\"713\" height=\"543\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mgrush.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/interview2.png 713w, https:\/\/mgrush.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/interview2-300x228.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 713px) 100vw, 713px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-2362\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>Political Risks in Meetings &#8212; Interviewing<\/strong> Questions<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n<h3><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>Participant Selection<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Optimally you should choose the best participants. The business and technical partners along with the executive sponsor should approve the list. The method works like this:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Ask the partners who should participate\u2014make a list.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Have\u00a0your\u00a0executive sponsor detail who should participate\u2014adjust \u2028the list.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Ask each participant who should participate\u2014adjust the list.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">When you have finished interviewing the participants, explain to the partners who you believe should participate and why. The partners will accept or modify the list. Once you both agree, have the partners get the executive sponsor to approve.<\/span><\/p>\n<h4 style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #ff0000; font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>______<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Don\u2019t ruin your career by hosting <a href=\"https:\/\/mgrush.com\/blog\/bad-meetings\/\">bad meetings<\/a>. Sign up for a <a href=\"https:\/\/mgrush.com\/public-facilitation-training\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">workshop<\/a> or send this to someone who should. <em><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20260106090117\/https:\/\/mgrush.com\/\">MGR<span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">USH<\/span><\/a><\/em> workshops focus on meeting design and practice. Each person practices tools, methods, and activities every day during the week. Therefore, while some call this immersion, we call it the road to building high-value facilitation skills.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Interview participants to understand as much as possible about them, the people they work with, and their business. To understand the political risks in meetings, speak with your participants. Preferably, sit with them one-on-one for about 30 minutes. Speak with each face-to-face, or at least by way of a teleconference. Political Risks in Meetings &#8212;\u00a0Interview [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2361,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_wp_convertkit_post_meta":{"form":"-1","landing_page":"","tag":"0","restrict_content":"0"},"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[453185951,453185953,55884429],"tags":[453192272,453190840,453192273,453190928,453190929],"class_list":["post-2360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-leadership-skills","category-managing-conflict","category-meeting-support","tag-interview-questions","tag-meeting-risk","tag-participant-selection","tag-political-risks-in-meetings","tag-understand-political-risks-in-meetings"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.8 (Yoast SEO v27.8) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ 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