Chapter 5
Today's Meet
Today's Meet (https://todaysmeet.com/) is an electronic way of getting immediate and anonymous input from group members that can be used to structure discussion, check for understanding, and generate new questions. It can be used with any group size. We have found it works well in meetings or classes of fifteen or twenty people right up to town hall meetings, conference keynotes, workshops, or classes of several hundred.
Purposes
- To provide an anonymous opportunity for participants to ask questions, provide reactions, raise issues, offer criticisms, and suggest future directions
- To democratize participation so everyone has an equal opportunity to contribute
- To allow people time to formulate and ask questions or express opinions even if the discussion has moved on
- To create an alternative to small-group reports
How It Works
To provide a continuous back channel for participants to raise concerns and pose questions
As facilitator you pull up the Today's Meet website (https://todaysmeet.com/) on a screen everyone can see.
- You show them how you create a unique page for the session, giving it a specific name. So, for a session on antiracism your page might be titled, todaysmeet.com/antiracism.
- Then you enter your fictional identity for the day. You can use your own name if you wish.
- Participants then access the Todays' Meet home page on their phones, tablets, or laptops and create a fictional identity so they can enter comments anonymously.
- You encourage people to use Today's Meet to ask questions, give reactions, provide critiques, raise issues, and suggest new directions for the discussion whenever these occur to them. You explain that you will pull up the feed on a screen every fifteen minutes so everyone can see what's been posted. Of course, anyone who is logged in can also view the feed on his or her device.
- At fifteen-minute intervals you address the comments people have posted. You respond to questions, note suggested new directions, deal with criticisms, and ask the group if they would like to respond to anything on the screen.
To hear small group reports
Another use for this tool is to ask small groups to use Today's Meet to summarize the main points they discussed or the key questions they raised. Everyone can then review the postings on the screen in lieu of a series of spoken reports.
To get immediate responses to questions you pose
Finally, a third option is to pose a question to a large group. Then, instead of hearing people speak their responses (which privileges the confident extroverts), everyone posts their responses to the question on the Today's Meet page you've created. If you ask for a minute or two of silence while people are doing this you will get far greater participation than if you'd gone straight to speech.
Where and When It Works Well
- With very large groups. We originally used this as a way to make keynote speeches with hundreds in the audience much more interactive.
- When issues are contentious or controversial. The anonymity this technique provides means that people can offer opinions and responses using a fictional identity. This reduces the fear of being jumped on for saying the wrong thing.
- If there is organizational mistrust. Today's Meet is welcomed by people who have been burned in the past for saying the wrong thing or not toeing the line because it enables the safe expression of dissent or contradictory views.
- To democratize participation. As with Chalk Talk (technique 2) no one can dominate the Today's Meet feed by raising his or her voice or drowning others out. Consequently you get much more participation than when you invite out-loud comments, reactions, or questions.
What Users Appreciate
- The chance to contribute at their own pace. People have the opportunity to ask questions or make points whenever these occur to them, even if the face-to-face session is focusing on something else. It also enables people to formulate and express a thought exactly the way they wish to.
- The opportunity to influence the discussion. Even if you rarely speak up in verbal discussions, this tool gives you the chance to shape how the discussion evolves.
- Its anonymity. It enables people to make criticisms, ask hard questions, and introduce contentious ideas without fear of reprisal.
- The elimination of performance anxiety. In contrast to face-to-face discussions, the pressure to sound smart and highly informed is lessened.
What to Watch Out For
- Digital divide. Despite the seeming ubiquity of smartphones, tablets, and laptops, there will be some who don't own these devices.
- The 140-character restraint. Today's Meet allows posts of only 140 characters, so there's a limit to how deep the online discussion can go. It should be used more as an enhancement to face-to-face conversation.
- The seduction of the screen. If you keep the Today's Meet feed up on a screen everyone can see, it can divert people's attention from what is being said in the moment. That's why we prefer to keep the screen off during the bulk of the discussion and to bring it up only at fifteen-minute intervals.
Questions Suited to This Technique
Mostly this technique is used to encourage people to ask questions as they occur to them during a discussion. But we also pose specific questions and ask participants to post their responses. Examples are as follows:
- “What is the most important piece of evidence supporting or refuting climate change?”
- “How should we respond to the task force's main conclusion?”
- “What are the elements of a valid proof?”
- “What's an example of commodification?”
- “How should we respond to criticism A?”
- “What have we missed up to now?”
- “What's the key issue we need to focus on?”
- “Are we on track? If not, what should we do?”