I often hear people complain that some members who are shy do not contribute to office meetings. It is a real concern to many managers that these individuals do not share their opinions with the rest of the group. I agree that the more discussion, and sharing of ideas is great but the issue shouldn’t be so one-sided. Within any group I believe the greatest strengths lay with the diversity of the group, not only with the many opinions but with the many skills.
To explain this lets look at a chair. One could argue that the seat of the chair is the most important. Another would make the same argument for the legs or backing of a chair. However, we can all agree that we need all parts of the chair for it to be functional. The same logic goes towards office meetings or any group project. Often the ones who talk the most are the ones who seem to be the most important but every group needs those who help to actively listen to them, encourage them, summarize the information, suggest different opinions, test the reality of ideas etc etc.
I find that those who are shy will often take the role of the active listener, and opinion seeker when the group already has enough people who wish to give a magnitude of ideas. These same shy people can become the opinion givers when the situation presents itself that there is no one who wishes to share their ideas. Now the real issue with managers or leaders of these meetings or groups is to figure out who plays which role within the group, and how they can fit in to have an effective group.
