The First 5 Minutes: Making Room for Real Conversation, with Linn Vizard

Most of us have been in a meeting that stayed shallow. We might have had the right people in the room, but the conversation never got there. Linn Vizard argues that what's usually missing isn't the agenda or the expertise, it's a few minutes of personal context (right at the start) that could have made everyone feel safe enough to actually show up and participate.

In this episode, Linn shares what she's learned in her career as a service designer and facilitator, helping us to explore what it takes to open a room well. In it's most basic form: how a single well-chosen question can shift the dynamic of an entire meeting, how to scale that intention from a team of four to a call of forty, and what it looks like to start building a culture of real collaboration from wherever you happen to sit in an organization or community.

Connect with Linn Vizard:

• Linn's website: https://made-manifest.com
• Pebble Talk (conversation starter deck): https://www.made-manifest.com/resources/pebble-talk
• Ask a Service Designer (newsletter): https://us19.campaign-archive.com/home/?u=1a68a5ce1bf1835e60b4283eb&id=a54944bd66
• Linn on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/linnvizard/

Check out more from Storylinking:

• Go behind the scenes of this episode: https://storylinking.com/blog/ep18
• https://storylinking.com (the full show site)

Key moments from this episode:

01:21 Why Linn's path from industrial design led her to care about people and systems more than products

10:20 The case for dialogue over persuasion, even when you're sure you're right

13:18 What happens in the first few minutes of a meeting, and why it determines so much of what follows

33:52 How to start building a more human culture from wherever you sit, without waiting for permission