On February 29, 2016, Justice Clarence Thomas asked a question during oral argument at the Supreme Court. “Thomas last asked a question in court on Feb. 22, 2006, and his unusual silence over the years has become a curiosity.”
“He has said he relies on the written briefs in a case and doesn’t need to ask questions of the lawyers appearing in court.”
In her 2010 TED talk, Sheryl Sandberg of Facebook described a meeting with a senior government official. Two senior women from his staff sat at the side of the room. “I kind of said to them, ‘Sit at the table. Come on, sit at the table,’ and they sat on the side of the room.”
She also told of a young woman at Facebook who had noticed something after Sandberg said she would take two more questions: “all the women put their hand down, and then you took more questions, only from the men.”
In 2012 Susan Cain published Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking. She described an “Extrovert Ideal”: the belief that the ideal self is gregarious, alpha and comfortable in the spotlight. She called Harvard Business School one of its centers.
In her TED talk the same year, she said: “There’s zero correlation between being the best talker and having the best ideas.” The book became a long-running bestseller.
Its success suggests how strong the expectation to speak is, and how many Americans feel its cost.
Plus one. — I agree. In a chat it is written +1.
I’d second that. — I support what was just said. The word comes from parliamentary procedure, where a motion needs a second.
To piggyback on that… — I agree, and I will add something.
I’m with Sarah on this. — I take the same position as Sarah.
Just to echo what Jim said… — I agree and want my agreement on the record.
Let’s go around the room. — Each person will speak in turn.
I’d love to hear from folks who haven’t weighed in yet. — The quiet people should speak now.
What am I missing? — Tell me what I have not thought of. Juniors are invited too.
Feel free to chime in. — Anyone may add a comment at any time.
You’ve been quiet. — A friendly invitation to speak, and a sign that the silence was noticed.
In a December 2023 podcast interview with Lex Fridman, Jeff Bezos gave a rule for meetings: “If you’re the most senior person in the room, go last.” He explained: “If I speak first, even very strong-willed, highly intelligent, high-judgment participants in that meeting will wonder, ‘Well, if Jeff thinks that, maybe I’m not right.'”
Lauren Sánchez said that she used to speak first in her own meetings. Bezos told her: “No, no, no. You’re the boss. You talk last.”
Robert’s Rules of Order limits how often one person may speak. The 1915 edition says: “No member shall speak more than twice during the same day to the same question (only once on an appeal), nor longer than ten minutes at one time, without leave of the assembly.”
It also gives priority to those who have not spoken: “No member can speak a second time to a question as long as any member desires to speak who has not spoken to the question.” The current edition keeps both rules.
In 2010 researchers from Carnegie Mellon, MIT and Union College published a study of 699 people working in small groups in the journal Science. They found a “general collective intelligence factor” that explained how well a group did across many tasks. It was linked to “the equality in distribution of conversational turn-taking.”
The lead author, Anita Williams Woolley, said that “in groups where one person dominated, the group was less collectively intelligent than in groups where the conversational turns were more evenly distributed.”
Barack Obama described how he ran meetings as president. “I’d call on folks in the back row, including the most junior staffer,” he wrote in an essay published on December 9, 2020.
In 2018 he told a conference audience in Las Vegas about meetings in the Situation Room. In the outer ring of the room sat “a whole bunch of people, often younger but not always.” “Those are the people who are actually doing the work.” He said: “I’d point to someone in the back and say, you, what do you think? And they’d be shocked that I called on them.”
Before major events such as a launch, the flight director in Mission Control goes “around the room.” Each flight controller is polled in turn and calls out an answer. If everything is good, the call is “go.” If there is a problem that requires a hold or an abort, the call is “no go.”
The procedure is called a launch status check, or a go/no go poll. In the Apollo program, the flight director started it.