Meeting Room Culture Best Practices

In many other business cultures the meeting room is often more like a battlefield. It's where ideas are pushed forward, allies are formed, and confrontation is inevitable. Those who fight well here tend to move up the executive ladder faster and get more deals done. That's not how meeting room culture works in Norway.

A Peaceful Environment

The Norwegian meeting room is a peaceful place, a calm room where grandstanding and chest-pounding is greatly discouraged. Even aggressive hand motions are not recommended here! This was tough for an American. I, am after, all more used to unfurling my feathers, much like a peacock, across the conference room table to make my point.

However, in Norway, you don't see much peacocking in the meeting room. The scene is more similar to a flock of extremely polite songbirds chirping in agreement. Conversations are structured and well balanced between the participants, with no single participant getting a larger share of the agenda. This happens regardless of seniority in the organization.

Equal Say for All

In the flat hierarchy of the Norwegian organization everyone has equal say. A good Norwegian boss will try to guide the conversion and let the participants work it out among themselves so it is common for them to survey the room to ask if anyone has additional thoughts on a subject.

Given Norwegians' shy nature, they almost never do – or at least they feel their potentially disruptive thoughts are not worth sharing.

Punctuality is Sacred

In Norway meetings end exactly on time and typically not a second later. This hard stop gives Norwegians a much needed exit from the room, which of course helps them avoid one of their greatest fears: having to make small talk.

When the meeting ends everyone quickly shuffles out of the room. You don't linger, there is no smooth transition from meeting discussions to small talk. You sort of just look at your shoes and slink towards the exit.

The meeting also starts exactly on time as Norwegians value punctuality. To keep a meeting attendee waiting is considered a great disrespect. Those who deliver work on time and show up for meetings on time earn extra prestige in the workplace.

At the same time, arriving early to a meeting is also discouraged as this can create additional stress for the meeting host entertaining you until the meeting starts or other participants are ready.

Emergency Small Talk Tips

Should you find yourself in the rare but difficult position of having to engage in small talk with Norwegians in a meeting room I recommend use of a few emergency conversational lubricants:

• •"The weather has been really awful this week right?" (Works about 300+ days of the year)
• •"Wow, such amazing weather this week right?" (Can be used once, twice if you're lucky, in the Summer)
• •"Have you had a chance to get to your hytte (cabin) lately?"
• •"I was hiking recently at [name any nature spot], have you ever been?"

In the most dire emergencies: "I need more coffee, bye!"

The Hand-Raising System

Finally you may notice a Norwegian meeting room looks a lot like your grade school classroom at times. Since Norwegians are extremely polite and not eager to interrupt a speaker they instead raise their hand when they wish to talk, just like the classroom.

This was a bit silly to me at first as in the American meeting one simply interjects into a conversion when someone has completed their thought or speaks louder than others to get their word in.

This type of aggressive jockeying for attention does not happen in the peaceful Norwegian meeting room, however. Norwegians will often hold up one finger to add a comment to an existing conversion or two fingers when raising a new subject. Very efficient!

Decisions Take Time

With further regard to decisions being made it rarely happens at the meetings themselves, especially in an initial meeting. While most Norwegians are pragmatic people, time is usually required before a decision can be made.

For large deals, expect to have to meet several times before pushing forward a proposal or contract. Norwegians actually prefer to have many meetings on a subject to ensure adequate consensus among the team members.

That means there are lots of meetings in Norway. I have personally sat in on several meetings that were solely focused on planning the next meeting. Meetings within meetings may create a bit of meeting inception but it's how things get done in Norway.

Don't Revisit Closed Topics

It's important to know that once a decision has been made it is not to be further discussed in subsequent meetings. This is counter to many other international corporate cultures where one might try to push a previous idea forward again and again.

To Norwegians, this would be considered an inefficient use of time. It's also not going to help your chances of getting your idea pushed through, as Norwegians will avoid the subject to avoid further confrontation.