The quiet one has lots to offer.
Many teams have a quiet person. They may say little during meetings, and their output will vary. A key to unlocking more from that person is finding out why they are quiet.
Finding why the person is quiet can be challenging. Often, I found the person fell into a few different categories.
One person might be quiet because they are lost. Somehow they passed the relevant courses to get into this course, but don’t remember, or know how to apply the relevant skills.
Another person might be quiet because they are new to the university, and don’t know anyone on the team. This could be for many reasons, such as transfer, or they are an exchange student.
The quiet one could also prefer to be quiet. They only say something if they have something relevant to add. They leave the talking to the louder people in the team.
Find out why they are quiet
When you want your quiet team members to contribute more, then you need to talk to them one-on-one. You need to ask gentle questions, and listen to the answers. Being loud and confrontational will only make the person quieter.
Ask the person open ended questions so they need to say more than ‘yes’, or ‘no’. Explain how what you see makes you wonder if y is the case. I see that you didn’t say much in the last meeting, and wondered if this is because you’re new to the university, for example. This follows the STATE approach.
Be patient, and quiet too. This might take a few meetings to get further. But do start.
Explore solutions with the team
Where possible have your team work in pairs, and rotate members. This lets the person meet everyone in small groups. You spread knowledge and grow familiarity with each other too.
Eventually you will find why the person is quiet. If that is their nature, then explore how you can use that skill in your team. If they are shy, then working with others and getting to know each other will make them more comfortable. If they lack skills, then help them learn what’s needed to contribute.
Above all, be patient, and help them learn how to work with the team. Next time you might be the quiet one on the team.
This post is part of a project pulling together my materials and ideas about Teaching Team Collaboration: the Human-Side of Software Development for software development to students.
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The ideas above are from my book 101+ Ideas to Improve Team Collaboration, which covers all of these little things that students can do to improve their collaboration. Also available via Kindle.