Changing the Town Hall Meeting

We have all witnessed how town hall meetings can be dreadful.  The CEO and/or some other senior executive shares an update about the company.  Then, supposedly, he or she would like to answer questions from the staff.  However, few meaningful questions surface.  People do not want to ask the tough questions for fear of being viewed as a "troublemaker" who is challenging or undermining company leaders.  I heard from a senior executive today who has a solution to this problem.  At his firm, they use audience interaction software to enable participants to offer questions anonymously.  Furthermore, the software enables other staff members to "like" the question.  The software then ranks the question by the number of "likes" it has received.   Executives, therefore, can identify quickly and easily the questions on top of mind for their staff members.   It facilitates a much more meaningful and substantive discussion during the town hall meeting.  Naturally, we would like to move beyond the need for such software.  We would like to create a culture in which people do not fear asking the tough questions.  Until that type of climate has been created and reinforced, this type of software may provide a vehicle to begin to open up the dialogue within the firm.