One of the key unwritten rules of compliance work, (or really any work for that matter), is having an ability to “read a room”.
(Note: For purposes of this discussion, the “room” could be a physical space, or a video or phone call.)
Reading a room is about quickly assessing your audience in real time so you can adjust your compliance message. For example, what do they care about, how they’re reacting to what you’re saying, and most importantly, what they aren’t saying?
Having this skill is critical to your effectiveness as a compliance officer. For example, you can have the most accurate interpretation of a regulation, but if the room shuts down, gets defensive, or tunes you out, then your message doesn’t land. And when your message doesn’t land, the compliance risk doesn’t get acted upon.
This article will explore this important skillset and include some strategies that have helped me over the years.
What Does “Reading a Room” Actually Mean?
Reading a room is about having an awareness of your surroundings. More specifically, the people you’re interacting with, their priorities, any power dynamics, and the emotional temperature of the room. It helps you identify resistance that’s not being said, spot when a decision has already been made, and avoid over-explaining when the room just wants the bottom line.
Keep in mind that when you begin talking about a compliance matter, you’re already stepping into a mix of competing priorities. For example, a CFO is thinking about operating margins, a physician leader is thinking about patient care and clinical autonomy, and a nursing leader is thinking about staffing shortages. Your job then is to figure out, what matters most—and in that moment.
So, how do you do that?
Below are some strategies that will help.
Read the Room, Before, the Meeting
When it comes to reading a room, the best piece of advice I can give you is to start this process before you get into the actual room.
What I mean is that for most compliance initiatives, you should have the luxury of time before the meeting to figure out where people sit with what you’re needing to discuss with them. For example, you should be able to reasonably anticipate who is going to support you, who is going to push back, and why they are taking those positions. Also, once you’ve been with an organization for some time, you should have a sense of others’ communication styles, alliances, and personal conflicts.
These are all factors that you should evaluate before the meeting because that will help cut down on the number of surprises you have to navigate during the meeting.
Conduct a “Pre-Meeting Scan” of the Room
Assuming the meeting is about to start, take a few moments to initially observe your surroundings. For example, pay attention to things like:
Who’s talking and who isn’t talking?
What’s the energy in the room? Does it feel relaxed or rushed? Does it feel tense?
Are people engaged or do they appear to be distracted?
Going through this process will serve as your baseline. It gives you a sense for how to enter the conversation, and gauge where you might be headed.
Focus on Their Needs, Not Yours
As I mentioned above, every audience member has a lens through which they are going to filter the discussion (e.g., a physician leader = patient care and autonomy).
Once you’re in the meeting, your job is to be mindful of these lenses, and keep your message aligned to what you know they are going to care about the most (e.g., operational efficiency, reducing risk, staff burden). Additionally, something that has helped me is to identify their position(s) and interest(s), with a particular emphasis on the interest(s).
For purposes of discussion, a “position” is what someone says they want. For example, an operational leader says “Please don’t give me one more thing to do today”. An interest on the other hand, is “the why” behind whatever it is that the person wants. In this case, assume the operational leader just had her budget cut by several FTEs and is scrambling to manage the department’s workload.
Positions are often made public, whereas interests can be a little tricker to spot. That’s because they often reveal a vulnerability, as with the above-noted example. If an interest is not made known in the meeting, then have a 1:1 discussion offline to identify “the why” behind the position.
In my experience, connecting with a person’s interest is a great way to uncover what isn’t being said.
Pay Attention to What’s Not Being Said
In my experience, people don’t always say, “I don’t like where this is going.” Well, unless we’re talking about my spouse or a family member, but’s that’s a whole other story.
Kidding aside, sometimes instead of telling you how they feel, they show you. To that end, pay attention to subtle cues, such as:
Are people leaning into the discussion?
Have people stopped making eye contact?
Are their arms crossed?
Did they suddenly become interested in their phone?
Was there an awkward silence within the discussion?
Do their questions or comments appear to be rooted in curiosity or defensiveness?
Who is speaking, and who is noticeably quiet?
While not intended to be an all-inclusive list, these are some common cues that you can run through to help check-in with the emotional temperature of the room.
Paying attention to subtle cues will help you with reading a room because they are a signal. A signal that tells you when your audience is engaging with you, and when you need to pivot the course of the discussion.
Debrief the Meeting
After the meeting, take a couple minutes to debrief and ask yourself:
What was the tone of the room?
When did engagement go up or down?
What signals did I miss?
What would I do differently next time?
Going through this process can be helpful for learning what worked, and what didn’t work. Every interaction teaches you something about how healthcare leaders think, what they prioritize, and how to position compliance more effectively next time. Over time, you’ll start to notice patterns, get better at anticipating reactions, and be able to adjust before things go sideways.
Pulling It All Together
Reading a room is a critical to the effectiveness of a compliance officer. It helps you uncover hidden concerns that aren’t being said, pivot when a conversation is becoming defensive, and tell when the room needs a solution instead of more analysis.
It’s important to note that reading a room is not a talent that you’re born with. No one walks into their first compliance role as a room-reading expert. And that includes me. The insights I’ve provided above, come from 25 years of working in the corporate world of healthcare where I’ve had to learn what worked—and what didn’t.
So, be patient. This is a skillset you develop over time by paying attention, reflecting, and occasionally realizing, “Hmm…that didn’t land the way I thought it would.”
And that’s okay. I have had those thoughts too, countless times in my career. Still do.
