Steve Jobs effectively gained his team's total focus for the duration of the meeting because he began meetings by asking his team what was on their minds. As simple as it sounds, it's surprisingly uncommon.
When people get what's on their minds off their chest, they can then be more present and more effectively focus on the meeting. Otherwise, they'll be sitting there, silently stewing about the issue, leading them to be too distracted to be a true participant in the meeting. But as simple as this sounds, there are a few things you need to do to get it right.
https://www.inc.com/kelly-main/steve-jobs-began-every-meeting-with-one-unusual-question-reason-is-brilliant.html
