[throwaway413]

Just ask questions. If you don’t know what something is - ask. Forget about everyone else in the meeting - chances are someone else feels exactly the same way and is also too nervous to speak up and ask for help.

Let the meeting driver keep course, if they don’t want to take the time to explain, let them say so and ask to “take it offline” for follow up.

The whole purpose of meetings is to get aligned. If you’re not clear on what it is to even be aligned with, that’s step one and that is totally fine, there is no shame. You have to put yourself out there and speak up, otherwise you will get left behind, because only you are looking out for yourself. No one is going to drag you along besides simply inviting you to the meeting. Take the opportunity into your own hands and demand clarity. Either you get it, problem solved, or you receive pushback, at which point you’re clearly not needed in the discussion and so you dismiss yourself to more important things.

In your example, “I don’t know what any of those things are, can you explain?” is a perfectly valid piece of feedback. Rinse and repeat until you get clarity or someone tells you it’s out of scope for the discussion (which means “catch up on your own time”). If anything, this is valuable feedback to the meeting driver that maybe not all communication is taking place as it should be, why are team members not informed? This leads to learnings, which is why it’s valuable for everyone involved if you speak up.