Facilitating meetings is a lot harder than it might look to the casual observer. Over the last two weeks I have facilitated two senior management retreats and have been a participant in two other meetings facilitated by others. In one, the meeting went wildly off track and created a worse problem than the one that the group had been assembled to solve. This failure got me thinking about what it takes to effectively facilitate a meeting. Some things that I have found essential to successful facilitation: 

1. Before the Meeting:

Know the Client. Even if you are an internal facilitator, it is crucial that you know who your client is and how they plan to measure success.

Clarify the Agenda. The best facilitators know that a clear agenda that is communicated to all participants is a key tool for success. Meeting with the client, or key decision maker, in advance to review and edit the agenda is time that is never wasted and will pay off in a more focused, better controlled meeting.

2. Facilitating the Meeting:

Clarify Your Role. Make it clear to all participants what your role is and how you plan to guide the meeting, ensuring that all participants understand the meeting objectives and how you and they will measure success.

Facilitate with Confidence and Authority. Knowing how to play your role as the facilitator is obviously critical to your success and the success of the meeting. Some things to consider:

• Stick to the agenda and make sure that you progress through it
• Help the group stay focused and on track
• Ensure that all have an opportunity to participate
• Manage conflict and control disruptive behaviors
• Guide the group towards building consensus and making decisions
• Ask questions to clarify issues and positions
• Make process suggestions to move the meeting forward

Caution: Strictly speaking, a facilitator is not a group participant. Therefore, the facilitator should stay neutral and refrain from adding his or her own ideas. (You may occasionally participate with the group’s permission, but should move quickly back into “role” as soon as you have offered your idea or comment to the group.)

Create the Visual Record. One of the key jobs of the facilitator is to ensure that a tangible outcome is produced. It is common during a meeting for the facilitator to record participant ideas, agreements, comments, concerns etc., on a poster or a display that can be observed by all participants. At the end of the meeting, it is often the facilitator’s responsibility to compile the information gathered during the meeting into a report or record that can be distributed to participants.
 
The quality of a meeting’s outcomes are often in direct proportion to the skill of the facilitator. Preparation and planning are the keys to success.

Bookmark to: