Here at Articulous we facilitate a LOT of meetings and workshops. Thankfully we love doing this, especially when the content is complex or contentious. We have been tweeting a selection of our favourite twenty-one tips for making sure that your facilitation session runs as smoothly as possible, especially when using an external facilitator with a number of external participants.
- Brief facilitator on all meeting attendees in advance including project role and previous interactions as relevant to project. Facilitator can then research attendees via LinkedIn to speed up recognition with a large group.
- Brief external facilitator on any hot button issues which may be potential sources of conflict;
- Provide up to date agenda the day before with up to date list of attendees, avoiding acronyms for job title or organisation.
- Appoint a project lead for your conversation who leads conversation, answers questions and directs questions to other staff as appropriate.
- Get your team to meet prior to clarify approach, recent relevant interactions and any negotiables/non-negotiables.
- Meet your facilitator at least 15 mins prior to meeting to allow time to sign in, get to the meeting room and brief them on any last-minute changes or updates.
- Book the meeting room for at least 15 mins prior to meeting start to allow for set up.
- Book the meeting room for 30 mins post scheduled meeting time to allow for a debrief with your team members.
- Book a meeting room that is larger than needed for anticipated number of guests. Allow space for facilitator to move around if they want.
- Ensure aircon is working and adequate prior to meeting – especially with west facing glass in the afternoons.
- Ask external guests to arrive with plenty of time to sign in and get up to meeting room;
- Ensure in advance all attendees can attend meeting for entire meeting time. Reconfigure the agenda if you need to.
- Clarify in advance who is taking minutes and what format/level of detail is required along with ETA for their distribution.
- Arrange for constant internet access no matter if you plan to use it or not. Chances are you will!
- Coordinate seating so that attendees are not seated in an us vs them or internals vs externals layout.
- Start with introductions including names, roles and reason for attending. Do not assume that everyone knows each other and was involved in any previous meetings.
- Organise for pre-nominated representatives of each group in attendance to briefly outline their position or provide an update before any negotiations or discussion begins.
- Distribute and go through previous minutes or a brief outline of previous meeting and reason for this meeting so that all attendees have clarity of purpose for current meeting.
- Give a clear indication for meeting finish time at the start of the meeting.
- Bring a laser pointer to indicate what is being discussed on the screen – especially if complex technical information is being discussed.
- Try your upmost to end on time and thank everyone for their participation to encourage them to attend next time.
