How can you effectively facilitate a large group meeting?

An efficient meeting agenda should include: - meeting title - date - start and end times - location or virtual link - list of attendees, with their roles and emails - purpose/objectives - detailed agenda items - time allocated for each item - responsible presenters - any pre-meeting materials. I suggest using a collaborative tool, such as Google Docs, so that the presenters can contribute. Also, as an online tool, you just need to share the link with the attendees. To make it easier, you can use a table with 3/4 columns for the agenda items (each column header containing the item, its allocated time, and its presenter; and an optional column with links/notes where the attendees can access the presentation, or read essential comments)

Sharing a relevant and structured agenda is key to an effective meeting. Always be sure to open your meeting with the purpose and outcome. Why are you here and what do you need to achieve? As you write the agenda ready to send out ahead of time, ask yourself what decisions and actions need to happen during the meeting.

You can use the collaborative doc created for the agenda. After the agenda section, add a Notes part where each attendee can collaboratively add notes. Miro is an excellent online whiteboard that also allows collaboration. With Zoom, you can easily record meetings, ensuring all attendees know about it and respecting privacy regulations. Zoom also allows you to create breakout rooms.

Mention your ‘parking lot’ for questions people would like to raise along the way. This helps ensure you can cover all material needed whilst not forgetting any questions along the way. Of course, you could always answer each question as you go but this often leads to running out of time!

Some examples of ground rules you can consider: 1. Raise Your Hand - Participants should raise their hand or use a virtual "raise hand" feature before speaking. 2. One Person Speaks at a Time - Encourage participants not to interrupt when someone is speaking. 3. Stay on Topic: Remind attendees to keep their contributions relevant to the agenda items. 4. Raise Questions at the End: Designate a Q&A portion after each topic and include it on the agenda. Remind participants to hold their questions until that time. 5. Respect Time Limits for Breaks: Include scheduled breaks on the agenda, emphasize the importance of returning promptly when the break is over to keep the meeting on schedule and avoid delays.

Extroverts can easily engage and participate in the meeting if you use the right techniques. Introverts may feel uncomfortable, especially if you address their names and follow up individually in large group meetings. Consider these tips: 1. Share materials in advance. 2. Use small group discussions to reduce pressure - Breakout rooms (Zoom, Teams). 3 Allow moments for silent reflection. 4. Encourage written questions or comments - Note-taking apps (Evernote, OneNote). 5. Round-robin speaking to ensure equal participation. 6. Interactive surveys (Mentimeter, SurveyMonkey). 7. Peer pairing for joint contributions. 8. Agenda annotations and collaboration (Miro, Google Docs). 9. Post-meeting feedback forms or email as an option.

The role of a facilitator is key. They are ideally suited for conflict resolution because they can impartially mediate disputes, promote constructive dialogue, and guide parties toward mutually acceptable solutions. When choosing a facilitator, consider traits like communication skills, empathy, patience, flexibility, neutrality, confidence, organisational abilities, problem-solving skills, a positive attitude, respectfulness, open-mindedness, adaptability, decisiveness, integrity, conflict resolution proficiency, resourcefulness, cultural sensitivity, time management, adherence to ground rules, and accountability. These traits collectively ensure effective facilitation and a successful meeting.

- Make sure all the meeting materials are accessible to everyone. Create an online shared folder and add all the presentations, materials, agenda doc, etc.) - Keep track of the progress of action items and provide updates to participants. In the same collaborative document, you can use a table with 5 columns (Task, Owner, Status, Date, Comments). Use data validation for "Owner" and "Status" cells to ensure consistency and create graphs for better visual representation. - If the meeting was held virtually, make sure you recorded and make it available afterwards; - During the meeting, give options to attendees to add their notes to a collaborative document that can be reviewed/shaped afterwards.