How can you use technology to maintain a human touch in large group facilitation?

Since I have started using MIRO, I haven’t looked back. Especially with remote sessions, I can’t do without it. However, just having a right technology is probably 10% of the equation. Structured facilitation focussed on objectives is essential for large group facilitation online or in-person

I have been conducting large group facilitation for almost 20 years and I always like to explore new methods. If I'm facilitating in a large meeting room, I like to have large white papers, markers and Post-It pads. The Future Search approach is one of my go-to when the topic is on change management and strategic planning. For a digital platform, Zoom (not Teams) plus Mentimeter and Miro are great tools. Setting up these tools and testing them in advance is the key to having a good session.

I like to use interesting visual aids to capture attention. This means a combination of graphics/photos/graphs and less text. Using a variety of images can reduce fatigue and boredom from the audience. While PowerPoint (or Keynote for Apple users) is the default tool that I use, I also use Prezi and Canva to spice things up. It's pretty easy to create interesting presentations with the digital tools!

A great teacher once said “the wisdom is in the room”. We ALL have so much to share! Adding a structured space for sharing creates empathy and builds community. You can say things like: “in one sentence tell me…”, “we will spend the next 10 minutes hearing from you” or “I will take five comments in regards to…”. Another thing that has worked for me -if the group size allows for this-is to begin a meeting with a question and allowing for people (voluntarily) to answer it. “What are you celebrating today?” It is amazing what a few minutes of connection can do!

I am currently trying to use polls and surveys more to engage interaction in online facilitation! I find the more people are involved the more learning that is done

I love using Mentimeter to run polls and engage large audiences. Quizzes are a good way to "keep people awake and engaged". If the participants are on Zoom or Teams, I invite them to actively use the Chat function to respond to questions and to ask questions. It's more fun than just a one way traffic!

Whenever possible, an immediate follow-up via email or social media platforms is good to keep people engaged and drive them towards taking action. In many large group facilitation, change is often a common theme. Helping people to take action and change the behaviors is difficult. It requires many reinforcement activities to ensure that new habits stick!