How can you use facilitation to keep meetings productive?

Not having a clear purpose for each attendee is the quickest way to kill team engagement. Before the meeting, make sure everyone on the team has a job. The best jobs to keep remote workers engaged during meetings are: Interactive. The job should require each person to contribute in real-time and interact with the meeting and other team members. Straightforward. If the job is too complex, your team may spend more time trying to figure out what to do than actually participating in the meeting. Frequent. Ideally, each team member’s job is something they need to do over the duration of the meeting so that they’re engaged from start to finish, rather than being assigned a “one and done” task.

Agendar uma reuni?o com um propósito claro é a chave para a eficácia e produtividade. Definir os objetivos, resultados esperados e benefícios para os participantes direciona a reuni?o para um caminho eficiente. Isso economiza tempo e garante que todos estejam alinhados com as metas.

People have too many meetings. Don't be another person adding one more unnecessary meeting to the list. Your meeting should have agenda and clearly defined success criteria. If you can't say - this meeting will be successful if, you probably shouldn't have it. Also, if you are unsure of the purpose of a meeting you have been invited to - you should ask.

Always prepare an agenda for the meeting and circulate it in advance of the meeting. I often times add the agenda to the calendar invite itself, or link to a Google doc where I am tracking agendas and notes in the invite. If you can't do this, ask yourself if the meeting needs to happen.

A great agenda outlines clear results for the meeting as a whole, as well as for every section of the meeting. If the result of each section does not roll up to the results of the meeting as a whole, perhaps that section of the meeting does not need to be there. And while the agenda is the guide, the facilitator also needs to be prepared to flex the agenda when an adaptive challenge comes up. A great facilitator will make clear the reason for the change, and also gain consensus on the importance of it.

This one is key. I like to call them "rules of engagement." For example: -Everyone use the raise hand feature to speak and/or use the chat. This also helps make it easier for introverts to participate and ensure that you're getting diversity of opinion and voice.

During the meeting, set guidelines for interaction in the actual meeting. Let your team know what’s expected of them ahead of time. The agenda can help a lot but other things your team might be thinking is, for example, can everyone speak freely or will the team leader call on someone when it’s that person’s turn to contribute? Does everyone need to have their camera on at all times or just the presenter? Should people mute their phones while others are speaking? Once you’re in the meeting, the designated leader should run the meeting. You can start by reviewing the agenda and make it clear at the beginning of your question who you’re directing it to. Make sure to keep the meeting inclusive by giving everyone a chance to participate.

As a facilitator, I try to make sure every person who comes to a meeting knows that they will likely be speaking, and I will call on people and ask them for their input. This means we hear more voices than just the people who normally speak up!

I help to lead a group of writers and it can be like herding cats sometimes. A topic is thrown out like, "The Oxford Comma is the only way to write!" and it is off to the races. Not all topics have the right answers and watching for the quite person in the back and helping them to have a platform does more than lift them up. It also shows all the other participants that you care about everyone's input. Letting the loudest voice pontificate on a topic can do more than harm the group dynamic, it hurts the person taking over the conversation. Once folks stop trusting the "loud one" that person get relegated outside the group and cut-off as well as the facilitator. In the end, the group suffers. Engage everyone early and often.

For starters, try to keep the meetings to only the people who really need to be there. One of my favorite ways to engage meeting participants is by assigning each person a "job" in the meeting. Perhaps you've been assigned to take notes, send the recap, start the group icebreaker question, etc. There are bigger "jobs" or smaller "jobs" depending on the number of people and meeting type. Also, I recommend adding what each team member/team is responsible for bringing to the meeting in the agenda so they are prepped and able to engage in the meeting.

The key to effective leadership is to instill confidence in your team by understanding and addressing their needs and development. This will enable them to perform at their highest potential. To achieve this, you should focus on promoting self-awareness, listening to your team members, serving them, helping them grow, coaching them instead of controlling them, promoting safety, respect, and trust, and encouraging the energy and intelligence of others.

In Results-Based Facilitation, the key here is to use Context Statements (CSs) and Effective Questions (EQs). Having these planned out ahead of time, aligned with the result you're hoping to achieve, will help the group be more successful. A CS and EQ helps a group stay focused. For example: Topic: Drop in XYZ rates (10 minutes) Result: Team will identify potential causes for our current data. CS: Data shows that the rates of XYZ have dropped by 20% this past quarter. EQ: In your experience, what factors in our process may be contributing to this drop? This keeps the meeting focused rather than opening it up for vague discussion.

As facilitator of 100+ innovation projects all over the world, I love to share a CHECKLIST: 15 TIPS for THE PERFECT BRAINSTORM: 1. Define a relevant challenge 2. Create with the sponsor an assignment 3. Create momentum 4. Invite people for whom it is relevant. 5. Invite people for content as well as decision-making 6. Include outsiders 7. Invite the senior problem-owner 8. A special venue 9. An psychological safe environment 10. Never at the office 11. Spend twice as much time on the convergence - as on the divergence process. 12. Apply various idea-generating techniques 13. Keep up the pace 14. Appoint an expert facilitator 15. Make the output concrete Extra Tip: Check the FORTH innovation method for a structured approach.

Sumo: 1. Establecer y recordar un propósito 2. Dise?ar la sesión de acuerdo al propósito 3. Mantener el control de los tiempos e intervenciones 4. Usar Estructuras liberadoras. 5. Crear un ambiente psicológicamente seguro creando acuerdos, hablando del error, promoviendo la discusión 6. Dividir las conversaciones en tiempos cortos y varias rondas 7. Ajustar las técnicas si lo requiere el grupo 8. Utilizar activadores o Energizers si el grupo lo requiere o por cada hora 9. Asegurarse que todos participen 10. Utilizar técnicas creativas para la ideación .

Looking at the qualitative (people’s feelings) and quantitative (measurements) data, then using that data to find root causes, designing countermeasures, and developing action plans.

Have you ever had that last sip of your coffee or pop and it is cold, or lukewarm? Watered down and just plain "blech"? Avoid that with your group and giving a good wrap-up of highlights of the conversation. Recap all executable items and expectations set. If plans for next meeting were set, recover them, if not, then get some set. Leave on a positive note, even if it was a challenging conversation. Taking a moment to thank everyone, even if it was a "hard" meeting, is better than folks just leaving in a huff.

I always close a meeting by identifying and confirming action commitments, and asking participants to check out using a question that will help me as a facilitator plan the next meeting. Great questions include: - What is one takeaway from today that you're most excited to apply to your work? - What is one wondering or insight you have from today? - Based on the results of today's meeting, what recommendations do you have for next meeting's work? If applicable, having a 2-3 question survey for participants to complete afterward can help improve facilitation and planning for the following meeting.

The "warmup" or intro of the call is often forgotten, but crucial to setting up the meeting on the right note. Meeting facilitators should think of themselves as 50% facilitator, 50% entertainer. Video calls have become an evil for many, so facilitators need to do something that introduces positive energy and engagement into a meeting right away.

One thing I have found useful while facilitating meetings is active listening and moreover listening without judging. Facilitation itself means giving an opportunity to everyone to state their views and opinions. When everyone feels heard, there could be a lot of perspectives that might be enlightened which otherwise would not. At times one might feel the meeting digressing from the agenda, however, it is necessary to connect the dots backwards. Keeping an open mind to accept the opinions which are different but in line with the set agenda, to accept and bring in the change goes a long way.

It is important to prioritize individuals and their interactions over processes and tools. Organizations should identify lengthy processes that cause bottlenecks and impede teams, and have the ability to change or remove them to support delivery.