You're facilitating a large group discussion. How do you balance structure and spontaneity effectively?

The scale of the discussion could be an hour or maybe even several days. An overall objective is critical to keep everything on track and in a longer session smaller objectives for each part with a clear link to the main objective. Everything needs to be communicated and in a longer session, re-communicated regularly. If the participants know what the goals are at each point it will help them to keep their contributions relevant. It's also key to check in with the participants, at the start, on their personal objectives for the session, what they hope the outcomes will be, what they hope will be discussed or resolved. That will allow you to make space for something important if you need to and allow you to begin with aligned objectives.

Yes having a clear objective or outcome which gives a structure of where one is heading in an hour or week or longer is valuable. I wouldn’t say a balance of structure and freedom, I would say it is vital to allow for “emergence” and keep weighing up with the group if this is valuable to spend time on. As a professional facilitator finding that balance of structure and freedom with good flow is the art of what we do.

The way I allow for engagement in a large attendance facilitation is to build in flexibility. By building in flexibility to the facilitation, it allows for the opportunity to give people a forum for their feedback and chime in. I find the best way to do this is by putting the audience into smaller work groups that then report out. This way, you can engage the audience, but define the ways input and flexibility can work with the larger facilitation. If something comes up that impacts the rest of the facilitation, it is okay to recalibrate at the next break and make decisions whether you want to amend or keep course based on the feedback.

I’ve found a lot of success by varying the types of engagement. Including things like: open ended prompts, hands on activities, quiet moments of reflection, and partnered problem solving.

You deeply listen to people and where they are at. Skilled facilitators are listening emotionally, tuning in to body language, finding nuance where it may not seem obvious and re-adjust to your audience so that they too - feel connected through process.

If something comes up that seems to need to be addressed then adapting in real-time is important. It is important also to remember that this is the participants' session. So, put it to them. 'Here's a thing I have noticed. Do we think it is worth further discussion? Is this current discussion the best place for it?' You will then plan with the group how and when to tackle it. If you delay the topic until later in the day/session you have the opportunity to gather more data and plan a useful facilitation approach to reach your objectives.

Sometimes things come up that take priority. Plan such that the content of the discussion is more important than “getting through your preconceived agenda”. Attend to the whole group as well. Don’t let a few people’s discussion that does not apply to the whole group to go on and lose the rest. Attend to the energy of the group.