Facilitator Fail #1: Start with an ‘engaging’ PowerPoint

Does this sound familiar?

You enter the space and the first thing you see is a PowerPoint staring at you. Oh no, will we start this workshop with a presentation, you wonder. To be fair, the facilitator has tried to make it comprehensive, but after 10 minutes of listening to the why, what and how and the flow of the agenda, your attention wanes. With so much text and no visuals, it is no wonder the facilitator runs out of time. More and more people start looking at their phones.

The start of the meeting is all about engagement

It’s a shame that the energy level drops right from the start. A good gathering is all about engagement and interaction. Getting to know each other, creating things together, exchanging ideas - it is all based on the energy of the group. If you don’t get people’s voices in the room in the first couple of minutes, chances are high a barrier to interact starts forming

What can you do instead?

A presentation is a source of comfort - we understand. It helps to have all the information presented visually. So here are some tips to use the presentation as a tool for engagement.

Start with only one slide that welcomes the participants, including a visual. Right from the start, ask a question to your audience: ‘With what meeting result would you be happy?’, ‘What should be on the agenda’?, or ‘What’s on your mind right now, related to the meeting topic?’.

Try to really listen as a facilitator. Use a flip chart to write down the key comments. Based on the answers, check whether the agenda you had in mind is still the best way to reach the objective of the gathering.

So this was the first one in a longer series of Facilitator Fails. More to follow!