A Meeting Culture Makeover: Leading Meetings with Better Facilitation
Douglas Ferguson
President @ Voltage Control | Facilitation Academy | Author | Educator
Leading meetings the right way starts with embracing the art of facilitation. Give your meetings a makeover and reclaim lost time and energy.
This article was originally published on?voltagecontrol.com
When it comes to leading meetings, there’s incredible room for growth.
Unproductive meeting culture costs the workforce?24 billion hours ?of wasted time. Many employees dedicate at least 15 hours a week to meetings while?71% ?of these sessions are considered unproductive. Ultimately, these statistics show that most meetings lead to a lack of productivity, a waste of resources, and a decline in communications.
The best wait to reclaim this lost time and energy is to reform meeting culture as a whole.
In this article, we explore the path to leading better meetings with the following topics:
The Art of Facilitation
The art of facilitation helps shape leaders, c-suite members, and employees into the most knowledgeable individuals to start leading meetings. When it comes to improving one’s facilitation skills, it’s essential to examine the practice of leading meetings at its core.
Facilitation has many definitions, but essentially,?true facilitation ?requires an experienced individual to guide a group through the participatory process of understanding a shared vision, achieving a common goal, and building trust between each other.
While leading meetings is an essential part of any company culture, leading better meetings requires us to invest further in this facilitation process: learning the art of facilitation by leaning into the scope of facilitation.
Facilitation goes beyond simply hosting meetings. The most effective facilitation encompasses leading meetings while developing solutions and strategies, providing development and learning, promoting engagement and collaboration, and executing processes and programs.
According to?Artie Mahal, ?one’s scope of facilitation should include the following:
Fostering cooperation and collaboration to increase the meeting’s effectiveness
The Elements of Effective Facilitation
While there is a variety of?meeting styles and frameworks ?to choose from, leaders can lean into a universal set of elements for effective facilitation. These elements allow facilitators to get the most out of their teams and use every minute in a meeting to work towards a common goal.
Consider the following elements of effective facilitation:
Consensus decision-making is an important element of facilitation. This approach requires participants to problem-solve collaboratively as they work together to reach a consensus. This process encourages each applicant to work together to ensure all parties agree with the final decision.
2. Facilitating Growth
The best facilitators approach leading meetings with a structure that encourages participants to grow. With a focus on personal development, leaders can create opportunities for professional growth in every meeting.
Facilitators should?practice effective communication ?as they challenge participants to take on new projects, solve more challenging problems and work together in ways they never have before. Approaching facilitation with?growth and developmen t in mind, facilitators can give their team the tools needed to turn an effective meeting.
3. Displaying Empathy
Empathy is a powerful element in effective facilitation. Leading meetings with empathy allow leaders to connect with participants and level the playing field. Additionally, demonstrating that you understand and validate each attendee will make it easier to lead effectively.
It’s easy for perceived power dynamics between facilitators and meeting attendees to create divisiveness in a meeting. Moreover, employees may not readily listen or participate if they feel that the person leading a meeting doesn’t understand them. Facilitators who practice empathy can?manage these perceived power dynamics .
5. Leading with Learning
Learning is another fundamental element of effective facilitation. Leading meetings that don’t provide participants with new information results in a waste of a meeting. Center learning at the heart of your meeting culture to ensure that your attendees find value in each session.
6. Embracing Feedback
Incorporating feedback into meetings is an important step for any facilitator. Asking participants for feedback encourages them to be honest with their comments and concerns. Moreover, giving your attendees an environment that welcomes feedback allows for the most psychological safety.
Encourage your meeting attendees to share what’s on their minds by including an opportunity to share in each meeting. While feedback isn’t always easy to listen to, asking for it will help you pinpoint areas to improve upon in the future.
7. Meeting Mantras
Leading meetings properly requires facilitators to bring a level of intention to every session.?Meeting mantras ?allow facilitators to follow a set of guidelines to ensure the most successful meetings.
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Consider the following as a checklist for your next meeting:
Having a set purpose in mind is key to leading meetings. Without a clear purpose, facilitators and attendees won’t have a goal to work towards. Go beyond having a vague concept as the reason for your gathering. View the purpose for your meetings as a tool to help you plan and prepare for a meaningful, intentional, and productive experience.
The best meetings involve successful decision-making. Committing to a decision will allow attendees to decide on a path forward. Prepare for the most productive meeting by agreeing to disagree and commit.
Ahead of the meeting, choose a “decider” that will have the final say in making the necessary calls to move a meeting forward. This individual will make necessary decisions and explain the reasoning behind them. Ultimately, the decider will allow all attendees to reach a consensus throughout the session.
Leading meetings can be challenging, particularly when attendees don’t want to participate or even attend. Make the most out of each meeting by encouraging all attendees to bring their best selves to the session.
Experts suggest allowing employees to choose whether or not to attend a meeting. This way, they will always have a sense of intention in choosing to be an engaged, responsive, and joyful participant.
Productive meeting cultures focus on working during the meeting–rather than before or after. Leading meetings that require attendees to do the work in the meetings will guarantee a session filled with productivity.
6. Embracing Feedback
Incorporating feedback into meetings is an important step for any facilitator. Asking participants for feedback encourages them to be honest with their comments and concerns. Moreover, giving your attendees an environment that welcomes feedback allows for the most psychological safety.
Encourage your meeting attendees to share what’s on their minds by including an opportunity to share in each meeting. While feedback isn’t always easy to listen to, asking for it will help you pinpoint areas to improve upon in the future.
7. Meeting Mantras
Leading meetings properly requires facilitators to bring a level of intention to every session.?Meeting mantras ?allow facilitators to follow a set of guidelines to ensure the most successful meetings.
Consider the following as a checklist for your next meeting:
Having a set purpose in mind is key to leading meetings. Without a clear purpose, facilitators and attendees won’t have a goal to work towards. Go beyond having a vague concept as the reason for your gathering. View the purpose for your meetings as a tool to help you plan and prepare for a meaningful, intentional, and productive experience.
The best meetings involve successful decision-making. Committing to a decision will allow attendees to decide on a path forward. Prepare for the most productive meeting by agreeing to disagree and commit.
Ahead of the meeting, choose a “decider” that will have the final say in making the necessary calls to move a meeting forward. This individual will make necessary decisions and explain the reasoning behind them. Ultimately, the decider will allow all attendees to reach a consensus throughout the session.
Leading meetings can be challenging, particularly when attendees don’t want to participate or even attend. Make the most out of each meeting by encouraging all attendees to bring their best selves to the session.
Experts suggest allowing employees to choose whether or not to attend a meeting. This way, they will always have a sense of intention in choosing to be an engaged, responsive, and joyful participant.
Productive meeting cultures focus on working during the meeting–rather than before or after. Leading meetings that require attendees to do the work in the meetings will guarantee a session filled with productivity.
A Meeting Culture Makeover
Facilitation is an ever-growing field that allows for organizational growth to ebb and flow. To accommodate an ever-changing environment, facilitators should make an effort to constantly update their meeting culture.
Basecamp founders?Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson ?encourage facilitators to view their organizations as a product, accounting for all the possibilities that come with regular improvements and updates:
“When you realize how you work is malleable, you can start molding something new, something better. We work on our company as hard as we work on our products.”
Make an effort to shape your company culture into one that champions effective meetings with these seven strategies:
Leading meetings successfully starts with prioritizing the most effective elements of facilitation. At Voltage Control, we help leaders and teams change the way meetings affect their company culture!?Contact us to learn more about the art of facilitation and how to make the most of each meeting.