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Master Your Game: Facilitated Meetings

Written by: Jacque Small

Article Overview: Great meetings don't happen by chance they happen by design. Successful meetings are well thought out and well planned events. The sense of having a successful meeting is dependent on an appointed group member, a chair or facilitator, taking active responsibility for all aspects of the meeting from preplanning to evaluation.

Master Your Game: Facilitated Meetings

Great meetings don't happen by chance they happen by design. Successful meetings are well thought out and well planned events. The sense of having a successful meeting is dependent on an appointed group member, a chair or facilitator, taking active responsibility for all aspects of the meeting from preplanning to evaluation.

Last month, we started the series on Effective Meetings. This issue is about meeting management styles.

Run more effective and productive meetings by understanding the difference between chairing and facilitating meetings, then deciding which style works for you and your team in different situations. Are your meetings well-facilitated? Ask yourself these questions:

Who is your meeting leader?
Does the meeting leader chair your meetings or facilitate them?
Does the meeting leader make the final decision?
How well does one meeting link to the next?
What feedback do you get from meeting participants?


Chairing and Facilitating

There are two distinct meeting management styles, chairing and facilitating, both with an appropriate place in general office meetings.

Typically, the chair is not a neutral member of the meeting. Consequently, he or she tends to have a significant influence on the decisions and outcome of each meeting.* A chair is most useful at the start of a meeting - to review the minutes from a previous meeting, share information, and to manage a reporting session from members. In these meetings, the chair is often an active participant, sharing his or her views on the content of the meeting.

The facilitator, on the other hand, is a neutral member of the group and there to empower other members. The facilitator encourages full participation, promotes mutual understanding, fosters inclusive solutions and promotes broader thinking strategies. Group members are encouraged to expand their thinking outside of the obvious solution. The outcome is better decisions that are supported by all group members.**


Putting it together

The meeting leader sets the agenda, allocates discussion times and establishes the meeting process for discussing each topic. She or he will also determine what information needs to be compiled and distributed to members prior to the meeting.

Using two meeting management styles is one way of running effective meetings. Meeting leaders can be chair, facilitator, or both. Meeting leaders that act as facilitator must be neutral on the content. A common role arrangement is to have the meeting leader act as chair to open the meeting with the agenda, take care of the housekeeping and information sharing portions of the session, then either switch roles to facilitation, or hand the meeting over to a facilitator.

Facilitators are responsible for ensuring that all members are contributing to the discussion. He or she will do process checks throughout the meeting to ensure the discussion is on track with the objectives of the meeting. At the end of each meeting, the facilitator reviews the next steps to be taken – discussing what will be done, by whom and when. The final meeting step is the evaluation of the meeting process. Members get the opportunity to provide comments on which processes worked well and which areas require improvement.


Benefits of a well-managed meeting

Well-structured meetings that bring out the collective wisdom of all participants generate high quality solutions quickly that are more likely to be successfully implemented. Group members will have a higher level of buy in and will be more active in the implementation stage. Subsequent meetings to track the initiative allows group members to keep abreast of the implementation process and deal quickly with obstacles.

When working with corporate clients, meeting leaders will often say "this is a very quiet group, it is difficult to get them to participate." I have observed many chaired meetings where the majority of the group is disengaged from the conversation. However, in meetings I have facilitated, I have surprised many a leader with the results. By using facilitation techniques, I am able to create a safe environment and engage people in an in-depth focused dialogue. It is exciting to watch people become fully involved in the dialogue, contributing their thoughts on the issue being explored and expressing their commitment to take action on decisions. The bottom line: facilitation produces excellent results.

The next article in the series will cover Designing an Effective Meeting Agenda.

Wishing you effective meetings,
Jacque Small

Related Articles
  Time Management - to Facilitate Highly Succesful Meetings
  Time Management Training, The Secrets of Using the WASP STING
  Ten Benefits of Facilitation
  The Power of Productive Team Meetings
  Master Your Game: Introduction

Article Tags: leaders, management styles, preplanning, successful meeting



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