10 tips for facilitating a great meeting

By Geniene Scherer, CPA

Whether it’s one-on-one or in a project team, within a segment, or under an initiative, we work together to get things done. And we need good and productive meetings to do this.

If you’re tasked with facilitating a meeting, there are several things you can do to make it a true success for all. These might include taking time to prepare, inviting the right people, sticking to the advertised length, to name a few. The most important thing you can do as the meeting leader, however, is to pay attention to how you show up.

Here are 10 secrets of facilitating a great meeting.

1. Hone your communication skills.

An excellent facilitator is one who knows not only how to speak comfortably in front of an audience but also can set the stage for a great meeting.

Solid communication skills are also critical for being able to paraphrase individual ideas that come up during the meeting. This can help the group gain clarity around and/or validate the speaker’s intention.

What’s more, being able to summarize and communicate key themes, trends, or decisions the group has proposed can help to effectively create closure within your meeting.

2. Be open to change.

Different groups have different facilitation needs. A great facilitator can recognize and cater to these by tailoring the meeting process and others’ ideas when they are relevant and add value to the meeting.

For example, don’t be afraid to step out of the meeting structure to engage in a playful team-building exercise or activity that sparks energy within the group. When participants feel empowered to make suggestions about the meeting’s structure, they are more likely to buy in to the meeting.

3. Be observant.

To get a sense of what’s truly happening in your participants’ minds and how they feel about a topic, it’s important to pay attention.

Look for small gestures, glances, and facial expressions that can point to an individual’s honest reaction and/or opinion. And don’t forget to use your intuition! This can help you bring any concerns, differing opinions, and mixed messages to the surface.

4. Keep it positive.

Regardless of where you are in the meeting, staying optimistic and positive can help you achieve a smoothly running meeting. It can also help you keep your participants engaged.

One way we keep the positive vibes flowing is to use something we call “appreciative inquiry.” This involves encouraging participants to look at issues from a strengths, or “what’s working,” perspective instead of looking for what isn’t working.

5. Be yourself.

Being your authentic self makes it easier for you to connect with participants. In turn, this will help you guide and understand them better, resulting in a group comprised of members who can bond with and trust one another.

Remember: Just like you rely on your keen observational skills to catch mixed messages, your participants will be watching you to pick up on disingenuous comments or statements, which can quickly deflate the meeting.

6. Stay neutral.

Throughout the meeting, it’s critical to stay neutral and treat all participants as equals, regardless of power, personality types, personal opinions, or biases.

This is a crucial element of facilitation that you must learn through practice. If you need to play more than one role in a meeting (e.g., facilitation and subject matter expert), be completely transparent as to which role you’re playing as you shift between them.

7. Bring the (right) energy.

Your job as facilitator is to know when to ramp up the energy in the room and when to bring back the focus of the group.

Sometimes energy is needed to heighten excitement for an upcoming project or to get a brainstorming session off and running. Other times, such as when participants experience a disagreement, it’s important for you to stay calm. The latter requires tremendous energy and skill; however, it can help to diffuse tensions and keep the dialogue constructive and on-topic.

8. Promote constructive feedback.

In order to keep participants from caving into one person’s idea(s), consider challenging the group by posing questions. Your goal should be to help participants think more broadly, deeper, or wider.

If necessary, encourage your group to stop and reflect on their performance or ideas for purposes of improvement. Offer feedback when necessary, and remember this: Feedback is more likely to be well received when it is constructive and based on real, observable events to which others can relate.

You also can demonstrate your willingness to receive feedback by actively listening and changing your meeting process where it makes sense.

9. Ask instead of tell.

Great facilitators use the art of questioning, or asking rather than telling, as a way to encourage participants to come up with their own ideas.

If your group is struggling to come up with ideas, consider providing suggestions as a way to help spark new ones. Giving participants the opportunity to come up with ideas themselves ultimately increases their buy-in and follow-through.

10. Practice patience.

Last but not least, do your best to stay patient during the facilitation process, as this is crucial for a successful meeting.

Be careful to not show your frustration or anger at participants for any reason. Instead, evaluate if the problem is due to a content or process issue. Once noted, you may be able to resolve it simply by asking different questions of the group to help participants see the issue more clearly.

Be open to the more difficult solution of changing your meeting process plan, if needed, to suit the group’s changing needs.

How will you show up to your next meeting?

All in all, a great facilitator values and respects the power of the group. They believe better decisions, better ideas, and better outcomes can be achieved when the intelligence in the room has been leveraged and everyone’s voice has been heard.

Putting these secrets into practice can help you achieve a top-notch outcome at your next meeting—in terms of the results of the meeting as well as the perspectives of its participants.

At Abdo, we have fully embraced the art of the meeting and bring this approach to every meeting we facilitate. If you’d like to explore how you could improve your meeting processes, we can help you design an approach that fits your organization’s needs. Contact us today to learn more.