As any handyman, mechanic, or home improvement hero would tell you, there are tons of tools to choose from, but only the right one will help you effectively get the job done.
Facilitation is no different. Of course there are several tools to choose from, but each has a time and place and purpose. As the facilitator, you must choose wisely.
So, before you head into your next meeting, be sure you've got these tools in your toolkit to make sure it is a good investment of everyone's time and energy.
Recently our team sat down for a bi-weekly meeting on a new project we’re working on. We were well-prepared with an agenda, list of topics to be covered, and questions to be answered. We followed our meeting structure (plan well, open well, facilitate well, close well) perfectly. We got deep in conversation and we got a lot accomplished... or so it seemed.
It turns out we got so deep in conversation we forgot to take any notes about what exactly we talked about, any of the questions we answered, or actions we still had. I know we made progress in that meeting, but because there were no meeting notes, it’s like that super-productive meeting never even happened.
I have a feeling our team is not alone in this. I have a feeling many of you have experienced this same thing in your meetings before. So, how can we fix it?
Tip: Come to the meeting prepared with a table that is ready to be filled. Leave one column for each “blank” (who, what, and when), and enough rows to capture all the action items. It might look a little something like this.
As tools and applications hit the market that are designed to make remote work easier, I don’t see Zoom or Google Hangouts going to go away, and video conferencing is now, I believe, a permanent part of how we do business.
As we ease back into face-to-face work, there may still be some who dial in on a video conference from a remote space. This hybrid model of in-person and virtual presents some challenges for all participants. We must continue to be respectful of those in the physical room as well as those in the virtual room. Maintaining our sense of humor, effective facilitation skills, and content knowledge will be important to the success of these meetings. And when we’ve got people who are in the room together as well as participants that are virtual in the same discussion, we’ll need to be extra diligent about our ability to juggle and make everyone feel welcome.
Tips for the attendee (for video conferences):
Tips for the meeting facilitator or presenter (for video conferences):
Tips for everyone (when some are in person and some are virtual):
Our relationship with technology says nothing about our intelligence or our competence. It is just a portion of our life experience. Being willing to think through some of these differences can help us understand each other better, and by doing so, we can work better as a team.
Meetings continue to be the topic of much discussion, sarcastic memes, eye-rolling, and general irritation. The good news here, and frankly the positive reality we don’t hear much about, is that there are good meetings. There are examples of productive gatherings of people working towards a common goal who actually produce outcomes from their discussion that are beneficial to the participants and the organization as a whole. They just don’t make fun dinner conversation or social media posts.
Yep, it’s easier to complain about meetings, but the easier path isn’t necessarily the better path. So here at Your Clear Next Step, in our relentless pursuit of even better, we’ll keep talking about and celebrating the good meetings and offering tips to help you make meetings better where you work, one tip at a time.
This set of tips is about starting on time. And honestly, this can apply not just to meetings but to your workday or your workout, or whatever thing you’ve committed to that needs to start on time.
In case you need to be convinced that starting on time really is better for business, here’s an interesting piece that highlights how much time (AND MONEY) we have all lost by not starting on time. And even in our personal lives, whether we’re talking about dinner or fun stuff, or bath time for the toddler, starting late can create a downstream cycle of pain – we rush to get finished, we get careless, we start the next thing late, etc., and the cycle continues.
For more ideas check out our class on Advanced Facilitation.
Regardless of how we personally feel about time or punctuality, when we’re in group meetings, sometimes our time is not our own.
If you find yourself in one of those meetings where you’re waiting for someone else, instead of getting frustrated, try making up a better story. As we sit and play the waiting game, it’s only natural for us to begin to make up a story.
But, If we are going to make up stories, we should make up a good story. By making up a good story, we won’t feel as frustrated, and our relationships and interactions might be a little more positive.
Especially if you are one of those people for whom the “why” matters, in moments of negativity try to find a better “why”. Assuming nothing but positive intent, think of the valid reasons why that person might be late. Fight frustration and win the waiting game, by making up a better story.
If you’re one of those folks who has caused other people to wait, you may have fallen victim to bad time management habits. There are few habits in life that provoke a reaction in others more than that of punctuality.
Call it generational or cultural differences, some people tend more towards punctuality more than others. Some people plan for the future, while others are more focused on the present. And regardless of how we personally feel about time, when we’re in group meetings, sometimes our time is not our own.
Many of us have fallen victim to bad time management habits that may have worked their way into the “norm” of an organization. You may recognize some of them:
Let us be the first to admit that it is so easy to let frustration grow and fester in these moments of waiting (whether you’re waiting to begin or waiting to leave!). But, what effect does that have on our relationships and interactions? It’s probably not a positive one. So here is our tip: Make up a better story.
Want more tips on tardiness and punctuality? Check out more ideas here!
It turns out, just as starting a meeting on time requires active and intentional effort, so does ending a meeting on time. And it’s not just the facilitator who should be contributing that active and intentional effort. We each have the ability to contribute to ending the meeting on time.
Friends, if we’re not part of the solution, aren’t we part of the problem? It doesn’t matter if we’re the meeting facilitator or owner or an active participant. If we’re in the room, we are co-creating the environment. Shouldn’t we help end on time?
So here goes, a handful of tips to help end your very next meeting on time. Or the one after that, or the one after that.
Have you ever sat through a meeting that was just EEEWW? A meeting that should have been an email, that was unorganized, or really just a waste of time? When you understand the three biggest reasons meetings fail, and remember these simple tips, you can ensure that the next meeting you facilitate has people saying OOOHH instead of EEEWW!
Facilitator Tip: When facilitating a meeting, set yourself up for success by taking the time to create and distribute the agenda, and clarify objectives and expectations before the meeting starts.
Facilitator Tip: Have short breaks to split up the time so folks can stay focused when it counts.
Facilitator Tip: Know and prepare for how you’ll handle your meeting participants and distractions.
Facilitator Tip: Clarify what success looks like at the very start. “By the time we’re done here, we’ll have…” or “Our goal for the next hour is to…”
Facilitator Tip: Think about the barriers to your success for this meeting with this particular group of participants. How will you handle them if they arise in the moment?
Sometimes the facilitator may need to present content at the meeting. Your body language can have a major impact on how you’re delivering your message. Harnessing our body language can make our speaking and presenting to others that much more effective. When presenting at a meeting, here are two tips on body language that may be helpful.
These tips are based on the article “6 Ways to Look More Confident During a Presentation” By Kasia Wezowski, originally published in Harvard Business Review. You can read the full article here.
Have you ever been a part of a meeting that just plain lost some (or most!) of the participants? Imagine you’re in the middle of a meeting and people around you are starting to indicate with their non-verbals that they’re done here. They’ve taken out their electronics and have started emailing, texting, or surfing the web. They’re starting to put away their papers. They’re shuffling in their seats. They keep glancing at the clock, and they aren’t paying attention to the conversation at hand anymore.
If you are the facilitator:
If you are the participant:
Regardless of where you sit in the room:
Your meetings likely consist of individuals with many different attitudes and perspectives. There are certain types of people you have probably encountered in your meetings. Maybe you sat next to a Silent Sal in your Tuesday afternoon project meeting. Maybe Indecisive Irving sat across from you at the last team meeting. With so many meetings, and so many different behaviors that can distract us, we have to know what to do when they show up when we’re trying to collaborate. We have a few tips that we hope will help you prepare for and facilitate your next meeting if you happen to meet the following characters:
Silent Sal
Snarky Sammy
Indecisive Irving
Communication continues to be something many of us talk about. A lot. In addition to talking about sending communication, we also need to spend some time talking about receiving communication.
Listening is a huge part of effective communication, and it’s a part that comes up a lot in meetings. Here are some tips for good listening:
1. Close Your Mouth. It seems pretty intuitive, but we are so prone to talking that sometimes we just forget to close our mouth and listen. It’s hard to listen when we’re talking. There’s an old adage “God gave us two ears and one mouth. We should use them in that ratio.” But so many of us are too quick to speak. If you are good at keeping your mouth shut while you listen, awesome! If this is something you still need to work on, try using a physical prompt, like holding on to a pen or a business card, as a reminder to keep your lips pressed together in silence until the other person has had a chance to finish.
2. Prepare. Sometimes we need to mentally prepare ourselves to listen. Other times, we need to physically prepare by removing the distractions from the space or the distractions from ourselves. Regardless of the type of preparation you need, it is important to actively and intentionally prepare for the exercise of listening. Do what you need to do to prepare yourself to focus, stay quiet, and listen for understanding. Try some of these ideas to prepare:
3. Ask Questions. While it might seem counter-intuitive, asking questions is a key part of listening. Sometimes we ask questions for our own benefit, ensuring that we’ve understood what has just been said. Sometimes we ask questions for the benefit of the person we’ve been listening to. You may have had to prepare questions in advance as part of your preparation. As you’re listening, consider your questions and see if they’ve been answered. If not, ask. If you don’t think you’ve understood, ask a question to get to the bottom of it. If you think you’ve understood, but you’re communicating with someone who values your engagement in the discussion, then ask questions.
4. Mirror. Mirroring is a technique where your facial expressions, non-verbal’s, and your physical actions mirror those of the person who’s talking. If they put down their pen, I put down my pen. If they lean in, I lean in. If they smile, I smile. Mirroring is a really great technique to demonstrate listening, because it shows you are fully invested in the communication. You are listening, not just with your ears, but also your eyes as you react to what their non-verbals are, and with your whole body as you mirror their actions. Mirroring has been proven to help build trust, so it’s a good way to say to someone “I’m listening to you.” It can come across as unnatural or forced if not done well, so this is a good one to practice!
5. Take Notes. This one won’t apply to everybody in every situation, but sometimes the person we are communicating with really values it when we write down their words and take notes on what they are saying. When taking notes, be sure to take notes on what they are saying, in addition to the questions that you want to ask later. For many of us taking notes is a technique that helps us stay focused on the conversation at hand, but it can also be a good relationship-building technique as we write down the words of someone who values that action.
6. Focus. This is another one that may involve some preparation in advance, and it certainly requires some discipline, but it is so vital to the listening process. So many of us these days spend so much of our time multi-tasking. We are “listening” to an important phone conversation while we are driving. Or we are “listening” to a conference call while we are also responding to our latest emails. Or we are “listening” to a conversation going on around us while we are checking our phones or surfing the web. We are so divided and so unfocused in today’s world that its almost frustrating to engage in conversation with anyone. As a gift to the person you are listening to, be intentional about focusing on them. Put down your phone. Put down the other distractions. Prepare the space to be distraction-free and commit yourself to that person and that conversation.
7. Repeat Back. This technique doesn’t work for everybody or every situation, but many communicators feel affirmed as a listener when they hear their words repeated back to them. Once you understand what kind of communicator you are listening to or what type of communication you are involved in, make an attempt to repeat back what you heard. Try saying something like “So what I’m hearing is…” or “What I heard is…” or “Did I understand correctly when I understood you to say…?” Similar to taking notes, repeating back what you heard in the communication lets the sender know you were listening, so they know their breath wasn’t wasted.
8. Smile. When others are talking, and we are smiling at them, we are using our physical body and our facial expressions to connect with them as another human. If the story they are telling is a sad one, then a cheesy grin is certainly not appropriate. (In fact, a cheesy grin is rarely appropriate.) But if they are sharing their perspective on something and it’s uplifting, or if they are sharing something they are a little nervous about and you want to encourage them to keep talking, or if they are telling you something they are proud of or something that is meaningful to them, then smile. When you smile at them, you will find that they will be freer to communicate well. They will feel confident that their message is being heard and that they are making a human connection. There are so many benefits to smiling that if you are skeptical, we invite you to check this out.
Many messages focus on better preparing and sending our messages more effectively so we can be sure we are heard by the receiver. Communication can be thought of as a loop, and it is important to close the loop.
To check out more information in topics like Professionalism, Courtesy, Feedback, and Teamwork, check out our Communication page here! Or check out more blogs on these topics here.
Many of us understand and value appreciation in the workplace. Expressing genuine appreciation to someone else, letting them know that they are valued and that you appreciate them, is most effective when it happens in a way that they understand.
Just as we use DiSC, or Myers Briggs or any of the other personality profiling tools to recognize people's work styles, we use a different lens to figure out their language or preferred style of appreciation. This is adopted from Gary Chapman, 5 love languages.
Here's how you can use all 5 languages of appreciation at once:
The 5 languages of appreciation can also be used when showing appreciation virtually.
