10 Tips for Partnering with a Facilitator
The role of a facilitator can be ambiguous.
Often the people we work with don’t have a clear sense of what we provide when it comes to facilitation and every facilitator is a little different.
Our goal as MeetingMakers is to take the stress of identifying the process to achieve your outcomes off your plate.
Partnering with us as your facilitation experts allows us to be your guide through the process of making your meeting work. To help us partner successfully, here are a few things to keep in mind so you can get the most from working with a professional facilitator.
Bring us in as early as possible. If you already have a strawman agenda, that’s okay, but know that we see it as part of our job to guide you in the agenda design process. Avoid too much agenda planning before we kick off our work together.
Hire the right facilitator. Some facilitators focus on a dynamic “in the moment” group process, facilitating topics as they arise without a clear agenda. Other facilitators focus on process and try to maximize group output, often at the sacrifice of the participants’ sanity. Ideally, you get both: a facilitator who will plan a process aligned to outcomes and who also understands human psychology and can manage a group as new needs arise. As you interview facilitators, ask them about their approach to process design and managing group dynamics to ensure you hire the right person for the job.
Get clear on outcomes, and ask if you’re not sure. Many leaders assume they know exactly how participants feel and what they want to work on or hear. Sometimes they're right on and other times, way off. If you’re not sure what needs to happen during the meeting, we will help you ask the group what’s most important to them. This will also ensure increased acceptance of the agenda we plan and less risk of having to pivot during the meeting.
Communicate early and often with participants. A beautiful agenda design can be completely derailed if participants show up and don’t know what to expect. Without clear communication in advance, you risk needing to spend more time upfront clarifying the outcomes, agenda and expectations. We’ll help you draft participant communications so you don’t miss anything, but it’s critical that you distribute at least one if not multiple messages to participants in advance of the meeting.
Avoid last-minute changes. We like to work with you at least three weeks before the event, and we will suggest a deadline for finalizing the agenda so we have time to do final preparations and design any needed materials. Changing meeting logistics and the agenda within a few days of the event is often fueled by jitters and can create an unnecessary burden to recreate materials that have already been designed or sent to print.
Don’t get married to the agenda. Sometimes we plan an agenda and end up needing to pivot or adjust during the meeting. We expect the timing of an agenda to shift at least 15-30 minutes in either direction. If we need to change the agenda completely in the moment, don’t worry. Our facilitators always have “tricks up our sleeves” to manage these pivots. It’s important that you remain calm in the face of change and work with us to move forward.
Prepare opening and closing remarks. Leaders set the tone of a meeting and put participants at ease that their time and contributions matter. When kicking off a meeting, ready talking points that highlight your desired outcomes, your expectations of participants’ behavior and what will happen after the meeting to carry the work forward. When closing a meeting, end on an appreciative note. Thank your meeting organizers and the participants for their contributions, and reiterate what will happen beyond the meeting and your commitment to ensuring the work moves forward.
Prepare for what’s next. While we’d love to guarantee that what we accomplish in our time together sticks, we don’t actually work in your organization, and we can’t predict the future. The best way to ensure that the work will continue is to delegate responsible parties to collect and transcribe meeting materials, distribute a thank you and meeting notes to participants, create a project plan for how tasks will be delegated and schedule follow-up meetings as needed. This may be an individual or a team, but knowing this in advance will ensure that the person or people are ready for the handoff.
Stay calm in the face of conflict. You might be feeling anxious about some difficult personalities in the room. If we’re concerned about negative group behavior, we’ll include meeting rules or agreements that we think will help. For example, for dominating personalities or grandstanding, we like the agreement, “bottom lining,” to encourage participants to keep comments brief so others have a chance to chime in.
Know the hybrid fallacy. Many assume that offering the opportunity to attend a meeting either in person or online is more inclusive, but it’s actually exactly the opposite. When participants need to use different materials or have unequal access to the materials and activities, they often feel excluded. Hybrid meetings require special consideration for meeting materials, staffing and technology. We can accommodate hybrid meeting requests and will make appropriate recommendations to ensure all participants can participate as effectively as possible.
Want to find out if we’re the right facilitator for your project? Reach out on our contact page to start the conversation and learn more about our offerings on our services page.
