Whether it is for a meeting between partners, in a team or in a management committee, the challenges of animation and organization remain more or less the same…
How much time do you spend in meetings? Is that time well spent? Is it cost-effective? Sometimes it’s a matter of calculating the number of salaries around the table and seeing that many people are doing “something else” than participating in the meeting only to realize that there may be a problem…
When it comes to facilitating a meeting, there are a few best practices, which, when applied, make the work of the facilitator (or organizer or facilitator) much easier and make the meeting really more efficient.
This article outlines three meeting facilitation challenges and three solutions.
Note to reader: In leadership, as in meeting facilitation… We don’t strive for perfection! What we are looking for is good faith, the desire to improve and dare!
Three Meeting Facilitation Challenges (and the Solutions!)
1.A participant does not participate.
A participant does not participate, or worse… he deflects the subject.
Questions to ask yourself:
- Does this person really have to be in the meeting, or did we invite them out of “politeness” or “politics”?
- Is the objective of the meeting clear?
- Would the person in question have liked to prepare in advance and did not have the opportunity?
- Is this person known for not participating? Or is it circumstantial?
- Are there several participants who do not participate and a small number or even one person take up all the space?
What to do:
- Define a goal for the meeting, invite people to achieve the goal, send the goal and preparation (if applicable) a few days in advance. The person will be able to prepare if necessary.
- If the participation rate is low, and the meeting is used to find solutions to a problem, for example, make small groups, of 2 or 3 people. Some people find it easier to make a decision in front of 2 people than 10 people.
- If one person takes up more space in the group, you will have to intervene. For example, by saying, “Thank you for participating, I would also like to hear from others. I will take further comments and we will come back to them if necessary. »
- If someone in the group completely deviates from the subject and takes up a lot of space, it will also be necessary to intervene. At this point, your greatest ally is the goal of the meeting. You could say something like, “I’m not sure I understand how your intervention relates to the purpose of the meeting. Can you help me and make the link please? Give the benefit of the doubt, because not all interventions are structured and some people give a lot of context and may give the impression of being off-topic or a little lost in their explanations, asking them to synthesize and focus will be useful for these people and for the group.
Avoid:
Avoid calling out to a shy or uncomfortable person in front of everyone (empathy when you have us!) Maybe meet with her afterwards to discuss it and see how the situation can be improved for next time. Also, it happens that some people are simply not “accustomed” to giving their opinion, with them starting one by one, and then they will open up more easily.
I also regularly see leaders asking for advice, but never listening. This can have the effect of demotivating the group and during the meeting, energy and concentration may decrease.
2.Energy and concentration decrease.
Energy or concentration decreases… Some people on their phones, others have a conversation with each other.
Questions to ask yourself:
- Did you respect the required break time? Is it time to take a break?
- Is the group’s discussion framed according to the objective of the meeting?
- Is the main group discussion relevant to the whole group? Or has it become a specific discussion?
Does:
– Don’t neglect break time, it often feels like breaks are a “waste” of time. And we have so many things to do that we try to do more with less, all the time. Neglecting breaks has the effect of being less effective, period. The first break should arrive no later than 90 minutes after the start of the match, then at about hours.
– Reframe the meeting, by going back to the objective or saying something like: “it seems that we are deviating from the topic (or that we are in a very specific discussion on the subject, I propose that this end outside of this meeting. What do you say? »
Because the meeting leader himself can start to lack concentration when he sees time passing…
3.Time flies.
If you see that time is moving forward so that you have a doubt about achieving the objective of the meeting… or that you start to stress…
Questions to ask yourself
- Was the time properly assessed?
- Did I react in time when I saw that the match was starting to get out of hand?
- Is the group generally used to mismanaging their time?
Does:
- Ask for help with time management: Ask for a volunteer in the group. From experience, you will always have someone and from experience, it may be that this person does not dare to intervene in the event that it goes wrong… So if you see that time is running out:
- Tell the group, “I see that time is running out,” ask the person who helps you with the time, and say, for example, “It’s x hours, and we’re x% away from reaching the goal, do you want to continue this discussion and revise the goal or go back to the agenda?”
- Send a diary in advance with the time allotted for each item and read it at the beginning of the meeting.
Conclusion
No matter how experienced you are in meeting facilitation, it can happen that a meeting gets out of hand.
What will help you the most will be the setting of the meeting and the objective. This framework allows us to put the focus of the match back in a neutral way.
If a meeting goes badly and your attempts are in vain, do a retrospective, alone, and with the people concerned. Give yourself the right to make mistakes, be in good faith, learn and dare!
What are the challenges you have in meeting facilitation?