If you often find that your meetings or conferences don’t end up achieving their purpose, intended goals or expectations you may be interested in how a facilitator could help.
In most meetings, at least one person thinks out loud. And invariably, there are much quieter, more reflective people who have great insights but don’t speak up. This imbalance is the reason so many meetings fail to achieve their potential.
Keep on reading to find out what a facilitator is and how they foster the connection and communication within a group to improve the outcomes of meetings and conferences:
Innovative organisations use independent facilitators to optimise their company gatherings
The facilitator’s role is to draw out everyone’s views and create a balanced discussion summary. Sometimes, the facilitator may ask provocative questions to bring out the truth and cut through ‘group think’. They will keep the agenda moving and ensure that objectives are achieved.
A good facilitator is an expert at reading the room; when energy begins to dip, they might insert a break or a change of direction, even a light-hearted activity to wake tired minds and stimulate creativity. There will be times when an unproductive discussion needs to be brought to a halt, even when it’s the boss’s favourite subject. It is a task few employees would relish but something a neutral facilitator will do tactfully and without hesitation.
So, facilitators can enhance large or small meetings. However, time and cost limitations tend to see them employed for larger gatherings such as conferences. On these occasions, the facilitator’s role extends to event management. They will help design the programme, give input into seating plans, and suggest additional activities to ease delegates into the event, encourage networking, and garner perspectives from the whole room. Too many conferences are a series of ‘Death by PowerPoint’ presentations with little if any discussion off stage. It’s a shocking waste to hear only six or so voices from the stage in a room full of talented individuals.
A much better approach is to reduce the number of presentations and to involve everyone in discussing opportunities, generating ideas and buying into strategy. A conference facilitator will achieve this and may interview guests, coach speakers and moderate question time sessions; delivering a conference more akin to a well-compared TV show than a dreary school lesson.
One of the lesser-known requirements of a conference facilitator is to ensure that the organisation’s culture permeates the conference. A science summit for academic researchers will probably require a different approach to an all-hands meeting for a media company. Both should be energising and fun. What’s appropriate for one audience could fall flat with another. Large gatherings are, first and foremost, a chance to get everyone on the same page, not just in terms of results and strategy. They create an opportunity to reinforce the company’s personality and bolster the culture.
If you have an event coming up that might benefit from facilitation, we’d be delighted to spend 30 minutes sharing some approaches you might want to adopt. You can reach us here at mail@freshtracks.co.uk