Foremost, meeting managers need flexible leadership skills. This is common sense considering the many different kinds of behaviors we see in our meeting participants. Knowing which type of leadership to use in different circumstances can improve how you bring value to your team. Here is a list of leadership roles...

I’ll tell you, honestly, I am nervous before every facilitation.  The usual advice for controlling facilitator jitters is to prepare well.  Well, that’s true but I’ve seen plenty of facilitators fall in love with their meeting strategy and become controlling to get the audience to, “Stick to my plan!”  So,...

In meetings, sometimes it feels like conflict is always with us.  In particular, three types of conflict are common.  Here is how to recognize these and ideas on facilitator tactics to deal them.  Task Conflict Task conflict often involves concrete issues related to work assignments or promises about who will...

Let’s talk about decision making. The instinct in most organizations is to use consensus or majority rule.  Both have their strengths and weaknesses, but there is a third way—Consent Decision Making.  It is an energizing way to get new thinking out of employees that also creates positive teamwork for evaluating,...

What happens to your thinking when I say, “Let me tell you about the time…”?   If you are like most of us your attention sparked and you thought, “I wonder what’s coming next?”  Stories pique interest and curiosity.  And both of these qualities are useful for you as a meeting...

A first thing to facilitate with a new team is, why they exist.  It’s not hard to do, but often it is overlooked in a rush to get to the fun stuff of creating work products in a team’s collaboration.  But better work products come from a better understanding of...

Facilitating meetings is not rocket science but rocket science can’t happen without good facilitation!  Consider the huge team effort it takes to create a rocket launch.  That kind of collective effort cannot succeed without a substantial amount of facilitation occurring in support of the thousands of decisions required for liftoff....

What is Your Intention When You Facilitate Meetings? I intend to make a personal connection with each person attending this meeting, I intend that every person takes away at least one practical solution they can use, I intend to focus on my participants, not on my performance, I intend to...