5 Tips to Facilitate a Great Meeting

Meetings. Does anyone like meetings? I’m sure someone does, but we have to have them, right? The answer is yes. As part of the leadership for a company, I know that meetings are necessary for a business to run well. They should not be the primary or only source of communication, but if used well and DONE WELL they can be a valuable part of your company’s communication strategy.

Try these tips for putting together and running a fun AND meaningful meeting.

Open with a RELEVANT Exercise

We’ve all been there. You are asked to do some exercise that has nothing to do with the meeting topic or your company’s goals. In the name of “Leadership Building Skills” the facilitator decided to play “follow the leader” when your meeting topic was on the “The Cost of Communication Breakdown” The point is, the meeting isn’t on Leadership. So why have a leadership exercise if the meeting is on communication.

There are times when these activities are appropriate. When they are relevant is the ONLY time though. For example: If your meeting is about asking better questions, have the group play a game of 20 questions. If your meeting is about having or changing your perspective or point of view, then you can play a game where everyone stands on a desk and says “oh captain, my captain” (love Dead Poets Society by the way).

The point is make it count. Put some thought into what your meeting is really about and only add an ice breaking game that is relevant to the meeting topic. Then do it first to get people’s juices flowing and set the tone that this meeting is going to be fun.

So here’s where you ask, “So what exercise would you do to illustrate communication breakdown?”
Have everyone line up according to birthdate without talking. After the struggle, give them the ability to use their hands to communicate. Then relate it to how easy it is when we communicate and how difficult it is when we can’t. If you can, relate it to recent incidents within the company and give it a number to go with the exercise.

Avoid Death By Power Point

Power Point presentations are great… when used the right way. If you want to see the right way, check out Seth Godin’s TED Talks.

Think pictures. Lots of pictures and no words on the screen. That’s right VERY LITTLE words at all. People tend to remember the pictures on the screen and they associate them with your words. That helps them recall the information later. The alternative is to have them written out for them in your power point. Do you remember any of the stuff from the last meeting you attended where you were given a power point hand out? If you do this, your power point usually ends up in a drawer until spring cleaning and then ends up in file 13.

Use great pictures and be descriptive in the way you talk. Use the presenter notes on power point or better yet, Keynote if you MUST read the information. Try not to show spreadsheets. Instead, print and pass spreadsheets out. Then put an illustration on the power point that SHOWS what your spreadsheet is trying to tell the reader.

Ask Questions

The wise man doesn’t give the right answers, he poses the right questions.
~Claud Levi-Strauss

In the first grade I had a school librarian that would read a book like this.
“The brown bear had a what?” Where she would replace the real word with a “what?”

That does work, but you don’t want your audience to feel like you are treating them like a 1st grader either.

Nope. What I’m talking about is asking open ended question and closed ended questions in the right places to “guide” your presentations.

“Brenda, tell me what kind the control we have over our Customer Service Scores.”
“Mark, if you had to name something… what do you think could change the numbers you see?”

Questions are powerful. If you don’t use them your audience will be napping. If you do use them well your meeting becomes interactive and informative.

Recap Something to Take Away

Recaps are a great way to help people remember that the meeting was “worth their time”, but don’t make people feel silly.
One of the best Recaps I’ve been involved in was also very simple. Go around the room and have people fess up. “Tell me one thing you took away from today’s meeting that you will use for [topic]”

Here’s the kicker… Make it ok to say “nothing”. That’s right. Encourage people to tell you the truth. Even if it hurts. Especially if it hurts. If people didn’t get anything out of your meeting, you as the facilitator better know. This puts the pressure on the meeting organizer to build a meeting full of take-aways.

Send a Thank You eMail with a SurveyMonkey Link

Thanking people is free and is always welcome. We have forgotten as a “fast-paced and busy” race of humans that it is essential to business to build goodwill. More importantly to a meeting facilitator it reinforces the key message from your meeting. Be sincere and specific.

I appreciate your opinion on our broken title filing process. Your input is going to help us fix the issue for the future.

Use a Survey Monkey survey to find out how people really felt about the meeting. Encourage honest and candid feedback and offer a prize for the first to complete it. You can do this while reminding people that it is still anonymous.

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