Meetings That Work ~ session #4


7 Ideas Coach is an ongoing series of coaching sessions,
7 nuggets of insight in 7 minutes for busy leaders

Leaders under-utilize facilitation techniques. Too often leaders have a one-size-fits-all approach to get input and discussion at meetings... the leader opens the floor for anyone who wants to speak. This approach is problematic when:

• either the leader and one or two people do all the talking, others rarely speak up;
• everyone participates in a freewheeling discussion and everything gets fully discussed, so the group runs out of time before getting to really important matters.

A few simple facilitation techniques, applied in the right circumstance can make these kind of meetings much more productive. These techniques are useful to bring balance to participation, to get meaningful input without taking a lot of time for discussion, and to separate what topics need deeper discussion from those that don’t.

Leaders are often reluctant to try these techniques, but doing so can give a huge boost to meeting productivity, not to mention reduce frustration of meeting participants. This week’s coachcast discusses seven facilitation techniques you can try at home... or at least at work:

1. Roundtable - the most basic technique get everyone to participate, go around the table and each person takes a turn speaking.
2. Check-In – a quick “how-are-we-doing” roundtable. When everyone uses their voice at the beginning of a meeting, they are more likely to continue participating. This technique is also useful in the middle and at the end of meetings.
3. Written List Roundtable - before the group starts, have everyone list their key ideas, points, etc. Then go around and let people say one idea at a time until all lists are exhausted. This techniques can help prevent one person from talking too much, and helps cut down or idea repetitions.
4. Top-Three Roundtable - great when there are diverse stakeholders and complex issues, in this roundtable each person is invited to present a limited number of key points in a limited time. (e.g., each person has three minutes to talk about their top three priorities.) Combined with flipcharts or index cards, this method can get everyone’s top ideas on the table for further grouping, sorting, or prioritizing as well as discussion.
5. Metric Roundtable - a roundtable where everyone is asked to rate an idea or proposal, typically on a 1-100, 1-10, or 1-5 scale.
6. Instant Metric - similar to the previous technique, but rather than a roundtable, everyone reveals their rating to the group at the same time. Ratings can be written on a sheet of paper, or a hand can show a 1-5 rating.
7. Three Buckets Instant Metric - a version of the instant metric, the group is asked whether they fully agree, disagree, or have questions by showing one, two, or three fingers (e.g. one=agree/positive, two=questions/mixed, and three=disagree/negative). This method lets the leader and group immediately know the level of agreement in the room. If everyone agrees (whether for or against), discussion won’t add much value. Limited discussion time can then be used for items where there are diverse opinions.

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