The lost art of meeting facilitation
You look at the clock and realize it’s time for that meeting on your calendar. The one with the vague title, no agenda, and 14 invitees. You wonder what the meeting is about and whether it’s really necessary for you to be there, but you want to know what’s going on, so you join the Zoom. Several people are already on the call, but the rest don’t finish joining until about seven minutes after the meeting was supposed to start. Everyone mills about, trying to fill the silence with anything at all. A rushed coworker breaks the awkward small talk with “Yeah, um, hi everyone. Thanks for joining. This meeting is about that one project, we just wanted to discuss the status. So uh, does anyone have any updates?”
If this paragraph feels familiar, you’re not alone. I have personally had many experiences like this, and so have almost all of my clients. Out of all the topics that plague people’s minds when they’re trying to figure out how to become more effective at work, the topic of meetings comes up the most often. People feel like they have too many meetings, that some meetings are too long, that some meetings aren’t long enough, that they’re not getting invited to the right meetings, that the meetings are pointless and a waste of time, that meetings stress them out, and that meetings bore them. People have simultaneous side conversations in Slack (where the “real meeting” is happening), play video games during meetings, and use that time to catch up on their email.
This isn’t novel information. There has been quite a bit of writing on the topic of meetings since the pandemic, not only because the pandemic workday is longer and has more meetings, but because video conferencing is an extremely draining form of synchronous communication. There are countless articles, videos, podcast episodes, and books about how to have better meetings, how to ruthlessly prioritize and decline meetings, and why teams or companies should institute blanket policies like “no meeting Wednesdays.”
One thing I don’t see as often is an emphasis on good meeting facilitation. A lot of the common wisdom around meetings assumes that a) everyone is in too many meetings, b) those meetings are mostly unnecessary, and c) agendas rule the day. While I agree that many people are indeed in too many meetings, and yes, there are lots of unnecessary meetings, and sure, agendas can help people know what to expect, I also think that how meetings are actually run makes such a huge difference in people’s experience at work.
It surprises me that more people don’t talk about this and that it’s not a skill that we generally name or value in American work culture. I have witnessed and participated in countless leadership development and professional skills programs in corporate America, and very few of them have any content on how to run a meeting well. If there is any focus on it, it’s typically very basic: Make sure you have a clear title and agenda, make sure the right people are there, and make sure you start and end on time.
Those things are important! But none of them will help foster good discussion, have equitable brainstorms, create connection among a group of people, ensure people are on the same page throughout a conversation, or use the time efficiently — all things good meeting facilitation can do. A skilled meeting facilitator can take any concept or topic and host an engaging, productive discussion that feels like it actually goes somewhere, regardless of whether 100% of the right people are in the meeting or whether there’s even an agenda (gasp)!
So how does one go about facilitating a meeting well? I’m glad you asked. Here are some tips I’ve learned over the years of helping people, teams, and companies work more effectively and sustainably.
Actually have a facilitator
This is an important first step. If you’re organizing a meeting, someone should hold the role of hosting it. This doesn’t have to be the team’s manager (in many cases, it’s better if it isn’t!), it doesn’t have to be the same person who sent the meeting invitation, and if it’s a recurring meeting, it doesn’t have to be the same person every time. It just has to be someone who is committed to making the meeting run well. No matter who it is, make sure there’s someone who knows going into the meeting that it’s their job to facilitate it.
Focus on objectives, not agendas
Agendas are carefully-planned lists of sequential topics and activities that people use to exert some control over how the meeting should go. The thing is, once you get a bunch of people together, you really have no control over how it’s going to go.
Let’s say you take the time to meticulously craft a minute-by-minute table of items for discussion and send it out in advance. You get to the meeting and start at the beginning of your agenda — a five-minute update from the leader of the team. One of the agenda items sparks a charged discussion, and now you’re 15 minutes in and you haven’t even gotten through your first agenda item. You try desperately to get things back on track, so you ask people to “put a pin in that” or “take it offline” and try to push forward so you can reclaim some of the time on your agenda. There’s a palpable weird energy left over as you rush through the rest of the meeting, and things feel unresolved at the end.
Agendas can be helpful in longer meetings (say, 90 minutes or longer) or workshops where you’re running people through a set of pre-planned activities deliberately designed to help them learn or plan something. But if you’re hosting a shorter meeting, like a decision-making or project meeting, you may not need an agenda. You will, however, want to define an objective or objectives so people know what they’re aiming to accomplish. The objective should sound something like “by the end of this meeting, we want to decide ____.”
This way, if things feel like they’re getting off-track, or a discussion that has a lot of energy behind it, there’s always an objective to come back to. You can pause a conversation and ask the group whether that discussion is leading them toward their objective, and if it’s not, you can agree on what to do next together.
Put your objectives in your invitation. If you’re facilitating, you can still create an agenda if you think it will be helpful, but maybe you can be the only one who sees it. It’s generally more important for participants to know why they’re meeting in the first place — what they should expect to happen as a result of this meeting — as opposed to every single thing they’re going to talk about or do in that meeting.
Inquire, summarize, and check throughout
When you’re hosting a discussion, you’re providing scaffolding for that discussion. You’re not just introducing an agenda item and then sitting back as that conversation unfolds. You’re not only an active participant in that discussion, you’re also providing structure for people to think into as they’re talking to one another. Great facilitation is way more active than people think, and at first, it feels like a lot. However, if you’ve ever been a part of a super-productive or engaging group discussion, chances are you had someone in that group who was (consciously or unconsciously) creating structure as you went.
As a facilitator, your job is to ask people questions to help them clarify what they are thinking and saying, not only so you understand but also so the entire group understands. You should also be summarizing what others are saying — not in a patronizing way, but as a way to ensure people are aligned — and then checking to make sure you got it right. In practice, this means you’re saying things like:
“Joaquin, it sounds like you’re not going to sign off on this new logo unless we change the colors. Is that right? What would your proposed changes be?”
“I think we all agree on x but there are still a variety of opinions on y. If we all agree on x, can we move on to talking about y so we save time?”
“There’s a lot of energy around this topic and we’re running short on time today, but we were supposed to discuss something else as well. What do you all think — should we focus on this topic and talk about the other one next time, or should we switch to the next topic?”
Drew, do you have any ideas on this? We haven’t heard from you yet and I know this topic directly impacts your work.
Create structure but be flexible within that structure
Great facilitators, whether they’re hosting workshops or running their weekly team meetings, know how to roll with the punches. They know that a plan is just a thought, and that unexpected and undesired things happen all the time. They also know how to deal with those unexpected moments so things keep moving. They are really good at creating structure while being totally prepared to throw it all away at a moment’s notice.
If you’re facilitating and are finding yourself holding on to your plan for dear life, you’re going to have a hard time. So hone your perception and inquiry skills and allow things to unfold. Sometimes you will have to bring the group back to the original topic or activity, but sometimes you will have to let go and see what happens.
Close the meeting
When meetings aren’t hosted intentionally, they usually don’t have a clear ending, and everyone is left wondering what’s happening next. Instead of letting the main conversation go on until the last second of the meeting’s scheduled end time, leave a few minutes at the end to recap next steps and make sure everyone’s aligned.
Remember that the point of having a meeting is to move work forward, not just to talk about stuff for the sake of talking. If you keep that goal in mind and put even just a little effort into providing some structure, meetings stop feeling like an aimless conversation with half-engaged participants and will start feeling like a vital, compelling part of work.
You never know — maybe people will actually start looking forward to meetings you host. Because instead of feeling like meetings are getting in their way of doing real work, they’ll feel like your meetings actually help them make progress on their work. They’ll show up with more clarity of purpose and more willingness to fully participate, which makes things better for everyone. And isn’t that what we all want?