Thanks to those of you who let me know you found last week’s facilitation tips useful.
A quick addendum this week. These are the elements that have shown up in my facilitation skills course in recent years that are newer and/or more variable. I’m a bit more tentative on these because they change — I would welcome hearing what you think.
- Choose your meeting format carefully. Here’s my current key messaging on that:
- Single format meetings are my strong preference.
- [Synchronous] hybrid meetings favour inclusion at the expense of other dimensions of meeting quality. They are harder to facilitate well. (I have a bunch of parameters I insist on to make them palatable that I won’t bore you with here — message me if you want the list).
- In-person meetings take longer and are usually more costly (travel, catering etc.). They are strongest for relationship building, including conflict resolution.
- Digital meetings are not a “consolation prize,” if well run. They are efficient in terms of cost, time and getting things done.
- Avoid. Unplanned. Hybrid. Meetings. (“Oh sorry, I can’t attend today’s in-person meeting. Will you send me the link?” Nope.)
- The facilitator’s allegiance is to the group and its shared objectives.
- Sometimes that means individual needs must defer to the needs of the group. It’s the facilitator’s job to enforce that understanding.
- In her new book The Art of Fighting, Priya Parker advises, “Don’t let the room be defined by the most offended voice.” I’m still sitting with this (as an idea and how best to teach it), as I also care deeply about centring equity-deserving perspectives.
- Choose your tools based on what the group can handle, not just based on what a tool can do. There are amazing facilitation tools that will overwhelm an overloaded group, and sometimes I simply don’t have the time to teach a group how to use them. I often choose the easiest tool over the best tool. (Or maybe the fact that it’s the easiest makes it the best?)
- AI in facilitation. I added this into the course this year. I was glad to make space for it, but was aware of how little I had to say because of being such a struggling newbie. Definitely a “learn along with me” moment.
- The “authoritative voices” in this field are shifting, and I need to keep up.
- How relevant is my resource list? Over time, the list has shifted to include more podcasts, LinkedIn profiles, communities of practice and newsletters (increasingly on Substack) and fewer books. It is admittedly grounded in personal preference, but I do refer to Sessionlab’s State of Facilitation for the resources others in my profession are referencing.
What are your learning edges in facilitation right now? What’s something you’ve changed your mind about?
