Facilitation Best Practices

Our Superintendents facilitate Planning meetings.
Our Project Managers facilitate regular team meetings.
Our BIM Managers facilitate clash detection meetings.
Our Department Managers facilitate team huddles.
Even our newest engineers facilitate meetings to resolve project issues. 

I’ve spent the last two decades facilitating trainings, team-building events, process improvements, and project retrospectives. Through trial and error and observing others who have a knack for keeping people engaged, I’ve come up with my top ten tips for effective facilitation.  

1. Set Direction – Have an agenda. Declare your intent. State why you’re together and what you hope to accomplish.  
2. Less Lecture, More Convo – Nobody wants to listen to someone drone on and on. Create opportunities for the group to converse or participate in the process. 
3. Ask Open-Ended Questions – Asking open-ended questions often creates a more personal and deeper understanding for the participant. Pro-Tip, use questions that start with “What” or “How”.  
4. Let Silence Do the Work – When you ask a question, let it linger for an uncomfortable amount of time until someone finally breaks. This is usually the amount of time someone needs to process their thinking. Don’t train the audience to remain silent by filling the void with your own answer.
5. Be Curious, Not Judgmental – While you may be more informed, your audience has unique lived experiences. Be open to their comments, and uncover a shared understanding together. 
6. Suspend Your Urge to Comment – When someone speaks up, and you don’t have something CRITICAL to address in response, say thank you and move on. 
7. Step Forward, Step Back – Every group has a Chatty Cathy or Chuck. It’s okay to ask those people to step back to allow others to step forward. It’s also perfectly acceptable to call on those who haven’t participated much – you know, the eye-dodgers. 
8. Keep Time – Assign times to the agenda, and if you need to get to everything, ask the group to move along for the sake of time and offer opportunities after to go deeper if necessary. When doing a presentation or training, do a dry run and know where you need to be at different points.  
9. Monitor Energy – Audiences often mimic the leader. If the group is passive, be outspoken. If bored, bring humor. If nodding off, modulate your tone. If negative, be positive. 
10. Movement – Motion is interesting. Move about to allow the audience to move their eyes, their heads, and their rears. Incorporate movement with audience participation. 

Bonus Tip… Be Authentic. People sense fakery and will tune out. 

Like most skills, the ability to effectively lead a meeting is learned and improves with deliberate practice. Try a couple of these the next time all eyes are on you. With time, you’ll naturally float through these effortlessly. 

What other tips contribute to an engaging meeting or learning experience?