Another avenue for being in the Front of The Room is when serving as a meeting facilitator. Ideally, the facilitator can be objective without being perceived as showing favor to any person, group or interest.
Meeting facilitators must balance many needs and objectives, often at gatherings for august groups, including cross-functional teams, advisory boards, thought leaders or physician speakers. It can seem daunting to be tasked as the facilitation "leader" in front of some audiences, particularly due to the levels of education, training and experience.
However, there is hope: The facilitator does not have to be the content "expert" (or pretend to be!) to generate a dynamic, engaging and impactful meeting. In these settings, the great feature is that the expertise is already right there in the room, which should reduce the pressure on the facilitator. They simply need to focus on accessing that knowledge and experience, and managing and balancing the personalities and degrees of input generated by the audience.
There are two main areas where having key facilitation phrases/techniques at the ready can be helpful:
Generating Input
Beforehand, think about what biases, fears or concerns the audience may have about the subject matter. Anything they may be inclined to protect?
- "Let's keep expanding input. New contributor, please?"
- "I'm looking for a new voice for this next question."
- "Any additional input?"
- "How about from this side of the room?"
- "Someone in the back, please?"
- "I want to make sure we leverage all the knowledge in the room. Let's hear from someone we haven't heard from, yet."
- "If you were guaranteed success, how would you choose to move forward?"
- "What are some factors that might impede progress?"
Managing Personalities
Sometimes for reasons of time or focus, you have to interrupt, gently. That's perhaps especially true when you see you have a storyteller or a frequent or strong contributor.
- "So, if you had to put a headline on your take, what would it be?"
- "OK, quick input? 30-seconds … Go!"
- "OK, so you're saying (summarize other's point). OK, thanks!"
(Transition to next question or contributor)
- "I want to keep an eye on time and ensure we hit all of our topics. Let's move on to the next area, please."
- "Let's take two more comments on this, and we'll move on."
- "How would you describe the other prevailing viewpoint(s) today?"
Reading the Room
A very important point to be aware of is that it is usually never necessary to explicitly agree or disagree with someone's input (save any off-label references or misinformation). One can restate another's opinion by prefacing with something like, "And so for you (recap)." This helps to disconnect the facilitator from any sort of endorsement or even disagreement with the input.
Another helpful area of facilitation during these types of meetings is the check-in or audience temperature gauge. Phrases such as these may be helpful:
- "What do you find yourself thinking as you hear these viewpoints?"
- "To what degree, if any, are these viewpoints squaring with your own experience?"
- "What may be new, or shifting for you, as we explore this topic more deeply?"
- "What doubts or concerns are you having that haven't been voiced yet?"
Elevating Your Presence
Facilitating meetings with participants who have lots of experience and opinions is truly an art, and it's a skill set that can enhance your capabilities and potential.
If you can be viewed as an objective, effective meeting facilitator, it can be another compelling way to add value to your organization and your professional reputation.