Mastering Meeting Engagement Excellence: A Strategic Blueprint

Mastering Meeting Engagement Excellence: A Strategic Blueprint

by | Jan 18, 2024 | Facilitation Skills, Leadership Skills, Meeting Structure, Meeting Support

To master the art of meeting engagement (i.e., active involvement, collaboration, and participation in meetings), meeting facilitators need a nuanced understanding of various aspects of meeting engagement techniques. To help you achieve this, below we provide you with a Strategic Blueprint for Active Collaboration and Productivity in Every Professional Gathering: a detailed outline focusing on the key elements of meeting engagement, supported by brief comments and links to supporting articles.

I. Meeting Preparation

A. Distribute relevant materials in advance. In invitations for crucial sessions (excluding routine staff meetings), include the following in your meeting invitation:

        • Meeting importance, with quantitative support (e.g., cost or labor at risk)  if the meeting fails. If the meeting supports a product or project, what is the worth of the product? A poor meeting jeopardizes the product or project, even if only to slow it down.
        • Meeting purpose, clarifying why the meeting is essential.
        • Meeting scope—scope creep begins in meetings, but you need to determine in advance what we will cover, and more importantly, what we will NOT cover.
        • Meeting deliverables, defining success in 50 words or less.
        • Simple and draft agenda. Always prepare them with the possibility of minor changes if things develop that would improve or speed up their effort.

B. Encourage participants to provide in advance their insights or questions so that you can shape your agenda around their input. Their input yields insight into their expectations and becomes the secret for you to manage scope creep.

C. Set expectations for active participation. Explain the Ground Rules “Be Here Now” (professional obligation to speak) and “No Hiding” (applies to virtual or hybrid meetings). 

“In for-profit situations, stress duty or fiduciary responsibility. Since participants are professional and being paid to attend, the meeting is not an opportunity for them to contribute. Rather, it is an obligation.”

II. Agenda Design

A. Structure the agenda with a clear insight into the sequence of steps. Include interactive elements such as breakout sessions.

B. Ensure a balance between sharing information and driving behavioral change. If nothing changes, the meeting is a waste of time. The meeting’s value lies in tangible outcomes and actionable insights.

C. Be prepared to explain what DONE looks like with the output from each agenda step, and how it feeds the deliverable to help us get done quicker. Use  a metaphor or analogy to explain the rationale behind the sequencing of the agenda steps.

D. Allocate some time for the unexpected and Q&A sessions.

III. Technology Integration

A. Harness collaboration tools, especially in virtual meetings.

B. Regularly employ interactive elements such as breakout sessions and polling to enhance participant involvement and foster dynamic discussions. 

C. Guarantee universal access to necessary technology, coupled with a clear understanding of its use, promoting an inclusive and seamless virtual experience.

IV. Visual Aids and Documentation Support

A. Utilize visual aids, legends, and handouts to elevate comprehension and reinforce key concepts. 

B. Document input, key points, action items, and open issues in real-time to maintain a dynamic and transparent record. 

C. Share meeting notes promptly to solidify engagement and ensure that participants remain informed and aligned.

D. Move beyond the narrative mode; leverage illustrations like the Creativity or Coat of Arms tool. Use Decision Matrices and Quantitative TO-WS analysis for numerical comparisons and insights.

Meeting Engagement

Meeting Engagement

V. Facilitation Technique

A. Integrate icebreakers to establish a positive and open atmosphere, especially in virtual meetings where connection is crucial. Never EVER skip icebreakers in virtual meetings. Remote people are longing for connections.

B. Employ interactive facilitation methods and tools that encourage participation. Always use breakout sessions when in the “Ideation” or “Listing” mode of Brainstorming. Pull the one-team together for the “Analysis” mode and one-voice agreement.

C. Foster a culture of inclusivity and respect for diverse opinions. Explain that no one is smarter than everyone because groups create more options than individuals on their own. Having more options at your disposal remains the number one driver of increasing decision quality. Emphasize that we care about WHAT is right, not WHO is right.

VI. Encourage Active Participation

A. Ask open-ended questions and challenge contributions with probing inquiries like “Because?” or “Why?” to uncover deeper insights. We know that people speak initially about symptoms. Consensus gets built around causal factors, so discover them. We may not agree on whether the “curry” is hot enough or not. We can agree however that it scores 3,000 SHU (Scoville Heat Units) on the capsaicin scale.

B. Always shift air time to your participants. Do not read back to participants. When possible, have each CEO (Chief Easel Officer) perform the read-out for their team. If conducting a readback of some inflection point, appoint a participant. Do not ask them because you are the process police person, the master of context. Always strive to have the reflection of their content come from a participant, not you.

C. Use break-out teams frequently. With three teams you are tripling the available air time.

VII. Follow-up and Accountability

A. Summarize key takeaways and action items at the end of the meeting. Without the documentation trail, nothing happened. Make your action items visual for everyone to see.

B. Facilitate responsibilities and deadlines for providing the team with updates on action items. Consider or modify the RACI approach for clarity.

C. Perhaps suggest or even schedule follow-up sessions to track progress and maintain accountability.

VIII. Feedback Mechanisms

A. Foster an environment where participants feel comfortable sharing diverse opinions, emphasizing the value of multiple perspectives. Stress the likelihood that there is more than one “right answer”. As the facilitator, you are seeking to help them find the best answer for their situation. If there is a clear, right answer—don’t have a meeting.

B. Use their feedback to continuously improve future meetings. Focus feedback on the meeting format and context. What else could you be doing to make their time more effective? Embrace an “inspect and adapt” approach inspired by Agile principles.

C. Exercise caution with praise; focus on praising the team collectively rather than individually. Even positive judgments are a violation of neutrality. If you must praise, compliment the team, not individuals. And always praise the quantity of output that was created, do not evaluate the quality of the output. “You folks got a lot done today.”

D. Acknowledge and appreciate contributions from individual participants privately.

E. If consensus appears evident, celebrate the team’s achievements and milestones.

F. It’s important to be yourself while you foster a positive and collaborative atmosphere. But never forget the importance of maintaining neutrality. All teams need a neutral referee.

By meticulously attending to these aspects, facilitators can cultivate an environment that not only encourages active engagement but also enhances the overall meeting experience, making it more enjoyable, productive, and collaborative.

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Don’t ruin your career by hosting bad meetings. Sign up for a workshop or send this to someone who should. MGRUSH workshops focus on meeting design and practice. Each person practices tools, methods, and activities daily during the week. Therefore, while some call this immersion, we call it the road to building high-value facilitation skills.

Our workshops also provide a superb way to earn up to 40 SEUs from the Scrum Alliance, 40 CDUs from IIBA, 40 Continuous Learning Points (CLPs) based on Federal Acquisition Certification Continuous Professional Learning Requirements using Training and Education activities, 40 Professional Development Units (PDUs) from SAVE International, as well as 4.0 CEUs for other professions. (See workshop and Reference Manual descriptions for details.)

Want a free 10-minute break timer? Sign up for our once-monthly newsletter HERE and receive a free timer along with four other of our favorite facilitation tools.

Go to the Facilitation Training Store to access proven, in-house resources, including fully annotated agendas, break timers, and templates. Finally, take a few seconds to SHARE this article with others.

To Help You Unlock Your Facilitation Potential: Experience Results-Driven Training for Maximum Impact    #facilitationtraining #meeting design

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A Facilitator’s Strategies for Overcoming Resistance to Change

A Facilitator’s Strategies for Overcoming Resistance to Change

by | Dec 7, 2023 | Communication Skills, Facilitation Skills, Leadership Skills, Managing Conflict, Meeting Agendas, Meeting Structure

Professional business facilitators confront a variety of challenges, perhaps none greater than overcoming resistance to change. Other challenges differ based on the specific context and industry. Significant and frequent facilitation challenges include:

Addressing these challenges requires a combination of strong interpersonal skills, adaptability, and a deep understanding of group dynamics. This article focuses on the final challenge above, a frequent and difficult challenge of facilitators—the art of overcoming resistance to change.

Guiding Change: A Facilitator’s Options for Overcoming Resistance

You might be familiar with the distinction that ‘management’ involves doing things right, while ‘leadership’ involves doing the right things. Given this perspective, shouldn’t we lean towards using the term “Change Leadership” rather than the conventional “Change Management”? The term “Change Leader” aptly captures the role of a skilled facilitator guiding purposeful and mindful change initiatives. Certainly, this viewpoint aligns with the insights of Dr. John P. Kotter.

Kotter argues that

Change Management

Change Management

“LEADING CHANGE must replace MANAGING CHANGE as the overriding mindset and challenge if organizations are to make it.” 

Many acknowledge Kotter as a leading authority on managerial behavior and leadership responsibilities in the context of change. According to him, this isn’t a mere semantic nuance; it represents a substantial and pivotal issue.

Cultivating Transformation: Navigating Kotter’s Eight Stages of Cultural Change

Kotter scrutinized the endeavors of over 100 companies striving to transform themselves into more formidable competitors. Through this analysis, he pinpointed the prevalent errors made by leaders and managers when endeavoring to instigate change. His research yielded eight essential activities that a leader must undertake to surmount the challenges associated with change:

  1. Establish a Sense of Urgency
  2. Create a Guiding Coalition
  3. Develop a Vision and Strategy
  4. Communicate the Change Vision
  5. Empower Broad-Based Action
  6. Generate Short-Term Wins
  7. Consolidate Gains and Produce More Change
  8. Anchor New Approaches in the Culture

(see Leading Change, Harvard Business School Press)

The success of each “Leading Change” activity relies on adept facilitation to navigate cultural and individual resistance to change. Many are familiar with the FUD factor that often surrounds change initiatives: Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt. Few professional scenarios require a neutral and reliable facilitator as much as change initiatives do. However, it’s advisable not to rely solely on the Kotter model, as there are more contemporary and potentially simpler frameworks worth considering.

Navigating Change: Unpacking the Significance of Overcoming Obstacles

Whether you label your project deliverable as Business Process Improvement (BPI), Business Process Reengineering (BPR), or any other term-du-jour, when employees sense vulnerability, it often leads to suboptimal decision-making and performance.

Process redesign entails identifying and, where possible, eliminating non-value-adding activities. Another facet involves the potential for concurrent execution of certain activities. Additionally, redesign may involve reassigning responsibility for activities to different roles or personas. This process frequently necessitates a reimagining of how a business is structured and managed and is often linked to job losses or income reduction.

Primarily credited to Michael Porter of Harvard University, the value chain models a sequence of interconnected activities. Primary activities directly contribute to the creation or production of the organization’s product or service, while secondary activities offer support to the primary ones.

The value chain is commonly employed to conceptualize the activities and tasks supported by an organization and its stakeholders. Traditionally, primary activities are categorized by functional labels such as marketing, operations, and distribution. Secondary activities typically encompass functions like legal, purchasing, research and development, and so forth.

The Enduring Legacy of Porter’s Value-Chain Methodology

Creating a value chain compels us to pinpoint the activities that contribute value to the organization and its stakeholders. Ideally, the focus should be on activities that enhance customer value rather than those that merely incur costs.

The establishment of a value chain aids in recognizing non-value-adding activities. Consequently, the outsourcing of non-value-adding activities to a third party, such as logistics, becomes feasible. However, when analyzing the simultaneous execution of activities or the reassignment of responsibilities and supporting roles, the value chain may offer less guidance. Therefore, incorporate the following considerations into your meeting designs that support change initiatives.

Innovative Approaches: Investigating Established Alternatives and Supplementary Choices to the Kotter Model

Change is an unavoidable and intricate facet of business growth. Change management models serve as guides that assist change leaders in navigating challenging transitions and directing stakeholders toward greater acceptance of adopting new methods, processes, and stakeholders.

What Constitutes a Change Management Model (or Framework)?

Change management models encompass concepts, theories, and methods designed to serve as guides in implementing and navigating transformations. Their goal is to ensure that changes are not only accepted but also effectively put into practice.

Whether the changes involve onboarding new hires, company-wide shifts in internal tools, department-specific adjustments, or anything in between, change management frameworks are crafted to facilitate smoother implementation and, crucially, to establish the change as the new norm.

“For example, switching from one video conferencing system to another may seem like an easy change. Still, anyone who has been forced to make that switch can tell you that minor frustrations such as having to hunt down the share-screen button or navigate mic-muting options can lead to a severe dislike for a new tool.” (WhatFix)

Several widely embraced management models in 2023 include:

This model focuses on the individual change experience, addressing Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability, and Reinforcement as key stages in the change initiative.

Bridge’s Transition Model is a framework that focuses on managing individual transitions during times of change. It consists of three main stages: Ending, Neutral Zone, and New Beginning. The model recognizes that people experience emotional responses during change, and a successful transition involves helping them let go of the old, navigate a neutral period of adjustment, and embrace the new.

Deming’s Cycle provides a continuous improvement model that is widely used in quality management and process improvement.

Kotter’s model emphasizes the importance of creating a sense of urgency, building a guiding coalition, and anchoring the changes in the organization’s culture.

Also known as the Five Stages of Grief and introduced by psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross provides the context of understanding the emotional responses of individuals facing terminal illness. Over time, the model has been applied to various forms of personal and organizational change. The five stages represent a series of emotional reactions that people may go through when dealing with significant transitions or losses. 

Lewin’s model involves three stages: Unfreeze (preparing for change), Change (implementing the change), and Refreeze (ensuring the change becomes permanent).

Elaine Biech, building on the work of Rick Maurer, introduced the 3 Levels of Resistance and Change Model including intellectual, emotional, and operational resistance.

The McKinsey 7-S Model is a management model that identifies seven internal elements that must be aligned for an organization to be successful. The model emphasizes the interdependence of these elements and the need for alignment to achieve organizational effectiveness. The 7 S’s include:

    1. Strategy: The plan for achieving the organization’s objectives.
    2. Structure: The organizational design and reporting relationships.
    3. Systems: The processes and procedures that guide the organization’s operations.
    4. Skills: The capabilities and competencies of the employees.
    5. Staff: The organization’s workforce and their values.
    6. Style: The leadership and management style within the organization.
    7. Shared Values: The core beliefs and values that guide decision-making.

Developed by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein, suggests that positive reinforcement and indirect suggestions can influence the behavior and decision-making of groups or individuals. It seeks to guide choices in a way that encourages desirable outcomes without restricting options. Nudge theory often applies to areas like public policy and organizational behavior to influence decision-making and promote positive change.

The Satir Change Model, developed by family therapist Virginia Satir, describes how individuals and organizations respond to change. Its four stages include Late Status Quo, Resistance, Chaos, and Integration.

The Significance of Models for Change

Grasping the fundamental principles of widely used change management models and frameworks empowers you to apply best practices, tactics, and strategies when overseeing change projects. By relying on the core principles of change models, you can develop more effective, strategic, and context-specific change initiatives.

Change, ideally, should positively impact the bottom line. However, change initiatives can have widespread effects on productivity, revenue, customer experience, and other crucial areas. Given their intensive nature in terms of time and investment, change initiatives are inherently costly. Resistance to change is a common challenge across all models. While this article does not aim to delve into each model, it provides links to more comprehensive sources. From a facilitator’s standpoint, overcoming resistance is often a paramount concern.

Five Strategies to Conquer Resistance to Change

Explore some of the most effective approaches to address resistance to change within your organization.

  1. Build stakeholders into the change management plan, placing a strong emphasis on their involvement.

    • Frame changes with a focus on your stakeholders, especially considering that most changes involve technology. Plan with a focus on stakeholder adoption rather than solely emphasizing the technological aspects. Shift the perspective from what the technology can do to what users can achieve with the assistance of this new technology.
    • Address resistance by fostering a cultural shift. Identify and train team members who naturally exhibit leadership qualities. These individuals can serve as role models and influencers, creating a ripple effect throughout the organization.

  1. Empower your stakeholders throughout the transformation process.

    • Infuse enthusiasm into your communication about the change. Clearly articulate the reasons behind it, letting your passion become infectious. Any hint of hesitation can undermine the initiative.
    • Equip team members with resources, change management tools, knowledge bases, and training for the new process or tool being introduced. Diminishing uncertainty assists employees in recognizing the value of something new, fostering trust. Present concrete evidence of how the change initiative will benefit your stakeholders. Maintain continuous training efforts to ensure they feel proficient and at ease navigating the change.
    • Execute your plan incrementally, allowing stakeholders to address the change one step at a time. This approach enables them to acquire new and pertinent skills gradually, making the change more digestible and less likely to be met with resistance. 

  1. Gather input from stakeholders continuously throughout the initiative. 

    • Frequently, employees resist change due to the perception that their opinions are disregarded and won’t influence organizational decisions. Conduct surveys among stakeholders to gauge their sentiments about the change and solicit their ideas on how to facilitate the process.
    • Inclusion fosters a sense of being valued and heard. Integrate key stakeholders into the change management team to instill a feeling of ownership and accountability. Avoid making decisions without consulting those directly involved – your employees. Foster a consensus on the timeline and the strategy for managing and implementing the change initiative.

  1. Offer metrics reflecting the objectives and performance of your initiative.  

    • Allow stakeholders to directly access and interpret the data, demonstrating the necessity for improvement through transparency.
    • Involve various stakeholder groups when establishing OKRs, KPIs, or similar metrics that contribute to gauging success. Measurement provides organizations with insights into how the implementation impacts overall business performance. If certain aspects deviate from the plan, this offers an opportunity for prompt correction or modification during the subsequent phase of implementation.

  1. Speak less and listen more.

    • Allocate more speaking time to your stakeholders and empower them to take the lead in the conversation. People desire to be heard, so provide them with the opportunity to express their concerns and aspirations. Effective communication and connections mitigate the frustration of feeling isolated.
    • The thoughts, concerns, and suggestions of stakeholders may offer valuable insights to guide your efforts. Understanding their perspectives helps pinpoint the root causes of resistance to change.
    • Engaging in two-way exchanges helps construct a bridge between management and stakeholders. The more transparent and candid your communication, the less likely stakeholders are to speculate and adopt a negative outlook.

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Don’t ruin your career by hosting bad meetings. Sign up for a workshop or send this to someone who should. MGRUSH workshops focus on meeting design and practice. Each person practices tools, methods, and activities daily during the week. Therefore, while some call this immersion, we call it the road to building high-value facilitation skills.

Our workshops also provide a superb way to earn up to 40 SEUs from the Scrum Alliance, 40 CDUs from IIBA, 40 Continuous Learning Points (CLPs) based on Federal Acquisition Certification Continuous Professional Learning Requirements using Training and Education activities, 40 Professional Development Units (PDUs) from SAVE International, as well as 4.0 CEUs for other professions. (See workshop and Reference Manual descriptions for details.)

Want a free 10-minute break timer? Sign up for our once-monthly newsletter HERE and receive a free timer along with four other of our favorite facilitation tools.

Go to the Facilitation Training Store to access proven, in-house resources, including fully annotated agendas, break timers, and templates. Finally, take a few seconds to SHARE this article with others.

To Help You Unlock Your Facilitation Potential: Experience Results-Driven Training for Maximum Impact    #facilitationtraining #meeting design

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Mastering Meeting Facilitation Challenges: Tackling Common Hurdles Head-On

Mastering Meeting Facilitation Challenges: Tackling Common Hurdles Head-On

by | Oct 10, 2023 | Communication Skills, Facilitation Skills, Leadership Skills, Managing Conflict, Meeting Structure, Meeting Support

blankMeeting facilitation challenges vary depending on the specific context and the participants involved. However, some common facilitation challenges facilitators often encounter include:

 

Conflict Resolution:

    • Addressing conflicts or disagreements during a meeting represents a significant facilitation challenge. Facilitators need to prepare strategies that will manage any conflicts constructively. Facilitators are not responsible for resolving all conflict, but for managing it. The participants hold responsibility for resolving conflict, with proper guidance.

Dominant Participants:

    • Dealing with participants who dominate discussions and prevent others from contributing can disrupt the meeting’s flow and effectiveness. Google discovered that its high-performance teams shared airtime equally among all team members.

Engagement:

    • Keeping participants engaged and actively participating in the meeting remains a significant facilitation challenge. People may become disinterested or distracted during lengthy or unstructured meetings. The facilitator also wears the role of a process police person.

Follow-Up and Action Items: 

    • Ensuring that action items are documented and assigned remains the responsibility of the facilitator. However, the follow-up belongs to a different role, although it could be the same person. The facilitator must ensure that one and only one person will report back on the status of the assignment. However, when the sessions end, a different role ensures that the assignment is monitored, such as the project manager or product owner.

Group Dynamics:

    • Understanding and managing group dynamics, including cliques or factions within the group, lends itself to a significant facilitation challenge. However, high-performance teams are frankly quite rare, and turn facilitators into scribes.

Lack of Preparation:

    • Participants may not come to the meeting adequately prepared, which can hinder progress and effectiveness. This facilitation challenge is easily solved by putting the meeting purpose, scope, deliverable, and agenda in the meeting invite. Why would someone agree to attend a meeting if they don’t know the purpose?

Meeting Objectives:

    • Ensuring that the session (meeting or workshop) achieves its intended objectives provides a significant challenge. Facilitators need to plan and guide the meeting to reach its goals. They also need to know what DONE looks like before the session begins.

Multicultural or Multinational Meetings:

    • Many participants come from diverse cultural backgrounds and speak multiple languages. Understanding and preparing for potential communication and cultural barriers remains a huge facilitation challenge.

Remote Participants:

    • In the era of remote work and virtual meetings, facilitating effective online or hybrid meetings comes with its own set of facilitation challenges. With many aspects to consider, common challenges include technical issues, limited non-verbal cues, and various distractions.

Time Management:

    • Managing the meeting’s time effectively represents a clear facilitation challenge and responsibility. Striking a balance between allowing for meaningful discussion and staying on schedule requires thorough preparation. You cannot simply show up and be a great facilitator.

Michael Jordan

Facilitation Challenges Solved

We provide detailed Best Practices articles that provide tips and tools for dealing with each of these Facilitation Challenges. Below, you’ll find a summary of the corresponding “Solution” article and links to its sources.

Conflict Resolution: 

Resolving conflict begins by understanding, clarifying, and confirming the purpose of the object of discussion and argument. If that appeal fails, active listening coupled with extensive challenges structures the discussion. Further appeals ask about the extent to which the purpose and objectives will be supported by the decision, especially the product, project, departmental, program, business unit, and enterprise objectives.

Dominant Participants: 

“Proven Methods for Managing Any and All Meeting Conflicts” covers challenging personality types provides advice on managing challenging personalities in meetings and emphasizes the importance of maintaining a productive and respectful atmosphere. It suggests that problems in meetings often arise from certain individuals but highlights the need to avoid labeling them permanently as “problem persons.” Instead, it recommends identifying the cause of their disruptive behavior and offers a series of strategies for handling them. It also identifies several types of difficult participants and provides specific recommendations for dealing with each type, including dominant personalities such as loudmouths and monopolizers.

Engagement:

The article explains the concept of executive presence and provides tips on how to improve it. Executive presence is defined as a combination of qualities that convey confidence, authority, and the ability to lead. It encompasses factors like gravitas, communication, and appearance. The article breaks down the characteristics of executive presence into dimensions, traits, and factors, including credibility, clarity, warmth, and self-confidence.

Follow-Up and Action Items:

Daniel Pink’s book, “When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing,” emphasizes the importance of a productive meeting wrap-up, which he refers to as “ending on a high note.” Four critical activities combine for a clear and actionable meeting wrap-up: Review, Next Steps (Assignments), Communications, and Assessment. This article instructs on HOW TO wrap so that it sounds like all of your participants attended the same meeting together.

Group Dynamics:

“Don’t Run! How to Manage Meeting Conflict” emphasizes the importance of managing conflict in meetings and workshops for productive outcomes. It suggests that conflict, both internal and external, can lead to creative change and improvement when harnessed effectively. To manage meeting conflict, it recommends understanding group dynamics, especially the four stages of group development (Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing), and using appropriate leadership styles to navigate these stages. The article also encourages facilitators to employ visual aids, challenge established paradigms, and address groupthink for better decision-making. Finally, it acknowledges that people can change and offers specific activities to resolve conflict, such as appealing to a common purpose, active listening, appealing to objectives, and documentation.

Lack of Preparation:

“Meeting Preparation – How to Quickly Prepare Meetings for Results” outlines a comprehensive approach to meeting preparation, providing nine key activities and a basic agenda framework. It emphasizes the importance of thorough preparation for successful meetings and offers guidelines for structuring these activities.

Meeting Objectives: 

“Meetings That Get Results,” presents the challenges of unproductive meetings and the importance of effective meeting leadership. It provides a practical guide for facilitating productive meetings. The book focuses on the objectives of decision-making, planning, and problem-solving. It emphasizes the significance of facilitation in making meetings productive and efficient. Given the busy schedules of professionals and the lack of formal training in meeting facilitation, it stresses the importance of having the right skills and tools to design and lead effective meetings, which can have a significant impact on an organization’s success.

“Meetings That Get Results” is designed for quick reference and cross-referencing, with lists and conventions for organizing information. It provides guidance on managing various types of meetings, emphasizing the importance of scripting the meeting purpose, scope, deliverables, and agendas along with providing support materials that ensure clear and actionable results.

Remote Participants:

“Online Meeting Problems (and Solutions)” explains common problems encountered during online meetings and offers solutions to address them. It mentions that these issues relate back to numerous causes, regardless of the specific video conferencing platform being used, and highlights the importance of addressing them to improve the overall meeting experience. The problems discussed include late arrivals, audio feedback, technical issues, interruptions, and distractions.

The suggested solutions emphasize the importance of effective communication, active listening, and respectful behavior among participants. It also highlights the need for skilled facilitators who can manage the flow of the meeting and maintain focus on the agenda. Additionally, the article suggests that organizations should invest in quality online tools and equipment to enhance the virtual meeting experience.

In closing, the passage emphasizes the need for better communication, leadership, and cultural norms in online meetings while also highlighting the importance of quality equipment and training for facilitators to improve the overall effectiveness of virtual meetings.

Time Management:

All the Best Practices articles focus on efficiency and time management, throughout the various stages of a meeting or workshop. “Don’t Just Start Meetings, LAUNCH Them in 5 Minutes or Less” on the essential activities for a successful meeting introduction will get you off to a roaring start with these seven activities, lasting no more than five minutes:

          1. Start with the End in Mind: Define the objectives of the meeting by describing what success looks like in terms of results or deliverables.
          2. Transfer Ownership: Emphasize the shared responsibility of the participants in achieving the meeting’s goals, using inclusive language like “we” or “us.”
          3. Visual Confirmation: Display the meeting’s purpose, scope, and deliverables visually to ensure clarity, and make sure they can be summarized in 25 words or less.
          4. Roles and Impact: Introduce the facilitator as neutral and highlight participants’ equal roles, emphasizing the importance of the meeting’s success and its potential impact on time or resources.
          5. Meeting Purpose: Clearly state the purpose of the meeting, seeking audible confirmation from participants.
          6. Meeting Scope: Describe the boundaries of the meeting, specifying what is included and what is not, while securing participants’ agreement.
          7. Meeting Deliverable: Explain what “done” looks like by presenting a prepared statement and obtaining agreement from participants.

Additionally, you will find optional activities for specific situations, such as icebreakers, updates from product owners or project managers, reviewing open items, and using a Plus-Delta feedback system for multi-day workshops. These activities should be conducted in a specific sequence to ensure a clear and compelling meeting introduction. Finally, the article guides how to handle executive sponsor contributions during select projects or product launches.

“LAUNCH” highlights the activities of a quick, yet structured meeting wrap-up and references other articles with details on conducting meetings quickly.

______

Don’t ruin your career by hosting bad meetings. Sign up for a workshop or send this to someone who should. MGRUSH workshops focus on meeting design and practice. Each person practices tools, methods, and activities daily during the week. Therefore, while some call this immersion, we call it the road to building high-value facilitation skills.

Our workshops also provide a superb way to earn up to 40 SEUs from the Scrum Alliance, 40 CDUs from IIBA, 40 Continuous Learning Points (CLPs) based on Federal Acquisition Certification Continuous Professional Learning Requirements using Training and Education activities, 40 Professional Development Units (PDUs) from SAVE International, as well as 4.0 CEUs for other professions. (See workshop and Reference Manual descriptions for details.)

Want a free 10-minute break timer? Sign up for our once-monthly newsletter HERE and receive a free timer along with four other of our favorite facilitation tools.

Go to the Facilitation Training Store to access proven, in-house resources, including fully annotated agendas, break timers, and templates. Finally, take a few seconds to buy us a cup of coffee and please SHARE with others.

In conclusion, we dare you to embrace the will, wisdom, and activities that amplify a facilitative leader. #facilitationtraining #MEETING DESIGN

How To Facilitate Vague Indicators into SMART Measures and Criteria

How To Facilitate Vague Indicators into SMART Measures and Criteria

by | Sep 7, 2023 | Decision Making, Meeting Structure, Meeting Tools, Prioritizing

Meeting participants don’t argue about verbs and nouns, they argue about modifiers. Modifiers include adjectives, adverbs, and prepositions. For example…

Facilitating the transformation of vague indicators into SMART (Specific, Measurable, Adjustable, Relevant, Time-based) measures and criteria is crucial for turning abstract ideas into actionable outcomes. When participants in a meeting debate modifiers—adjectives, adverbs, and prepositions—they’re often grappling with the subjective elements of goals, such as the difference between completing a task “well” or “quickly.” The key to moving from subjective to objective is identifying clear, quantifiable measures.

 

SMART Measures and CriteriaEdwards Deming provided the original acronym and definition of SMART as specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-based. 

At MGRUSH we frequently change the “A” to adjustable as explained later. Finding the specific and measurable represents the most common challenge when creating SMART measures or objectives. Finding the unit of measurement quickly shifts arguments from the subjective to the objective.

Use the following question to build consensus around SMART measures (objective) rather than fuzzy goals (subjective).

“What is the unit of measurement for (insert modifier)?”

Transition from Subjective to Objective

To transition from subjective discussions to objective, actionable plans, employ a powerful question to pinpoint SMART measures: “What is the unit of measurement for [insert modifier]?” This question shifts focus from abstract descriptors to concrete, quantifiable terms, facilitating consensus on specific, measurable objectives.

Understand the different types of criteria

There is no universally accepted definition of terms used to describe measures. The history of SMART criteria reflects CSF, CTQ, FMA, KPI, NCT, OKR, TQM, and others. 

There are differences of course. For example, with Six Sigma, SMART criteria are frequently referred to as CTQ, or Critical to Quality measurements. CTQ might substitute the following questions for the SMART test:

    1. Specifically, stated with upper and lower specification limits?
    2. Is it directional so that we can objectively determine whether it is increasing, decreasing, or staying the same?
    3. To what extent is it linked to specific customer needs connected to the objectives of the project?

We won’t bother you with additional explanations (such as OKR) since they all represent measures of success (or failure). As the process policeman, however, facilitators must control the operational definitions. Use whatever terms work for your culture, but aspire for consistency and do not permit arguments about the definitions of terms you use in the meeting purpose, meeting scope, and meeting deliverables.

The purpose of all SMART measures is to identify WHAT an organization will measure as it reaches toward its future vision. Measures enable a group to shape and define the most appropriate strategies, activities, or tactics (i.e., WHAT to do to reach the vision). SMART measures are particularly helpful since they are objective and non-biased by perception. Understand the next two measurement types that follow to effectively facilitate consensus.

Defined Measures: Objectives, Goals, and Considerations♦

  • A measure is a standard unit used to express the size, amount, or degree of something. An objective is a desired position reached or achieved by some activity at a specific time. Objectives provide measurable performance [ ≣ ].
  • A goal is a directional statement that may remain fuzzy or subjectively measurable [ ☁ ].
  • A consideration is an important management issue, constraint, or concern that will affect reaching the objectives [ ✓ ].
♦ NOTE: Some consulting firms define them exactly the opposite. There is NO universal standard or answer. We are agnostic but must consistently apply one definition or the other(s). Please be consistent within your culture.

To Facilitate from Vague Indicators into SMART Measures and Criteria

Use Ideation to develop candidate measures: Describe the rules of Ideation in Brainstorming. Capture their candidates and consider the voice of the customer or customer types. Focus on potential measures that overlap or share a common purpose.

 

When the group exhausts its list of candidates, review each candidate and separate them into potential categories by coding them as shown above: objectives [ ≣ ], goals [ ☁ ], and considerations [ ✓ ]. Review potential objectives [ ≣ ] and make them SMART by first determining the unit of measurement. Do not show the SMART definition however until after you have captured the raw/ draft input. Consider using break-out teams to convert raw input into final SMART objectives:

  • Specific,
  • Measurable,
  • Adjustable [and challenging],
  • Relevant [and achievable], and
  • Time-based).

Next, separately list and fully define remaining non-SMART goals (subjective) and other important considerations (binary).

 

The facilitator must challenge participants to make their thinking visible.

 

Again, when someone uses a modifier, take over the conversation, isolate the modifier, and challenge it with the same question:

 

“What is the unit of measurement for (insert modifier)?”

 

Always focus on identifying WHAT is being measured before allowing arguments on HOW to measure it. WHAT unit or units of measurement do we typically use to agree that the job qualifies as well done? For example, if the job is to create a Facebook advertisement that will run for five days, the unit of measurement that defines well might be the number of clicks the advertisement receives in that five-day period. One hundred or more clicks may equal well done, while less than that, not so well done. To measure what determines quickly, we might turn to a calendar and agree on a completion date(s). Do not hesitate, time permitting, to facilitate multiple measures for quickness.

Converting Vague Indicators into SMART Objectives

Gauges, potentiometers, and dials help us zero in on specific and measurable aspects. The gas gauge indicates available gallons (or liters) of fuel.  Much like pressure gauges rely on PSI or kPa while temperature gauges depend on Fahrenheit or Celsius. The unit of measurement provides an objective reference point on which everyone must agree. We have found that once people can envision a gauge, you make it easier for them to isolate a potentially SMART objective. If they are unable to dial up or dial down a specific unit, they do not have SMART objectives or criteria. They have become stuck with something fuzzy and subjective.

We may still argue whether we have ‘enough’ gas to reach our destination, but few can now argue that we have approximately X.x gallons remaining because gauges provide real-time feedback. The refining method also focuses on other factors that contribute to fuel consumption such as weight, headwind, etc. One at a time, you can lead participants to meaningful actions that everyone can own (e.g., roll up the windows, turn off the air-conditioning, etc.).

 

Be a stickler for specificity

 

Once they’ve agreed on the unit of measurement, get their agreement on where the data is found or created. You do not want people arguing in future sessions about different numbers coming from different reports. We go so far as to demand the report number and even the page, column, and row intersection.

For example, if we are measuring productivity by millions of barrels of oil, then isolate the Report Name/ Number and the row and the column as well. You want to make it easy for your great-grandmother to complete the calculation (given the right information) and derive the same answer as your team. If so, they identified a truly objective standard that everyone will support.

 

Modifiers Are Vague Indicators of SMART Objectives or Criteria

Modifiers Are Vague Indicators of SMART Objectives or Criteria

 

Discover the Conditions that Fail to Yield SMART Objectives

Once participants reach an agreement about the unit of measurement and source of the data, lead a richer discussion about thresholds. For example, how much ‘stuff’ puts us in the Green Zone? When do we enter the Yellow zone? What characteristics toggle us into the Red Zone? Further, refine your objectives with a sense of timing such as duration or frequency. And be prepared to record the conditions, because there is usually more than one right answer. Your questions should avoid being close-ended. Rather, be prepared to ask . . .

“Under what conditions (insert zones or values)?” or

“(insert zones or values) conditions occur BECAUSE . . .”

. . . differing viewpoints may co-exist. We have found that combining crisp meeting design with facilitators that carefully control context, pre-empts discussion about factors that are NOT relevant. Strive to build ranges rather than to target a single value. No one can predict future factors with certainty. However, explaining WHY behind the best case, worst case, and most likely case will make it much easier to build consensus.

 

Probabilities consist of commonly held assumptions, beliefs, and outlooks about some future state or condition. Forward-looking deliverables such as five-year plans and shaping curves rely exclusively on the concept of probabilities since no future state is certain.

 

How can a facilitator help resolve arguments around conflicting probabilities, particularly when evidence supports multiple outcomes? Create ranges and not fixed numbers.

Scenario Planning Creates Ranges

Stormy Skies Scenario

Stormy Skies Scenario

Strive to avoid building one set of “answers”. Rather, build multiple answers and at minimum three. Facilitate common understanding around three to five scenarios:

Sunny Skies

Dare your participants to think positively. Ask them to relieve themselves from concerns about risks and other exogenous factors. Build and agree on the “best likely” scenario, akin to sunny skies and clear sailing. Don’t allow impediments or other negative throttles. While probabilistically unlikely, the sunny skies scenario provides a bookend, number, or set of numbers that would unlikely ever be exceeded.

Stormy Skies

Take your participants in the opposite direction. Allow for every conceivable catastrophe or injurious situation. Try to fall short of “bankruptcy” or “going out of business” but relent if your participant makes an urgent claim that complete “death” is one possible outcome.

Partly Sunny Skies

Having built the two prior scenarios, take a closer look at the Sunny Skies scenario and toggle some of the less likely occurrences. Strive to make this view and set of numbers positive, but not extreme. If necessary, use the PowerBalls tool to rank the importance of assumptions and toggle the most important drivers, leaving others untouched.

Partly Cloudy Skies

With our bookend approach, move in the opposite direction by taking a closer look at the Stormy Skies scenario. Toggle some of its less likely occurrences. Here you want to lead to a set of negative numbers, but not in the extreme. Have them study past performance and downturns for reliable percentages. Again, if necessary, use PowerBalls to rank the impact of assumptions. Only toggle the most impactful, leaving the others untouched.

Probable Skies

Take your scenarios and sets of numbers to drive consensus around the most likely scenario. Force participants to defend their arguments. Appeal to the prioritized lists of assumptions and revisit the prioritization results if necessary. Begin to listen and note the most extreme numbers being suggested as “most likely” because they can help establish the final range.

Refining analysis takes the final range and establishes targets and thresholds for on-target performance (e.g., green lights), cautionary performance (e.g., yellow lights), and intervention performance (e.g., red lights).

 

The value of a facilitator is rarely greater than when serving as a referee for future conditions.

The facilitator’s role is pivotal in steering discussions from abstract debates over modifiers to the establishment of clear, actionable SMART objectives. By insisting on specificity, managing scenario planning, and refining assumptions, facilitators can guide groups to consensus on measures that are not only precise but also universally understood and agreed upon within the group. This structured approach ensures that objectives are not just well-defined but also aligned with the organization’s strategic vision and capable of guiding effective action.

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Don’t ruin your career by hosting bad meetings. Sign up for a workshop or send this to someone who should. MGRUSH focuses on meeting design and practice. Each person practices tools and methods daily during the week. Therefore, while some call this immersion, we call it the road to building high-value facilitation skills.

Our workshops also provide a superb way to earn up to 40 SEUs from the Scrum Alliance, 40 CDUs from IIBA, 40 Continuous Learning Points (CLPs) based on Federal Acquisition Certification Continuous Professional Learning Requirements using Training and Education activities, 40 Professional Development Units (PDUs) from SAVE International, as well as 4.0 CEUs for other professions. (See workshop and Reference Manual descriptions for details.)

Want a free 10-minute break timer? Sign up for our once-monthly newsletter HERE and receive a free timer along with four other of our favorite meeting tools.

Go to the Training Store to access proven, in-house resources, including full agendas, break timers, and templates. Finally, take a few seconds to buy us a cup of coffee and please SHARE with others.

We dare you to embrace the will, wisdom, and activities of a modern leader. #facilitationtraining #MEETING DESIGN

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Don’t Just Start Meetings, LAUNCH Them in 5 Minutes or Less

Don’t Just Start Meetings, LAUNCH Them in 5 Minutes or Less

by | Aug 22, 2023 | Meeting Agendas, Meeting Structure

Successful meetings and workshops comprise three essential phases: a beginning, a middle, and an end. Yet, meetings often fail because leaders ignore the importance of one or more of these.

In this Best Practices article, we’ll focus on phase one, the beginning, or meeting introduction, by detailing seven consecutive activities that, easily mastered, ensure stronger meeting and workshop launches. Here is a link to four activities to command a professional wrap.

Start with the End in Mind

An effective meeting introduction relies on the leadership consciousness that knows what the result looks like. Yet describing the results of a successful meeting is not enough. The name for each agenda step needs to describe its result or deliverable. Remember, the objective for each agenda step or activity is an object—a noun. You cannot deliver a verb. Agenda steps are best described by answering the question, “What does DONE look like?”

We begin by detailing seven activities that you should command for every Launch (Introduction). In a separate Best Practices article you will find a detailed explanation of four activities that you should command for every Review and Wrap (Conclusion).

Launching — Your Meeting Introduction

Your launch sets the tone, confirms roles, clarifies boundaries (scope), and describes what results will be generated during the session. A meeting launch should last no longer than 5 minutes (excluding icebreakers or other special activities such as an executive kickoff or a product or project update).

Transfer Ownership

Make sure that your participants understand that this meeting has a clear purpose and impact. Use the integrative and plural first person of ‘we’ or ‘us’ and avoid the singular ‘I’ so that you begin to transfer responsibility and ownership to the participants who need to own the results.

Visual Confirmation

Before you start your meeting, have your in-person or online room set up to visually display the meeting purpose, meeting scope, and meeting deliverables. If you cannot simplify each statement into 25 words or less (for each), then you are not ready to launch your session. In particular, if you do not know what the deliverable looks like, then you do not know what success looks like, or when you will be DONE.

Display the meeting purpose, scope, and deliverable on a slide, screen, whiteboard, handheld artifact, or large Post-it® paper. Additionally, display the agenda and ground rules appropriate to your politics and situation. Use the following seven activities in sequence to launch every session, even a 50-minute meeting. Your meeting introduction is not an appropriate time to experiment. These seven activities (plus occasional Kick-off), in this sequence, have been stress-tested and proven to be most effective, assuring a clear and compelling launch.

Seven Meeting Launch Activities

Seven Meeting Launch Activities

 

Seven Meeting Introduction (Launch) Activities

ONE — Roles and Impact

Introduce yourself in the role of facilitator as neutral and unbiased. Stress their roles of participants as equals. Remind them to leave egos and titles in the hallway. Stipulate how much money or time (FTP)[♠] is wasted or at risk if the meeting and thus the organization, product, or project fails. Complete this activity within 30 seconds. Avoid using the word “I” after this activity. It is tough to drop the ego but remain conscious whenever you use the first person singular. Complete this first activity within 30 seconds.

Time is Short, Let's Begin

Time is Short, Let’s Begin

TWO — Meeting Purpose

Describe the meeting purpose, either on large-format paper, a handout, or a screen. Stress again that this session is important because… and seek audible confirmation from your participants. Frequently, for this first request, put your hands to your ears while saying “I can’t hear you” to force a louder audible response. Professional facilitators constantly strive to shift “airtime” to their participants, and participants’ vocal affirmation transfers ownership.

THREE — Meeting Scope

Describe the meeting scope, either on large-format paper, a handout, or a screen. The meeting scope is either the entire organization, department, product, or project, or part of them, but never more. Again, secure an audible assent from your participants that builds consensus and transfers ownership.

FOUR — Meeting Deliverable

Describe what DONE looks like by using your prepared statement. After securing audible assent here, you will have facilitated audible agreement three times within two minutes. If participants cannot agree on the meeting purpose, meeting scope, and meeting deliverables, then your agenda is at risk, and you have a more serious problem to address.

NOTE: This meeting purpose, scope, and deliverable should be provided to participants before the meeting as part of an invitation, pre-read, or read ahead. The prepared statements should not change at this point. If they do, the meeting may be challenged, and the agenda may no longer be valid. I have been asked to modify the scope a few times, but it was always sharpening and not broadening the prepared statement ( Who knew that Greenland and part of Iceland are in North America?).

I frequently put hands to my ears while saying “Can’t hear you” to force a louder audible response. Professional facilitators constantly strive to shift “airtime” to their participants, and their vocal affirmation transfers ownership.Be particularly careful to describe what DONE looks like (the deliverable). After securing audible assent here, you will have facilitated consensus three times within two minutes. 

FIVE — Housekeeping

Explain that housekeeping or “administrivia” is any noise that might be causing a distraction. You want to clear participants’ heads from thinking about themselves, especially their creature comforts. For brief meetings, you might include where to locate emergency exits, fire extinguishers, lavatories, or coffee and tea. For workshops and longer meetings, you would also cover the frequency of breaks, break times for responding to emails, lunch arrangements, and any other “noise” that might prevent participants from staying focused. You may also conduct Icebreakers here, or after presenting the Ground Rules described as the seventh activity below.

SIX — Meeting Agenda

Describe each Agenda Step, including the reason for the sequence of the Agenda Steps and flow. Explain how the Agenda Steps relate to one another. Do not read them. Rather, explain why the Agenda Steps help us get DONE and why they are listed in the sequence provided. Link Agenda Steps back to the deliverable so that participants see how completing each Agenda Step helps us get DONE.

Fully explaining the Agenda Steps helps groups move out of “storming,” Stage 1 of the group life cycle. Again, do not read the Agenda Steps —explain them! Optimally, use a nonprofessional analogy to explain your Agenda Steps.[♣] You have heard that a picture is worth a thousand words; well, an analogy is worth a thousand pictures (and a story is worth a thousand analogies).

SEVEN — Ground Rules

Share appropriate Ground Rules. Most importantly, explain why they are being used. Supplement your narrative posting of Ground Rules with audiovisual support, including humorous clips, but keep it brief. After presenting your essential Ground Rules, solicit any additional ones from the group, if desired.

Explain each ground rule (not more than nine). For professional meetings, we treat ‘speaking up’ in a meeting, NOT as an opportunity, rather as an obligation. After all, they are being paid to be there. We stress that “consensus” does not mean that we’ll make everybody happy, rather we will find an answer that everyone can support. See the MGRUSH alumni site for some other examples and audio-visual support.

Optional or Occasional (Eighth) Activities

  • Have everyone introduce themselves by providing a structured Icebreaker. Complete Icebreakers before moving out of your Launch agenda step. If you expect Icebreakers to take up a significant amount of time, more than a half-hour, consider sequencing this activity sooner and move it up to the fifth activity (“Housekeeping”). 
  • Product owners and project managers or sponsors may provide updates about progress or changes that have occurred. Have them remain brief by sticking to the vital information affecting the participants. Do not let them go too far “into the weeds,” providing details that bore everyone else. Keep them focused on WHAT has transpired (abstract), not HOW it is being done (concrete).
  • You may need to conduct a review of open items from prior meetings. Preferably, have the product or project manager or sponsor read open items and share a status update while you document or record participants’ comments if needed.
  • For multiple-day workshops, consider mounting a Plus-Delta in the back of the roofer participants to comment and request during the meeting. You don’t want to find out on the last day there is something you may have fixed on day one.

Kick-off During a Meeting Introduction

Do not modify the sequence of the seven activities for your meeting introduction sequence except, for any executive sponsor contributions. As soon as the sponsor enters the room, if the meeting has begun, stop and introduce that person. If the sponsor is present at the start, introduce him or her immediately. Have the sponsor up front and out of the room as soon as possible or practical, preferably without letting them sit down. If the sponsor insists on staying, seat him or her in the back or on the side as an observer, unless the sponsor is going to be an equal participant, like everyone else.

For a kick-off, have your executive sponsor explain the importance of participants’ contributions and what management intends to accomplish. Consider a quick project update. However, do not allow the update or executive sponsor to take more than five minutes. Your meeting is not a mini-Town Hall meeting (unless it actually is).

NOTE: For multiple-day workshops, cover the same items at the start of subsequent days (except kick-off). Additionally, review content built or agreed upon the day(s) before and how it relates to progress made in the agenda.

The Meeting Middle

After your meeting Introduction, the agenda steps between the Introduction and Wrap comprise the middle steps. Hundreds of our other Best Practices articles focus on what you can do between the introduction and wrap to plan, decide, and prioritize issues. 

The Meeting Wrap

We also provide a detailed article that provides a structured approach to your meeting Wrap. See “Use a Professional Meeting Wrap-Up Because Most Meetings Don’t End, They Stop” for a quick but thorough explanation of four activities to manage at the conclusion of your meetings and workshops.

Daniel Pink, in his book “When” claims that the Wrap represents the most important part of any meeting because the Wrap is the “taste you leave in someone’s mouth out in the hallway” where your participants should sound like they were in the same meeting together.

NOTE: In a separate Best Practices article you will find detailed explanation of four activities that you should command for every Review and Wrap (Conclusion).

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[♠] FTP represents Full Time Person or Full-time equivalent (FTE), frequently viewed as around 2,000 hours per year.

[♣] For an example, see the section “Explanation via Analogy” in the Planning Approach (Chapter 6) of Meetings That Get Results.

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Don’t ruin your career by hosting bad meetings. Sign up for a workshop or send this to someone who should. MGRUSH workshops focus on meeting design and practice. Each person practices tools, methods, and activities daily during the week. Therefore, while some call this immersion, we call it the road to building high-value facilitation skills.

Our workshops also provide a superb way to earn up to 40 SEUs from the Scrum Alliance, 40 CDUs from IIBA, 40 Continuous Learning Points (CLPs) based on Federal Acquisition Certification Continuous Professional Learning Requirements using Training and Education activities, 40 Professional Development Units (PDUs) from SAVE International, as well as 4.0 CEUs for other professions. (See workshop and Reference Manual descriptions for details.)

Want a free 10-minute break timer? Sign up for our once-monthly newsletter HERE and receive a free timer along with four other of our favorite facilitation tools.

Go to the Facilitation Training Store to access proven, in-house resources, including fully annotated agendas, break timers, and templates. Finally, take a few seconds to buy us a cup of coffee and please SHARE with others.

In conclusion, we dare you to embrace the will, wisdom, and activities that amplify a facilitative leader. #facilitationtraining #MEETING DESIGN

______

With Bookmarks no longer a feature in WordPress, we need to append the following for your benefit and reference