For over ten years, we have consistently posted articles on Facilitation Best Practices. Articles are written to help you lead better meetings.
Throughout, we have updated these articles to keep them fresh, current, and vibrant. Some Facilitation Best Practices articles include links to valuable downloads, such as our one-page meeting template agenda and business model canvas. Below is a list of 27 highly useful posts based on viewer popularity and the current needs of our volatile and ever-changing business climate. Read, learn, and enjoy—and don’t forget to share!
Facilitation Best Practices Acknowledge Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
Agile vs. Waterfall? Don’t Risk Failure By Using the Wrong One
When weighing agile vs. waterfall benefits, consider how the Stacey Matrix arranges projects from the simple through the chaotic.
Meeting Killers: Eight Ways to Kill A Meeting and Your Reputation
Avoid these eight meeting killers that can destroy your meeting and your professional reputation . . . do not penalize people who are on time . . .
Meeting Introduction — Five Activities for a Solid and Compelling Launch
Agendas should include a beginning, a middle, and an end. To conduct a professional meeting introduction, complete these five activities.
Use a Professional Meeting Wrap Up Because Most Meetings Don’t End, They Stop
Meeting Wrap — How to facilitate four important closing activities: 1-Review, 2-Next Steps, 3-Communications, and 4-Assessment.
How to Lead Online Meetings: No Hiding and Practical Tips
Leading online meetings effectively requires more skills than facilitating meetings in person. Here are dozens of tips for technology and participant challenges.
4 Steps to Conflict Resolution by Managing Arguments
It is not your responsibility to GENERATE CONFLICT RESOLUTION. However, here are four activities that show you how to MANAGE meeting conflict.
How To Manage Challenging Personality Types to Avoid Problem Meetings
Always empower your participants, but learn to control challenging personality types to avoid problem meetings and problem people.
Best One-Page Meeting Agenda Template
Nobody wants more meetings or more time in meetings, so use this meeting agenda template to add your own agenda steps to get DONE faster.
Frequent Meeting Problems and What You Should Do About Them
Meeting problems are indicative of resistance during a meeting. Resistance can be prevented and mitigated. Here’s what to do about them.
How to Facilitate Prioritization and Build Consensus Quickly (or, MoSCoW)
Every meeting leader needs a simple tool to facilitate prioritization and build consensus quickly. Combine our PowerBall method (MoSCoW) with BookEnds for a robust approach.
The 4 Steps to Active Listening and 10 Tips for Interactive Listening
Active listening requires facilitators and other servant leaders to reflect on WHAT was said. Highly effective active listeners also reflect WHY.
Quantitative TO-WS Analysis (SWOT) Makes it Easier and Faster to Build Consensus
Quantitative SWOT analysis was developed by Metz at Kellogg because qualitative situational analysis provides a poor method for building consensus.
12 Critical Facilitation Do’s and Don’ts During Meetings, Sessions, and Workshops
Presenting a brief, yet powerful, list of Facilitation Do’s and Don’ts for reference before and during meetings, sessions, and workshops.
Three Review Meetings: Operational, Strategic, and Strategy Renewal
Deliverables should drive meetings, even review meetings. Here are the deliverables, frequency, and structure for the three review meetings.
Ground Rules and Ideation Rules for Optimal Group Behavior in Meetings
Use ground rules and ideation rules to manage individual and group behavior during meetings. A bit of structure will help get you DONE, fast.
How to Build Action Plans with Shared Ownership and Accountability
A robust action plan answers ten planning questions. They aggregate to build consensus with participants agreeing on WHO does WHAT by WHEN.
How to Categorize Lists of Ideas and Inputs When Facilitating
A poor question by facilitators asks “How would you like to categorize these?” Learn the secret that drives natural categories of raw lists.
Don’t Ruin Your Scrum Sprints — Facilitate Scrum Events Using These Agendas
Detailed Scrum facilitation events/agendas, inputs required, and comments about the skills required to facilitate Scrum events effectively.
Business Model Canvas — Agenda Steps and Questions
The Business Model Canvas uses a one-page primer and template, providing a general scan. The specific questions you can use are detailed here.
Do NOT Lead Another Workshop Without These Four Workshop Documents
To ensure your participants are prepared and responsive, provide 4 documents: Pre-Read, Annotated Agenda, Slide Deck, and Meeting Output Notes.
Three Behaviors Guaranteed to Build Consensus
To build consensus, you and your teams require three clear and critical behaviors, namely: Leadership, Facilitation, and Meeting Design.
Remember the WHY Before the WHAT – An Integrative Problem-Solving Framework and Agenda
Problem-solving demands structure and focus to get more done quickly, especially with many symptoms, causes, and mitigations to be considered.
How to Facilitate Speakers and Conference Presentations
How to facilitate speakers and get the most out of speaker and conference presentations. Some call this the WHAT, SO WHAT, and NOW WHAT.
Real-Win-Worth — Screening Method for Complex Decision-Making
Real-Win-Worth: To what extent an opportunity is real, we can win compared to competitive options, and to what extent an opportunity is worthhttps://mgrush.com/blog/real-win-worth/.
Quiet People: Five Facilitative Ways to Get More Meeting Participation
You will not change quiet people into extroverts, yet there are steps to increase the amount of meeting participation from all people.
Edward de Bono: Six Thinking Hats Provide Strong Stimulus for Ideation
Edward de Bono: Six Thinking Hats instructs on HOW TO think rather than WHAT TO think, making it easier to generate more ideas and increase decision quality.
Why Meeting Participants Have An Obligation To Contribute
When meeting participants are professionals, meetings are NOT just an opportunity to speak up, but an obligation to contribute.
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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
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With Bookmarks no longer a feature in WordPress, we need to append the following for your benefit and reference
- 20 Prioritization Techniques = https://foldingburritos.com/product-prioritization-techniques/
- Creativity Techniques = https://www.mycoted.com/Category:Creativity_Techniques
- Facilitation Training Calendar = https://mgrush.com/public-facilitation-training-calendar/
- Liberating Structures = http://www.liberatingstructures.com/ls-menu
- Management Methods = https://www.valuebasedmanagement.net
- Newseum = https://www.freedomforum.org/todaysfrontpages/
- People Search = https://pudding.cool/2019/05/people-map/
- Project Gutenberg = http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page
- Scrum Events Agendas = https://mgrush.com/blog/scrum-facilitation/
- Speed test = https://www.speedtest.net/result/8715401342
- Teleconference call = https://youtu.be/DYu_bGbZiiQ
- The Size of Space = https://neal.fun/size-of-space/
- Thiagi/ 400 ready-to-use training games = http://thiagi.net/archive/www/games.html
- Visualization methods = http://www.visual-literacy.org/periodic_table/periodic_table.html#
- Walking Gorilla = https://youtu.be/vJG698U2Mvo
Terrence Metz, president of MG RUSH Facilitation Training, was just 22-years-old and working as a Sales Engineer at Honeywell when he recognized a widespread problem—most meetings were ineffective and poorly led, wasting both time and company resources. However, he also observed meetings that worked. What set them apart? A well-prepared leader who structured the session to ensure participants contributed meaningfully and achieved clear outcomes.
Throughout his career, Metz, who earned an MBA from Kellogg (Northwestern University) experienced and also trained in various facilitation techniques. In 2004, he purchased MG RUSH where he shifted his focus toward improving established meeting designs and building a curriculum that would teach others how to lead, facilitate, and structure meetings that drive results. His expertise in training world-class facilitators led to the 2020 publication of Meetings That Get Results: A Guide to Building Better Meetings, a comprehensive resource on effectively building consensus.
Grounded in the principle that “nobody is smarter than everybody,” the book details the why, what, and how of building consensus when making decisions, planning, and solving problems. Along with a Participant’s Guide and supplemental workshops, it supports learning from foundational awareness to professional certification.
Metz’s first book, Change or Die: A Business Process Improvement Manual, tackled the challenges of process optimization. His upcoming book, Catalyst: Facilitating Innovation, focuses on meetings and workshops that don’t simply end when time runs out but conclude with actionable next steps and clear assignments—ensuring progress beyond discussions and ideas.
Well Explained…A facilitator is a person who helps a group of people to work together better.Visit https://www.oguild.com to know more…