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!

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.)

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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