How to facilitate effective meetings.

Facilitating meetings is often harder than you think. Old habits and paradigms can block effectivity

As a facilitator ( like one of the roles of Scrum Master ) you facilitate events but that sounds easier than it usually turns out to be. Old habits and paradigms are hard to kill in many organisations and probably in yours too.

In this article, I share my personal best practices and a proven effective approach to making meetings more effective (and fun).

You know the drill.

You’re in a (remote) meeting and you’re surprised by everything that is happening.

• About people who come into the meeting too late.
• About not having a clear agenda or desired outcome for the meeting
• About a facilitator who doesn’t take the lead.
• About always the same people speaking.
• Jumping from topic to topic without finalising the previous item.
• Not listening to each other.

Your amazement builds up to frustration and with your frustration, you try to change the group process.
By saying it doesn’t work that way. Or by throwing in a brilliant idea.
Which is then not responded to…