A facilitator's job is to pull knowledge out of the people in the room, rather than pushing content. This means setting aside our tendencies to give advice or solve problems and simply listen. In this blog, we discuss how this is done using two simple techniques: paraphrasing and asking questions.
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Asking questions is an art form. A good question is something you want to collect, just like a good book.
Become a question librarian with our free 2-page Questions Library PDF containing simple starter questions and easy-to-follow tips for growing your question-asking muscle.
In the Kilmann model, there are five styles of conflict depending on the importance of cooperation and assertiveness in a given situation.
Use this decision tree to help decide which conflict style to use.
Preparation ahead of the meeting can make or break the success of your agenda. It doesn’t take long, especially if you’re planning for just a few people.
Download our free 2-page Agenda Planning Worksheet to quickly get started planning your agenda.
We can't control other people; we can only control ourselves and how we respond to the people around us. Thankfully, there are verbal skills that anyone in a meeting—from facilitator to participant—can use to help keep their meetings on track, productive, and conflict-free.
Download this 2-page cheat sheet for a breakdown of our top five skills for meeting participants with tips on when and how to use them.
Don't have a full day for your strategic planning? When meeting time is limited, get a head start with a pre-meeting survey, interviews, or another form of data gathering. Get started with our sample text and questions.
This template pairs well with the SLOR Analysis agenda featured in This Meeting Sucks Season 4, Episode 5.
Our calendars are busier than ever. It’s time to question why your team meets, how often, how long, where, and with whom, using a structured meeting audit process.
Use this worksheet with five easy steps to review and revise your team meeting rhythms. For a poster-size template, check out our Project Kick-off and Team Charter Template Package.
Check your results using our Meeting Cadence Quiz.
Every good meeting starts with framing. The way we frame a discussion has a direct impact on achieving the outcomes of a meeting, especially in high-conflict groups.
Facilitators collect meeting ground rules like a geologist collects rocks. Start your collection with our free 2-page Meeting Ground Rules Matching PDF.