Are you making things easier

Today I’m working with a group of leaders on building their facilitation skills. 

Facilitation at its heart means ‘ease’, to make progress with ease. 

And ease is a great perspective to take. 

Ask yourself 
- are we making this harder than it needs to be? 
- what could we do that would make it easier? 
- how can I make it easier for them? 
- what does the team think would make it easier?

Easy doesn’t mean it’s not good or not valuable. 

It’s about being able to manage and juggle a mix of things happening in teams :
🌕 Engagement - that we are connected to this work
🌕 Involvement - that we are doing something with the work
🌕 Contribution - that we bring our ideas and efforts to the work. 
🌕 Productivity - that we are getting the work that needs to be done, done. 

The skills of getting people aligned, engaged, inspired and participating doesn’t happen automatically. 

You’ll have to do something. Many things. Many micro things that together make great progress. 

Does your team need these faciliation skills, to help make the day-to-day work easier? 

Facilitation skills apply in-person, online and in the new world of hybrid work. 

Let’s talk. I’ll tailor a session, a series of sessions or a longer term program for the team. 

Frame the reason

Received an invitation for a meeting recently and there’s nothing but a vague title of the meeting? 

The convener or caller of the meeting may know what the meeting is all about... but those expected to attend may not. 

Fast forward to the actual meeting, and it’s worth explaining some more : why we’re meeting, what we’re going to do and how we’ll do it. 

When you’ve got a room (or zoom) full of people, they need to know what this is about and why they should care. 


FRAME the reason you’re all there, what’s behind, what’s ahead and what you’re expecting or hoping for. 

That frame is a structure, a context and a framework. It supports a system. 

And that meeting is a system. 

Frames are powerful Sensemaking tools, engaging people and switching on their curiosity. 

And they’re too often left out of the work we’re trying to do together. 

Remember, you might understand why ... but they may not. 

Thankfully it’s easy fixed - with a decent frame. 

What is a breakout room really for

So many online meetings!
So many breakout rooms!

And there’s too much “break into a room and have a chat” going on. 

While yes, connection, conversation and support are wonderful, there comes a point where more structure is needed. 


When used lazily, breakout rooms waste time, disengage people and fail to bring out valuable contribution. 

The breakout room is not to:
❌Kill or take up time
❌Give the facilitator or speaker a break
❌Get participants just doing something... anything.

People have wonder and genius to share. Let’s help them share it!


What’s better to do in a breakout room? 
- Wrestle with a question (better than ‘what do you think of ...?’)
- Share stories on a theme or topic 
- Solve a problem 
- Apply a process
- Generate ideas
- Reflect or review 
- Teach each other 
- Draft or craft
- Uncover insights 
- Prepare or rehearse
- Connect dots
- Plan a response ...


There is more and better we can do in online meetings. 

And a worthy effort is how we discover and uncover contribution. 

To be able to facilitate better is one of this decade's critical skills for leadership

These elegant, collaborative and engaging capabilities aren't just for trainers, presenters or coaches.

Executives, business analysts, project managers, middle level team and people leaders and those new to managing and leading experience the benefits of being able to:
🌕engage with a group or team,
🌕draw information from that group, and then
🌕help them collaborate to achieve an agreed outcome.


Leaders can do so much better to create the right environment and set up the processes that will help that team work together and collaborate.

But make no mistake, facilitation is not ‘soft’ work. 

Better Facilitation will help you balance:
- Achieving outcomes
- Boosting engagement
- Driving productivity
- Encouraging contribution.

Make meetings and workshops better, engagement and collaboration better ... and results and impacts better.

That workshop will need some design

Many of us are leading more workshops and meetings than ever before.

We’re bringing people together, helping them with learning, planning, collaborating, discussing and decision making.

So how do you ensure the workshops you lead are interesting, engaging ... AND effective?

By design.

Successful workshops and meetings come via better design.

And whether we’re leading online or face-to-face sessions, they all require some design ... before the day.

Careful though, because we can also go overboard and over-engineer! There’s a sweet spot where we have designed the most valuable elements and then we can let the rest roll.

Focus on these 4 things in design :

1. Engagement
2. Activities
3. Participation
4. Outcomes.