Ep. 039 - How to Easily Facilitate Any Meeting Like a Pro
Facilitating meetings can be an intricate dance, and it takes the art of romance and mind reading to keep the scales balanced.
So how do you refine such a mystical skill? Whether you’re a sage on the stage or a guide on the side, Gary Gamp has his usual plethora of strategies to facilitate any meeting like a pro.
Key takeaways from this episode:
Research the topic and key players
Facilitate - don’t participate
Be a catalyst and a guide
Keep engagement, keep linking, and keep to time
Highlights:
“Presentation is like you’re the sage on the stage, delivering content to an audience. Facilitation, however, is being the guide on the side.” - 2:10 - Gary Gamp
“As we're the guide on the side, we're there to moderate, ask questions, get discussions going, and introduce activities. The best way to do that is to ask questions, and the kind of questions you want to ask are killer questions.” - 6:15 - Gary Gamp
“If there's a big meeting, when people come in I just need to kind of calibrate with them. So when you're facilitating a bigger meeting, and sometimes people don't know who you are, you've got to somehow build a relationship with them.” - 10:40 - Gary Gamp
“Have you thought through how you're going to open the meeting? How do you want to come across it? First impressions come pretty soon, so what are you gonna do in the first three minutes? Don't just rock up and think it's gonna be okay.” - 13:15 - Gary Gamp
“In order to be a catalyst, you've got to kind of create energy. I’m not saying you should have jazz hands, but you need to turn up a little bit. So whatever type of personality you are, just turn it up a notch. If you feel that you're an introvert, that's okay. But just turn up a little bit, and be upbeat.” - 16:25 - Gary Gamp
“During the session, you're going to get people that are loud, and people that are quiet. Your job is to be a human volume control, turn down the loud ones and turn up the quiet ones. Your job is to make sure everyone has heard.” - 19:15 - Gary Gamp
“Our job is to watch body language and call it out. I say a lot to people, ‘George, you look a bit uncomfortable with that. Tell me what's on your mind. Let’s get out on the table’. People are usually receptive to that, and they appreciate it.” - 28:50 - Gary Gamp
“Facilitation becomes like driving - When I started driving, I was like, ‘Oh, I don't have my driving instructor next to me now, and I'm on my own’. Fast forward many years later, I kind of have my leg over the steering wheel and my arm out the window. So it becomes second nature.” - 30:45 - Gary Gamp
