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How To Run A Meeting That Doesn’t Suck | Part 3: You Have To Know How To Track Four Things At Once
After running thousands of meetings and sitting through even more, here’s the skills you actually need to be successful.
This is part three of a seven part series.
Part 1: You Have To Be Present
Part 2: You Have To Know How To Set A Context
Perhaps the hardest part of facilitating is that you have to keep your attention on four things at once.
The first is the person talking and what they are saying. If you don’t listen you can’t facilitate, seems pretty obvious and if you’re present you should be able to do this.
The second is the group or relational space of the meeting. Some people call this reading the room.
As people talk the room will respond. Some people will lean forward and others back. Some people will agree (nodding) others not agreeing (scowling, blank faces). Some people may disengage entirely or engage even more.
In addition over time the room will get stale, tired, fidgety, and/or emotional. Your ability to track this while also still hearing what people are saying is KEY for you to know where to take the room…
