5 Signs You Need a Meeting Facilitator
Thursday, April 21, 2016
Marketing
5 Signs You Need a Meeting Facilitator
Most employees spend 35-50 percent of their time in meetings. What’s more frustrating is executives consider more than 67 percent of their meetings to be failures.
If we are spending half of our day in meetings, and more often than not getting less than satisfactory results, when should we consider shaking things up?
Let’s say you’ve got a particularly big meeting coming up – for your company’s leadership, or maybe for the entire company. How do you know it’s time to bring in someone else to give you a hand?
Here are five signs:
- When you don’t have time to strategically prepare for the meeting. Time is one of your most valuable assets; taking time to strategically plan a big meeting often doesn’t fit into your already-packed schedule. A facilitator will plan meeting details, including agendas, room arrangement, meeting supplies and fresh ideas to keep attendees engaged. They’ll also handle the coordination of different presentations or participants in the meeting.
- When it’s difficult to keep the discussion on track. Strong personalities can quickly dominate the conversation, or bunny trails can become a participant’s best friend. A third-party facilitator will guide the conversation, keeping everyone involved and on track.
- When your participation needs to be maximized. When you take responsibility for running the entire meeting, it can be difficult to participate. Instead of lending your full creative energy and expertise to the discussion, you’ve got one eye on the agenda and one eye on the clock. But when you enlist a facilitator to run it for you, you can bring your best self to the meeting.
- When your people are stuck. Sometimes you need a new pair of eyes – someone outside the situation who can ask the questions you’ve forgotten to ask, or restore the focus you might have lost. Facilitators bring that fresh approach to brainstorming ideas or addressing sensitive issues.
- When you’re not getting the results you want. This is the most important reason for hiring a facilitator. An experienced meeting facilitator will not only prepare for the meeting, but also ensure that the objective and purpose for the meeting was met. Follow-through and meeting notes are key deliverables for meeting facilitation.
You guessed it: Balcom Agency does meeting facilitation. Balcom can plan and facilitate a meeting that will keep your people engaged from start to finish. Ask about our Consulting & Training services.
Tags: Consulting & Training