Meetings are not foreign to academic leaders, but strategic
planning meetings and meetings aimed at complex problem-solving with partners
are weightier than others. In these situations, choosing to use an experienced
facilitator who is outside your department or college can result in these
benefits:
- Clearly defined outcomes with measurable
progress toward those goals
- Deep discussions about critical issues
- Engaged participants who know their unique
contributions have been heard
- Greater understanding of the issue or problem at
hand
- Clear decisions and action steps with
participant commitment
The best facilitators are process experts who know enough
about the meeting content to appropriately structure your agenda and develop
powerful questions for value-added discussions. They focus on how meetings are
run, how to meaningfully engage participants, and how to achieve the desired
outcomes. Responsibility for creating a safe and trusting environment in which
everyone respects each other’s ideas lies with the facilitator. Addressing sacred
cows is easier for a skilled facilitator than for someone embedded in the
history of the department or college. Lastly, managing equal levels of
participation and effectively intervening when conflicts arise are talents
facilitators bring.
The cost of hiring an experienced facilitator can be a drawback. At the same time, it’s important to evaluate the cost of not hiring an outside facilitator. Discussions that veer away from strategy or spiral downward, grandstanding personalities, and lack of action steps at the conclusion of meetings are common to all of us. Using an outside facilitator to mitigate these universal experiences and to gain the benefits mentioned above is worth the investment.
To identify a facilitator for your next strategic planning
or problem-solving meeting, ask your peers whom they have used. If your
immediate network has no one to offer, consider asking your provost’s office or
human resources for suggestions. Another source might be the professional
organizations to which you belong.
Personal referrals ensure your facilitator will be a strong
“fit” for your meeting purpose and audience. Absent a trusted recommendation, search
the internet for “meeting facilitator.” This approach will yield hundreds of
results. You can narrow down your list by scanning websites and looking for facilitators
who have experience in academia or with the topic you will address.
Meet with at least two facilitator candidates. Ask them
about the types of meetings they have facilitated, the results that were achieved,
difficult situations they encountered, and the process they will use when
engaging with you. Your degree of comfort with the outside facilitator is of
greatest importance. You are looking for someone you can trust and confide in
as well as someone who will structure and run your meeting.
Expect the candidates to ask you about the desired meeting
outcomes, the meeting participants, and background information they need to
better understand the context for the meeting. If the meeting is broadly
focused and you are interested in narrowing down the purpose, a strong meeting
facilitator will suggest interviewing participants in advance of the meeting.
This same pre-meeting interview approach is also appropriate when the discussion
may split participants into opposing camps. The more the facilitator can fully
understand interpersonal dynamics, opinions, and the subject matter before the
meeting, the better prepared they will be to effectively facilitate.
As you choose an outside facilitator, be sure to call at
least one reference. Relevant questions for a reference include the following:
- Did the facilitated meeting achieve the desired
results?
- Were participants engaged throughout, and did
their engagement help with their continued commitment to decisions made at the
meeting?
- What feedback did you offer the facilitator, and
how did they receive it?
- How does this facilitator compare to others?
- What interest is there in hiring this
facilitator again?
Once you have selected your facilitator, you can expect to engage in several planning conversations prior to the meeting. Assume at least three hours of planning for a daylong meeting. This time commitment will vary depending on how your facilitator operates and how familiar they are with your need.
These pre-meeting discussions will involve clarifying the
meeting’s purpose, defining outcomes, ensuring that the right participants are
invited, writing and sending pre-meeting communications, developing the agenda,
anticipating how the meeting will unfold, and deepening the facilitator’s
understanding of the task at hand. Giving the facilitator contextual documents is
helpful and can save meeting time. Those documents will vary depending on the
meeting purpose. Potentially useful ones include previous strategic plans,
survey results, governance documents, proposals, organizational charts, and
external reviews.
Two important points of discussion between you and your
facilitator are how meeting notes will be captured and how they will be
delivered after the meeting. If every word spoken is vital to recall, recording
the meeting will be necessary. Doing so, however, can produce logistical
challenges and discourage freedom of expression. Ask your facilitator what they
suggest given the desired outcomes. Often, writing key points on flip charts
that can be later transcribed is an effective approach. Ensure clarity about
how the transcription will be made, who will make it, and how quickly they will
produce it. Many facilitators will see this as part of their role and include
it in their fees.
In summary, if you want a productive meeting that engages
your colleagues, focuses on issues of importance, and leads to action, hire an
outside facilitator. The financial investment and preparation time will result
in significant progress on gaining buy-in for your strategic plan or the solution
to your complex problem.
Anne Massaro has a PhD in workforce development and education
from The Ohio State University and is a certified coach from the
NeuroLeadership Institute. She has been consulting, facilitating, and
supporting the growth of individuals and organizations for more than 20 years.
