Key Behaviors for Facilitating Productive Project Meetings

A great meeting facilitator starts the meeting off on the right foot by setting clear expectations with the group. This important behavior immediately sets the tone for the meeting. After providing a short list of expectations, ask the group for agreement and any other expectations they would like to add.

Here is an initial list of meeting expectations that you can start from when facilitating your next meeting. Edit these and make them your own. 

• I'm looking for your active participation today. 
• Ask questions, provide your perspective, and collaborate.  
• We will respect your time and end on time.  
• Be respectful of each other. Don’t talk over each other.  
• Be present and engaged. Lap tops and cell phones should be tucked away.  
• Today is a safe, respectful environment to express your opinions and ideas. There are NO bad ideas.  
• Ask questions while they are fresh in your mind. 

Every meeting is unique. The expectations should reflect the purpose and expected outcomes of your meeting.

A professional meeting facilitator is there as a neutral party and does not go out of their way to exert their opinion. Instead, the facilitator draws the ideas, opinions and expertise from others and uses that information to support the discussion.

However, if you are one of the key subject matter experts on any of the discussion topics, it may become challenging to remain neutral. One way to mitigate this might be to reach out to a colleague to facilitate the meeting on your behalf to allow you the opportunity to participate to the full extent as a subject matter expert. Even the best meeting facilitators fully understand when they need to bring other people to the table to allow them to actively participate.

Active listening is a key behavior of a great meeting facilitator. Listen carefully to the message that each meeting participant offers and do not begin to formulate your answer while they are mid-sentence.

Your goal is to pull out the right information and you can do this by asking questions to gain greater clarity around key points. Those clarifying questions could be as simple as “Could you tell me more about that?” or “Can you be more specific?”. If you have a meeting participant that is long-winded and you are trying to capture the key points on a flip chart or white board, ask “How can I articulate that in a sentence or two for the meeting minutes?” as this forces them to be to the point. Another option is to reiterate what they said succinctly and simply ask for validation.

All key discussion ideas, decisions, risks, action items and next steps should be tracked during the meeting. This might be on flip charts, white board, an action log projected up on a screen, etc. A professional meeting facilitator always ensures that the ideas recorded are in the spirit of which they were intended. One of the worst things you can do when paraphrasing is change the meaning of what has been said. After you write something down, if you’re not sure if you captured it correctly, simply ask: “Did I capture this as you intended?” or “Did I articulate this well?”

A great meeting facilitator will utilize resources around them to effectively manage the meeting. This includes managing the time, which is especially important if you have allocated time for certain discussions or breakout groups. You can manage this yourself or assign someone in the room to act as the timekeeper. If you do so, check in with them periodically around the time left for an activity, when the time is up, and when there is 10 minutes left in the meeting.

If you are managing the time yourself, periodically state how much time you have left and use that statement to help move the conversation along. You can say "I see we are half way through our meeting. Let's wrap up this agenda item, as we have other topics to cover today". 

As the facilitator of the meeting, the body language you portray is significant and something you should pay special attention to, especially in times when the conversation is challenging. Here are some tips to maintain open body language.

• Always try to face the group and avoid turning your back to them as much as possible. Even if you are writing on the wall, angle yourself to still face your meeting participants.  
• Maintain eye contact. The eye contact should be friendly and encouraging. If someone hasn’t spoken up, a friendly glance in their direction might prompt them to offer a suggestion.   
• Never stand in front of the group with your arms crossed. This may be perceived as anger, disapproval or disagreement.  
• Keep facial expressions neutral when negative emotions surface. Always be aware of when your own feelings run high and always maintain a cool, calm exterior.  
• Minimize any multi-tasking such as checking your own emails or glancing at your phone. You might actually be giving the impression that you’re not paying attention and have more important things to do.