Be a good facilitator

Reluctantly, I lead quite a few roundtable discussions, and I am always surprised when participants comment that I'm a great facilitator. As someone who works alone with her cats and shuns meetings unless utterly necessary, I'm stunned by the compliment. But Sue Pelletier's post live from IAEM's EXPO! EXPO!, recounting what makes a good facilitator, helped me see what I'm doing right (and where I could improve). She writes:

"Some ingredients for effective facilitation people shared were:

• A facilitator that does his/her homework and doesn’t ramble on.
• Someone who doesn’t let the most verbal person control the session.
• Someone who listens to both what is and is not being said.
• Someone who encourages “what if” thinking.
• Someone who gets people to connect with each other up front.
• Someone who keeps on task and on time."

Other best practices for facilitators include reading body language to understand people's attitudes, and looking for hidden inferences to understand their frames of reference. Then help others in the group understand the differing perspectives and get on the same page (especially if concensus building is required).