Facilitators Don’t Run Meetings, They Save Them from Chaos

By Jake Blocker

I was in a meeting a few weeks ago, and the amazing Rachael Grail was on the call. As per usual, I picked up a little nugget from her that stuck with me. She said, “Facilitators don’t run meetings, they save them from chaos.”

If you facilitate ANY meeting, you likely just said “yeppppp” after you read that and maybe even had some horror-movie-level flashbacks to some rough meetings you facilitated.

As one does after hearing something so wise, I decided to build an article around this quote. Okay, maybe it’s only us marketers that do this. In this article, I’ll go over three of the core tools facilitators use to manage the chaos. Of course, there are hundreds of tools, but I think we all only have the brain capacity for three right now. :)

1. Pre-Work

I’m a biiiig fan of pre-work, when it’s appropriate. At the same time, I’ve been guilty of not doing said busy work when I’ve been an attendee.

What is pre-work and why is it useful? Great question. Pre-work is something the meeting leader or facilitator will provide in advance for participants to complete ahead of time and come prepared to share or discuss in the meeting.

For example, in meetings I run, we’re oftentimes brainstorming marketing ideas like articles, webinars, campaigns, etc. So if I’m scheduling a Q2 webinar brainstorm session, I might ask participants to come prepared with 2–3 webinar topic ideas to share with the group.

Why is this useful? Well, how many times have you opened up the floor for ideas and you’re greeted with silence and blank faces? Pre-work gives you a leg up as people will have ideas to share off the bat.

That said, pre-work is not always necessary. Keep in mind that everyone is busy, and they don’t have time to do pre-work for every meeting they’re a part of. In meetings where you’re sharing ideas, reporting, or reviewing something, pre-work can be great.

2. Building Agreements

We’ve written many articles and recorded numerous webinars around the concept of building agreements. There’s a reason for this: it’s EXTREMELY important to having a successful meeting.

Rather than recapping all of this content, I’ll give you a few key moments to build agreements in your meeting.

Top of the meeting: At the start of the meeting, review the agenda, discuss how the meeting will operate and any additional details, then build an agreement. Ensure that everyone is on board with what will happen during your time together.

Decision-making: When decisions are made, build an agreement on that decision and confirm everyone fully understands and is on board with it. Then DOCUMENT that agreement so you can refer back to it days, weeks, or months down the road.

Next steps: As you go along in your meeting, you’ll likely have next steps of what people will be doing after this meeting. Make sure to build agreements with individuals on that next step, who’s responsible, and when it will be completed.

3. Circling Back

Awww, the great “circling back.” You may have some chills running down your spine just reading that cringeworthy phrase. But in this instance, I’m not referring to the dreaded new year emails that you thought were ancient history.

In this case, I’m referring to a facilitator managing the inevitable off-the-rails discussion that comes up at any given time in meetings. A facilitator will “circle back” to the agenda and agreements built at the top of a meeting.

What does this look like?
When a facilitator notices that things are veering too far off course, they might kindly interrupt and say something like, “I see that we’re going a bit off topic. I’d like to refer us to our original agreed-upon agenda for today and where we are on it. This discussion seems to be outside of our agenda.”

Now, at this point, a facilitator might feel that the off-topic discussion is actually quite important and might be necessary for what was originally on the agenda. If that’s the case, they may say something like, “It seems like there’s a lot of energy on this topic. Do we feel that we should have this conversation first, then move to the original topic? If so, let’s adjust the agenda accordingly.”

The facilitator will then work with the group to adjust the agenda as they see fit.

Facilitators are the ones who keep meetings useful, human, and on track. They protect the space, hold the structure, and create the conditions where actual progress can happen. Without those skills, it’s just a bunch of people talking in a circle.

If any of this made you nod along, you’d probably love our Essential Facilitation™ workshop. It’s where all of these tools (and so many more) come to life in a way that’s practical and hands-on. Check it out here.