ATTACHMENT A

How to Facilitate Effective Meetings

Guidelines and Tips for Each Meeting Role

Facilitator
✓ Explain your role to the members of the group.

✓ Present the purpose and agenda for the meeting.

✓ Take responsibility for the method/process of the meeting, but do not get involved in the
content. Do not contribute your own ideas to the group.

✓ Be neutral and do not evaluate others’ ideas. Instead, guide the group’s generation of ideas.

✓ Maintain the group’s focus; rein them in when they start to wander away from the agenda.

✓ Prevent conflicts from arising during discussions. Ensure that individual members of the group
do not attack each other.

✓ Enjoin all members to participate equally--encourage quiet participants to speak; respectfully

ask a dominant participant to wrap up, or call for a vote in cases where the group is divided.

✓ Keep the discussion moving along.

✓ Guide the decision-making process.

✓ Encourage the members of the group to take ownership of plans and decisions reached.

✓ Monitor the Recorder’s progress.

✓ Act as timekeeper to ensure smooth progress of the meeting.

✓ Work with the Leader during critical or problematic moments to direct the next steps.

✓ Be collaborative and be an active listener.

Leader
If Leader is separate from the Facilitator:

Before the meeting:

✓ Familiarize the Facilitator with details like the purpose for the meeting, desired results, industry
trends and/or technical information (if applicable), as well as the personalities of the participants
and the dynamics of the group.

During the meeting:

✓ Explain the purpose for the meeting. Provide overall direction for the meeting.
✓ Introduce the Facilitator and Recorder.

✓ Help keep the group on track while the meeting is ongoing.

✓ Meet with the Facilitator during the break to discuss ideas on how to proceed, especially if
problems are encountered.

✓ Contribute ideas to the group.

✓ Draw attention to possible organizational constraints or management policies.

✓ With someone else in the role of facilitator, you can be a full participant in the meeting,
especially in the decision-making aspect. You can also easily voice out any strong opinions you
may have on the items being discussed.

If Leader is also acting as Facilitator:

✓ Before the meeting, evaluate first if you can successfully fulfill both roles.

✓ Balance your attention between the content and the method.

✓ Inform participants that you will be doing both roles during the meeting.

✓ Contribute ideas and give comments on participants’ inputs.

✓ Set constraints if the meeting is not going along harmoniously.

✓ Take control of making decisions when faced with strategic circumstances during the meeting.

✓ If, during the meeting, you get too entrenched in the content, you may temporarily assign the
Facilitator role to another participant.

Recorder
✓ Agree with the Facilitator beforehand on when to record information--for example, whether
recording should be done as participants speak, or only after Facilitator acknowledges or repeats
the response.

✓ Note down details like the goal for the meeting, start time, and list of attendees, including those
who may be attending via video or teleconference.

✓ Let the group know that you will endeavor to record their ideas accurately. Invite correction if
you make some mistakes in recording.

✓ Take down key points on paper, laptop or on flipcharts--key points that encapsulate the central
ideas of the speakers. Ideas should not be edited.

✓ To maintain neutrality, refrain from contributing your own ideas, unless previously arranged
with the other participants.

✓ In addition to ideas put forth, record the decisions made and the action plans agreed on, if any.
Include how the decisions were made and by whom, e.g. via consensus, vote, or by a single
person in the group.

✓ If meetings are held on a regular basis, keep previous meeting notes/agendas in one place for
easy future reference (e.g. in a saved file or notebook).

✓ Help wrap up the meeting with your accumulated meeting notes.

Participant
✓ Be prepared for the type of meeting you have been invited to, and bring important skills,
knowledge and competencies to the table.

✓ If there are minutes from a previous meeting and/or reports provided beforehand, read them
thoroughly before attending the meeting.

✓ Prepare questions and concerns relevant to the topic or objective of the meeting.

✓ Embody the traits of a facilitative person: open-minded, collaborative, goal-oriented, a people

person

✓ Actively participate in contributing ideas, opinions and inputs.

✓ Participate in the decision-making process.