How did Open Space Technology Facilitation Start?

The founder of Open Space Technology is Owen Harrison. In the 1960’s he left his work as a priest and took up work facilitating change including across not for profit organisations in Africa. In 1977, he started his own consulting company where he put into practise things he’d learned as an academic as well as a practitioner. Some years later in the 1980s, Harrison convened a conference to share theoretical learnings and case studies of his work. The focus was on cultural change and supporting organisational change. It was a traditional conference. Many people told him the best part of the conference were the coffee breaks and this got him thinking. At the next conference he created Open Space as one big coffee break with a central theme. This self organisation guided the conference and supported richer and more valuable outcomes that hadn’t been achieved at the previous traditional conference. Hence the concept of Open Space was born!

What is Open Space Technology (OST) Facilitation?

Open Space Technology is a facilitation method. It is used for organising and running a meeting or a conference or a session or two or three at a conference. The focus is on a specific task or purpose and people are invited who have interest in this topic / focus or task. A key difference between OST and your more traditional meeting / conference is that there are no key note speakers profiled before the event. Instead, the plan of speakers, topics etc is organised once people are present at the conference with people who are present. Keep in mind it is the focus, theme or task that attracts people in the first place. As a part of the OST sessions, a summary is written or graphically represented and this is presented to all who attendees.

When Does Open Space Technology (OST) Facilitation Work Best?

Open Space Technology works best where people have a strong interest in participating and guiding outcomes. It also works best where:

• The topic or task is complex.
• There is conflict and its holding back the ability for progress and change.
• There is high diversity.
• A speedy decision or action is required.
• There is no pre determined outcomes that have to be achieved.

Why use Open Space Technology (OST) Facilitation?

There are lots of reasons that herald OST as a great facilitation technique that supports social connection and innovation. Key ones include that it:

• Builds ownership, shared leadership, positive energy and a commitment both during and after the session.
• Creates a sense of responsibility that sees participants accept what works and what doesn’t during the session and sees them accept responsibility for what happens post the event.
• Allows participant generated recommendations and action plan to emerge from the discussions and sessions that are right for this group, task and topic at this time.
• Creates a summary of all discissions for sharing as the session / conference progresses.

What Principles Underpin Open Space Technology Facilitation?

There are four key principles, these are:

Is there a Best Group Size?

Anything from 5 to 1500 people. Sessions / meetings /conferences can be run over a few hours to a few days. They can be facilitated at one site or across multiple sites. Some say the longer

The 7 Steps of Open Space Technology

Step 1 – Select a Question or Focus Statement

A key role as facilitator is to understand the purpose and context of the meeting, session or conference and then to select or develop a focussing statement of question for the event. From memory the key question for the first OST conference I attended was “What needs to happen to advance Australian women in agriculture?” The statement or question needs to frame the purpose in a wide and positive way.

Step 2 – Select a Question or Focus Statement

Invite the people (all stakeholders you’d like and should be in the room). Be clear about the focus statement / question and the date, time and place.

Step 3 – Create the Circle

Set up chairs in a circle so there is space in the middle. I’ve also facilitated without chairs where people stand (For a short time). Choose a wall to work up the Agenda and divide it by AM and PM or have specific times if this has been worked out. Choose another wall for News – this is where people put a summary post session so everyone can see it in this form if they wish. Have pens and A4 sheets of paper available for people to write on. Take some time to explain the meeting / conference focus statement or question. This could include where it’s come from, why it’s important and what’s the NOW and Future context about it. This will simulate people’s thinking. And then explain the OST process and allow for questions.

Step 4 – Create the Circle

Invite participants (as not all will do it) to write up a topic, question, theme etc that they would like to have a session on and ask them to place it on the floor where everyone can see it. Ensure they put their name on the paper. If it’s a big forum and there are lots of suggested topics, questions or themes, ask for permission to group some of them if relevant. Place the papers up on the Agenda Wall in the appropriate time slot.

Step 5 – Open the Space

Go over the session details and where they will be held and for how long. Invite participant to sign on for what they are interested in across the AM and PM sessions and then invite them to go on their way to the first session they have chosen. Assign a convenor to each session to keep time and write up outcomes to allow people to participate fully.

Step 6 – Facilitate Open Space Sessions

People participate in their chosen sessions. The space is set up for them and the Convenor takes a copy of the theme/ question / focus statement t the session so participants have it to refer to. Convenor takes notes of outcome and places these on the News Wall for everyone to take a look at if they wish.

Step 7 – Close OST Sessions

All sessions close at the same time and people reconvene back at the whole of forum space. Each person is provided the opportunity to share back their aha, key thoughts, highlights etc. This occurs without discussion or questioning. If people don’t want to contribute here that’s OK. The facilitator then closes the whole of group session and makes comments on patterns / insights etc that have emerged. Explains that each participant will be emailed a summary of the News Wall and encourage people to share details for future contact if they wish. And that they will share the same information to funders etc of the session.

Over to You

If you haven’t added the Open Space Technology facilitation process to your facilitation tool box yet, then please do. And I encourage you to participate in an OST session first before you facilitate as this will give you confidence to set it up and facilitate to encourage the best outcomes.

Until next time!

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How did The World Café Process Start?

On a rainy morning in 1995, business and academic leaders met in California to talk through some questions that needed answers. People came from different backgrounds, experiences, education etc. The common factor was they all wanted to answer the questions posed. Set up for a large circle conversation the rain had other plans and forced everyone inside. They naturally formed into smaller groups around tables which they draped paper over. They chatted and wrote notes on these makeshift paper “tablecloths”. And individuals moved between groups when they wanted and listened in and returned to their table with ideas and further information. They developed insights, noticed emerging patterns and found themselves having more connected and deeper conversations. Each group answered the question at their ‘table’ and then created the collective response. This contributed to further rounds of rich conversation based on collective intelligence. A new social innovation was born and they called it The World Café.

What are the 7 Steps of The World Café Process

The most successful outcomes of The World Café Process are achieved by working through 7 key steps. Each of these steps is equally important. I encourage you to fully understand these before you plan and facilitate using this process. In fact I suggest you participate in a World Café session before facilitating one. This way you will understand the importance of the space and feel the energy.

Step 1 – Context

There needs to be a purpose for bringing people together and everyone needs to understand what it is. As facilitator, you too need to fully understand the purpose and the context of the moment. The context is about what’s happening for and around the people right now. Take time to clarify this. From this you can work out goals for the session, themes to be discussed and questions to be answered.

Step 2 – Create a Conducive Environment

The space where you host your World Café event is really really important. The space should be inviting and safe. I have found that when people feel comfortable to be their authentic selves they can be creative and commit fully through trust in the process, the facilitator and the other participants. They can also listen and focus more effectively without everyday distractions. As a facilitator how you make an invitation to participate and the physical space and how it welcomes people when they arrive is really important. Participants feel the atmosphere before a word is even spoken.

Step 3 – Create Compelling Questions

Questions are active. They create an expectation of input and involvement. Knowledge is gained, shared and further developed through compelling questions. Your role as facilitator of a World Café is to develop these questions in response to the purpose of why people are meeting and the current context. The questions should carry energy, allow for insight and the suggestion of actions. I have facilitated World Café events in two ways and both work well depending on your time and purpose. The first is providing single questions for one round of discussion. The second is a progressive round of two of three discussion rounds where each time the questions provoke a deeper line of inquiry.

Step 4 – Encourage Contribution

This doesn’t mean setting a timer so that everyone speaks for the same amount of time. Your role as facilitator is to understand and support people to participate and contribute towards an outcome by giving input, sharing ideas and offering their perspective. Encouraging the value of difference is important. For some it could mean listening only. A well set up and trusting environment will allow contribution in different ways and that all are valued.

Step 5 – Set up for New Perspective and Insights

A key aspect of setting up an effective World Café Process is to allow people to move between the discussion tables. This allows people to hear new ideas, share their ideas to other tables and meet and work with more people. In turn, this allows this people to take new ideas back to their original discussion table and by doing so adds stimulus to conversation, perspectives and the chance for new insights to emerge. I have facilitated for this in two ways, the first is to set up so that people can move freely anytime they wish and the second is to set a time for people to move around. I prefer the first as it maintains an informality and allows people to determine their needs and timing and hence supports their increased participation and contribution as a result.

Step 6 – Listen

Listen, listen and listen some more! This is equally important for participants and for you as a facilitator. And it means more than just turning up the volume in your listening. It’s about shared listening and listening for and paying attention to patterns, themes and even repetitive words. These collectively lead to emerging insights and can allow for connections across groups. Listen for connections. And listen as much to what’s being said as to what isn’t too. The quality of listening that people and you as a facilitator bring to the session can really determine its success.

Step 7 – Share and Care

So this one is all about connecting the small table discussions. It’s about revealing a pattern and shared outcomes through connecting the conversations from each table. This is a key role of the participants and you as facilitator. This is the last part of the World Café process. It reveals the collective thinking of the whole room or the combination of all tables. It includes everyone in a large conversation. You have choices as to how to do this. My preferred style is to allow each table to provide a response which I then capture by way of words / themes or questions. The way you “harvest” and “capture” this information us really important. And what you do with it once captured is extremely important. 

Over to You

If you haven’t added the World Café process to your facilitation tool box yet, then please do. As I said earlier participate in one first before you facilitate as this will give you confidence to set it up and facilitate to encourage the best outcomes. And if you are keen to check out The World Café more then Click Here.

Until next time!

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How to Choose Facilitation Tools

Choosing what tools to use will depend on the purpose of the forum you are facilitating, the length of time you have and the results and outcomes you are working together to achieve. Some facilitators ask if hey have to use tools in their sessions. I think you do. It ensures that participants have their say and they truly feel part of the process. Helping participants to engage with each other and with the topic, issue or idea they are to discuss is what facilitation is all about.

Facilitation Tools to Provoke Engagement and Conversation

This collection of tools are what first time facilitators used at a recent workshop I facilitated. I’m sharing these as they are tools that will suit many occasions. Consider using some of these in the future.

Tool 1 – SWOT Analysis

This is as structured review to document and analyse a situation, event, position paper etc. Use in groups or individually and record the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats..

You can set this up so each person/group completes all 4 quadrants. Or allocate a quadrant to a person or group. SWOTS are a great way to capture feedback verbally or in writing.

Tool 2 – PowerPoint Slides

PowerPoint slides are a great visual so people can picture things, or you can present information in a clear way. Include pictures to set a scene, data to provide an overview of a topic /issue and or maps, tables etc. I’ve seen a simple question on a PowerPoint slide work wonders.

Tool 3 – Position ‘Papers’

These can be a sentence, paragraph, a one page or a whole report. These are best used to provide background information prior to a group coming together. These can stimulate thinking and assist participants come with formal users. Consider adding some challenge questions if you want to stretch peoples thinking.

Tool 4 – Shared Wisdom

Invite the group/participants to share their thoughts and experiences. Allow time for them to do this and be genuine in receiving it. Thank people verbally or via body language for their sharings.

Tool 5 – Audience Contracting

This is where you ask / invite / encourage and contract the group / participants to do something for you. This is best done with emotion e.g.

“I’m really really keen to hear your feedback on this today.”

“I want everyone to contribute their opinion freely as I really need your input.”

Tool 6 – Positioning

Position yourself and / or your audience. This can build connection and credibility. And with this comes a more sincere exchange. You can position yourself by saying things that connect like “I’ve worked on the climate change project at xx for almost 2 years now.”

“I see you have each visited xx and have seen the set up there.”

Tool 7 – Ask Questions

Questions are KING. Well thought out and asked questions can provide well thought out responses in a short time and can save a lot of guessing about what people might think. Questions can be asked of individuals and or of groups. Responses can be given verbally or written down.

Tool 8 – Call to Action

A call to action is when you actually ask people to do something. Yes, we often need to be asked. Be clear about what you ask and even clearer about what you expect of the participant. Be generous with your thanks when they do this. And build the call to action into the session and especially towards the end.

Tool 9 – Note taking / Scribing

A well facilitated session will mean there will be lots of information worth collecting. It’s impossible to collect this when facilitating. Share papers / pen / posters / textas and share information in writing. Be clear about what you want them to note.

Over to You

So, over to you. What do you think of these facilitation tools? Can you see which ones might be useful for a session you have planned? I really hope so! Have a go. The more you use them the more confident you will become. 

Until next time!

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Get Clear

Before we get into the traits let’s get clear about what we mean by facilitation. Facilitation is a process that is guided by a facilitator to achieve shared outcomes. The role of the facilitator is important here, as it is this role that supports individuals and groups to work together to achieve collective results. It’s usually used when there’s an issue to be worked through, a new topic to be explored, some conflict that is stopping progress or a collaboration that needs an independent guide. Ultimately an effective facilitator supports the process needed, reminds the group of what’s needed and guides them to an outcome that they wouldn’t have been able to achieve on their own. To be an impactful facilitator and one where you will be called back for future facilitation jobs, there’s a set of traits that I think you need as well as interpersonal skills.

Let’s Start with Your Interpersonal Skills

All facilitators have a style. There’s no doubt that your personality will play a part and the development of your natural style is super important.

“Who you are as a person will impact how you facilitate”

An authentic and natural style is what you will become recognised for, and this will work best if you build this on a set of principles and traits that holds solid. You will find this will attract those looking for facilitation services to you as they know that you will facilitate in a warm, inviting, comfortable (no matter what happens in the room), welcoming, objective and outcome focussed way while caring for each person along the way. These are called interpersonal or non – technical skills. These skills are critical to being an effective facilitator. Strong interpersonal skills are needed to bring groups of any size or type together to build collective outcomes proactively and productively.

Key Traits of a Sought After Facilitator

I’ve put my mind to what key traits you need to be able to facilitate well. Here they are.
Remember, use them as a checklist. Think about your competence with each of these and give them a score out of 10. This way you will see which traits you have well in play and which ones you need develop further.

Trait 1 – Authentic and Genuine

Bring your true self to your role as facilitator. This means embracing imperfection and being authentic and genuine. This is the currency of trust. The first and most significant role as you facilitate is to build trust in the group and the process that you will guide them through. By leading and facilitating with authenticity you build a psychologically safe environment which is critical.

Trait 2 – Stand in the Storm

Creating space for new insights from participants requires new thinking. Your job is to welcome this new thinking, even if it feels a bit stormy in the moment. Stay neutral and objective and stick to process. This is particularly important when stakes and or emotions are high as this is where the good stuff happens. Your job is to bring this good stuff through as this will result in change. The key here is to manage your own emotions and not to show or inject any of your feelings into the room or discussion.

Trait 3 – Clear Communication

You may think this is basic, and that it’s easy! But I have seen facilitators and myself come unstuck right here. Your communication needs to be clear and concise. This means people need to hear what you say or request once and know exactly what is expected of them. You need to be able to walk the line of communicating enough but not over communicating or sharing so much that it confuses people. Clear is kind and unclear is unkind. We’re after clear and kind communication.

Trait 4 – Creativity and Adaptability

These are a must! Things don’t and won’t always go to plan. Despite the best agenda, runsheet and set activities etc, there will be times when you recognise that change is needed. A tweak or change in process mid-way through the session can turn this around. Be open and honest with the group – take a break to regroup your thinking, call out what’s happening and how you are going to change an activity or do a check in and ask the group to identify what’s been achieved and what needs to happen to achieve the desired outcomes. This often works as a positive as participants can often buy in more if they feel they have helped shape the process.

Trait  5 – Ask Questions

Being able to guide not tell and ask questions are a facilitator’s super power. I often refer to it as sitting on your hands! As a facilitator you can often see, hear or feel things emerging before participants can. Your job is to sit on it and ask questions to help participants share their thoughts and ideas. By doing this you will encourage a discussion that EVERYONE engages in and when this happens real and shared results can be achieved.

Trait  6 – Acute Observation Skills  

Pick up on what’s being said and what’s not being said. Pick up on both the verbal and non verbal cues of individuals and the group. Use your eyes and ears – and I often think that your eyes need to work harder than your ears to facilitate well. Again this is important when you are facilitating any activity and particularly important when facilitating high stakes or contentious issues as people will often communicate first via feelings rather than words. Learn to read body language well, knowing it isn’t a precise science.

Trait  7 – Energy Management 

Your energy rubs off right from the get go on each individual and the group collectively. Show up to facilitate “intact” or allow someone else to facilitate. This means come to the session with clear, neutral but positive energy. Your energy sets the tone and will maintain the tone of the session. Many facilitators think that once the agenda and process is set their role is to keep the time! No no no, your role is to set and manage the energy in the room. Be optimistic and engage the group well and you will find a determined energy is maintained.

Over to You

So, if you haven’t scored yourself out of 10 for each of these traits, go back and do this now. Being able to know which traits need attention before you facilitate next will ensure you can achieve better outcomes for participants and that you go in with increased confidence. And please reach out for training options as we can help. Please remember traits or non – technical skills are just as important as the technical ones when it comes to facilitating well.

Until next time!

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Where to Start

An important place to start is to work up your own set or review your set of principles for facilitation. These are your foundations on which you then build out your facilitation practice and session/s. The risk of not doing this is that what is supposed to be a facilitated session ends up being a pretty routinely directed meeting. And if you’re keen to develop your facilitation practice, you may find the invites to facilitate are few and far between because those purchasing your service can’t see or don’t trust how you will provide this service for them.

Get Recognised for your Facilitation

All facilitators have a style. There’s no doubt that your personality will play a part and the development of your natural style is super important. 

“Who you are as a person will impact how you facilitate”

An authentic and natural style is what you will become recognised for, and this will work best if you build this on a set of principles or a foundation that holds solid. You will find this will attract those looking for facilitation services to you as they know that you will facilitate the same way no matter what you are facilitating, who is in the room and who you are facilitating for. This in turn gives them confidence that you are working towards the best outcome each and every time. In my experience of facilitating groups of 5 to 1500 for industry, commercial and government clients over the last 20 years, it’s critical to create a set of principles that help anchor you.

Key Facilitation Principles for Success

Remember principles are the foundation of how you will behave and operate when you facilitate. Yep this is the true starting point for effective facilitation NOT the agenda, timelines or runsheets. You have a choice now. You can create your own set of principles or get started by leaning on the expertise or borrowing someone else’s. Today, I want to share these from experienced facilitator Marsha Acker.

Principle 1 – Maintain Neutrality

Be intentional about the desired outcome and purpose of your session. Be clear about framing the topic (or dilemma) and guiding questions, and then be neutral about the content. This is about “leading from behind.” As a facilitator, you own the process of the meeting while letting the participants own the content of the conversation. This is how you let your participant’s imagination take over and get creative!

Principle 2 – Stand in the Storm

Creating space for new insights from your participants requires new thinking. Your job is to welcome this new thinking, even if it feels a bit stormy in the moment. Welcome different points of view and perspectives without taking sides and, if you’re not already hearing it, find a way to welcome difference of opinion into the conversation. Learn to stay with conflict rather than deflecting, changing the subject, or moving on to something new. Participants don’t naturally want to stay in conflict; they have patterns of avoiding it, often at all costs. But this is where the good stuff happens.

Principle 3 – Honor the Wisdom

Trust. Trust that the participants have the wisdom and everything else they need to solve their own problems creatively and innovatively. When you trust in your participant’s collective wisdom, there’s a sense of inclusiveness, less need to control what people say, and less fear that someone will “derail” the thinking. The diversity of perspectives represented by different voices will enable the group to innovate and move forward.

Principle 4 – Hold the Agenda

When facilitating sessions, be mindful of serving the emergent agenda. If you feel resistance from the participants about a decision or strong reluctance to move forward to another agenda item, you might be encountering their “emergent agenda” — what’s happening for them in the moment. It might be a topic that’s difficult to discuss but needs to be talked about in order for them to move forward, or it might have more to do with their dynamic than it does the topic at hand. When the emergent agenda appears in your session, it’s time to focus on what would serve the participants in the long run, not what you want to accomplish in that moment. It’s about continually asking, “How can I best serve the group?” and “What does this group really need right now?

Principle 5 – Be Future Focussed

To get the most out of your sessions, have a plan that includes questions designed to prompt the participants to think about the future — to think beyond the current dilemma to imagine what’s possible. After all, isn’t this the ultimate promise of facilitating a session in the first place?

Over to You

So, have I convinced you that building your own or reviewing a set of facilitation principles is super important? I really hope so!  Have a go. You will carry them with you, facilitate by then and they will be the reason you become a recognised facilitator and why people purchase your facilitation services.

Until next time!

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Way back then I worked on a program with the Queensland Country Women’s Association (QCWA).

 They asked me to facilitate a personal / professional development program for women in rural, regional and remote areas. And it had to be available to all no matter where they worked or lived. It was our first all ‘distance learning’ program that we developed and delivered. Pretty sure we worked with about 18 women and one of these was a cotton grower from northern NSW.       

Upon reflection, I can clearly see there’s a big difference between ‘doing the work’ and ‘telling people you can do the work’.  We started to work in the Cotton industry because others recognized the value of our work and spoke about it.  Maybe because we were not from within the industry we were seen as different / objective / no ‘baggage’ etc.  As I look back, it was definitely about the work and bringing a fresh approach to facilitation.  We didn’t pitch our services as appears to be very common these days.  Instead one person from a program we facilitated shared who we were and most importantly what and how we did our work with others.  And we didn’t even know this had happened.  Before long we were invited to submit a proposal for a project that fitted our leadership wheelhouse.

The first project was on an industry membership evaluation project with Cotton Australia.  Again we completed the project completely via distance via phone consults and an online survey.  It provided everyone across the industry with the opportunity to have their say and not just those who were able to attend a local, regional or city-based meeting.  The result was a more realistic and valid set of outcomes for a more cost effective investment.   

Since then we have facilitated a number of industry projects including facilitation of the first formal industry strategic plan the merger of three organisations to enhance service to the Australian cotton industry and a favourite – facilitation of an international cotton conference where we linked 5 hubs around the world via technology from Dalby, Queensland. We also completed a project for the industry that saw our team call every cotton grower across the country when drought hit hard to identify current and future needs and ways of supporting individuals, businesses and the industry as a whole.  And since 2008 we have facilitated the Australian Future Cotton Leaders Program, next one kicks off in 2021.

We love working in the Cotton industry.  It’s a young and progressive industry in Australia with a solution seeking and future focussed outlook. We get to work with amazing people supporting their leadership development. We currently utilise mentoring more in the cotton industry than we do in other sectors. We find it to be a time and cost effective way of developing networks and sharing knowledge and skills. It’s my view that this strategy, with individual accountability , can accelerate learning and development exponentially. Commitment from all parties is required to make it work well.  

And as for the question is the cotton industry different to other sectors? Of course it is.  Every industry is different, you wouldn’t want it any other way. 

Key Learnings 

• “Always be open to new experiences.”  
• “Have an open and growth mindset 
• “Let the quality of your work do the talking for you – there is nothing better than someone else talking about you, your business, products or services and what you’ve achieved for others.” 
• “Know what you are good at and make a decision to be better at it”. 
• “Develop a circle of supporters”

Hope you found something of interest in this article. You can see current projects we are involved in here and some of our past projects here. Please take a look and contact us here if you think we can support you with anything.

I hope to hear from you soon.

The post Our Business in the Cotton Industry   appeared first on Ruralscope.

Here’s five of my favourites for you; 

1. Stand to facilitate / lead the session. You will look like you are there to lead and your participants will take comfort and feel at ease knowing they are in good hands right from the outset. 
2. Have a script that you share right after you Welcome everyone to the call. Include who you are, what your role is and how the session will unfold. This leads to buy in from participants as they see how they can be involved.  
3. Give out some time markers, so participants know what to expect. Like at 10:20 am we’ll move into the key part of today’s session all about x, y and z.  
4. Share eye contact – yes its a thing! Non verbal communication is more important online than when face to face. Have an observer on your next session with you and ask them to give you feedback with you. The name of the game is to lead an engaging online meeting, forum, session or keynote. Getting your non – verbals down pat is part of the deal.  
5. Build 10 mins into each hour of a session for summary and closing. Share the key learnings / outcomes, or if the group is small, ask participants to do this. If it’s a big group, ask questions and ask people to use their reaction emojis to show support etc.  

We recently facilitated a Leadership Unconference via ZOOM for emerging leaders in the Australian cotton industry with Cotton Australia 90% stated the Unconference exceeded their expectations and 10% shared it met their expectations. Feedback revealed, participants would love more social connection time. Our challenge is to build this into future online events. Check out the best tips we’ve listed here for going above and beyond when you lead your next virtual session. Use these yourself and feel free to send them on to those in your team who lead sessions before your next online get together.  

We include short, practical and helpful articles just like this one in our fortnightly E-News called 5 Ways to Lead with Heart. Click here to subscribe to this Newsletter.

I hope to hear from you soon.

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Here are my Top 10 Engagement Tips. 

1. Let’s start with setting up the ZOOM session for success. Just the same here as if it was a Face to Face meeting. Ensure the meeting / forum / session has a clear purpose, be clear about what you want to achieve, who should be invited and how long the session will go for. Get all this sorted before you send out the session invite, and ensure your invitees understand these things right from the get go. 

2. Open up the ZOOM room about 10 minutes early and if there is a small (say under 20) attendees, they can come in and chat among themselves. This also gives people, and especially those new to ZOOM, a chance to try out their technology and ensure all is working. People take comfort from this and you definitely want people comfortable on the session. 

3. We are wired for and at our best when we CONNECT. Start with a few connection activities at the beginning of a session; Ask people to type in the chat where they are calling in from, what their time zone is, what they can see out their window right now, or how the weather is in their neck of the woods. (Just one of these will do) Ask people to put their hand up if they know other people on the call. Do a quick intro of ZOOM features. Go through those you will encourage attendees to use and ask them to try them out as you introduce them.

4. Use a visualisation technique. It helps people to become physically present in the session rather than maintain an observer status. Example, today I want you to picture yourself sitting around a campfire with a group of colleagues. You have all met each other, shared a laugh or two and are now ready to talk about XXX (meeting topic).

5. Invite people to turn on their camera if at all possible (this will depend on bandwidth etc)

6. Give a clear overview of the purpose of the session. Mention timelines and expected outcomes. Share what role you hope participants will take eg sit and listen, take notes, ask questions etc.

7. Use break-out rooms. Hands down this is one of the best features of ZOOM sessions. Regardless of the size of your group, build in at least one breakout room activity per ZOOM session. 10 mins is a good length. I find it easiest to set the rooms up and assign people randomly. Have someone else on the call help if you need. Make them a Co-Host of the session so they can access this function with you.

8. Record the session, especially if there are people who can’t attend.

9. Avoid people talking over each other. Ask attendees at the beginning of the session to use the raise hand emoji or their physical hand when they wish to speak. And / or include question / comment in the chat function. I acknowledge people in order and by name, so that when there is a discussion they know in what order they can speak.

10. Signal closing and provide a connection touchpoint at the end of the ZOOM session. I will always signal closing by saying, OK everyone we have about 5 minutes before closing xxxxxxx.  And with 1 minute to go wit ha small group I will invite them to share one word about the session and I will thank them for it by name. And if it’s a large group, I ask them to typo their word into the chat and I then comment on the words showing up and thank everyone for their contribution.

It’s a craft to facilitate an engaging ZOOM session. Please have a go at some of these tips. We’d love to know how they work for you. And reach out anytime if we can help you set up or facilitate your online sessions. 

Feel free to book a Facilitation Made Easy session with me. We can focus on techniques for virtual facilitation. Click here for more information

I hope to see you soon!

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