MindSights Meeting Facilitator

Home

Consulting Services

Business Innovation

Meeting Mentor

Thinklets Toolkit

Consultants On-demand

MBA Mentor

Personal Mastery

Contacts

MindSights Meeting Facilitator in

Guides the meeting leader to use professional facilitation skills ranging from deciding if a meeting is necessary, to planning the meeting, to running an effective meeting, to post-meeting action item follow-up.

Below is the Meeting Facilitator Main Menu. Click on Red links to browse.

Main Menu mfback

(Table of Contents – TOC)

Step 1: Planning the Meeting

◙ Decide if a meeting is even needed.

◙ Basic meeting components and decisions.

◙ Meeting Purpose & Planning Thinklet

◙ Identify the right meeting Participants

Step 2: Developing the Agenda

◙ Using pre-developed agendas (applications)

◙ Prepare for opening the meeting

◙ Build a Basic Agenda

◙ Build an Automated Agenda (opens My Agenda.doc)

◙ Prepare for closing the meeting

Step 3: Conducting and Managing the Meeting

◙ Determine your meeting delivery approach

◙ Determine meeting logistics

◙ Select Meeting Productivity tools

◙ Anticipate common meeting problems

Step 4: Post-meeting Evaluation and Action item Follow-up

◙ Post meeting basics

◙ Conduct a facilitator assessment

◙ Conduct post meeting Evaluation & Action Follow-up

Addendum: Meeting Productivity Tools

Addendum: Meeting Facilitation Questions and Tools

◙ Find the right Facilitated Thinking Questions to ask

◙ Find the right Facilitated Thinking Tools

Illegal Copy & Distribution:

Only authorized licensee can use this product. Copying and distributing

in full or in part to unauthorized people is illegal.

Home

Decide if a meeting is really needed.isitneeded

The best way to avoid wasted time spent in meetings is to cancel unnecessary ones. Before putting a great amount of time, effort and resources into a meeting use the following template and answer the facilitator questions to help determine meeting needs.

Is a meeting needed?

Write why you want to have a meeting.

Ask yourself; What is the worst thing that could happen if the meeting was not held?

List reasons why the meeting is needed.

List reasons for NOT having the meeting

Meeting Alternatives

Facilitator Questions	Answers
Can a conference call replace a face-to-face?
Can the meeting be eliminated by spending a few minutes with people separately?
Can it be delegated to 1 or 2 people to accomplish the same results and skip the meeting?
Could templates be put on a network as a meeting workspace to share information?
If the meeting’s purpose is to disseminate information, can it be done electronically?
If the purpose is to gather information, can a questionnaire, survey or phone call do it?
If the purpose is to make a decision, can one person make it and the team accept the decision?
If a face-to-face meeting is needed, do you want to have a “standup” meeting?

mtgpurpose

HOME

Meeting Purpose & Planning Thinklet mtgpurpose

Why Use It

Use this thinklet to help plan your meeting. Click on “facilitator questions” to stimulate thinking. Note: If you don’t have time to prepare this before the meeting, do it the first thing in the meeting.

Meeting Purpose and Planning Thinklet

Step 1. Write a Meeting Purpose Statement - critical task state

The meeting purpose statement is comprised of two parts: 1. "What are the reason(s) for calling the meeting” and 2. “What is wanted from meeting participants?” See Purpose Restatement Facilitator questions.

The purpose of this meeting is to… .

Please come prepared to ... .

Step 2. List Meeting Goals (Outcomes or Results) – critical task

List the expected meeting goals (outcomes). Meeting Outcome Facilitator questions.

This meeting will be successful if by the end of the meeting we…

Step 3. List Key Meeting Questions to Ask – critical task

List at least 3 key questions that need to be answered. See Key Facilitator questions.

Step 4. List Meeting Productivity Tools to Use - optional

List 1-2 meeting tools that will help achieve the desired meeting outcomes. Tools Facilitator questions.

Step 5. List Other Productivity Actions - - optional

Use these facilitator questions to help decide how to best plan your meeting. Other Facilitator questions.

HOME

Back

Meeting Goals (Outcomes and Results) – Facilitator Questions gfq A clear meeting goal or outcome focuses participants thinking energies and expands thinking to produce more all-encompassing ideas/solutions.
Facilitator Questions	Answers
At the end of the meeting, how will you know if you have been successful?
What would be the perfect meeting result?
What is a minimum acceptable meeting result?
Do meeting results need to align with other work?
What results would other meeting participants like to achieve?
What do you think will be the likely meeting result?
What is the main decision you would like this meeting to reach?
What action items should come from this meeting?
What outcome would make all the meeting participants happy?
Are there any intangible results you would like to see from this meeting?
What “result or outcome” do you definitely NOT want to happen?

HOME

Back

Key Meeting Questions to Ask mqa Finding the right questions to ask participants maybe “the” critical meeting success factor. The right questions give the participants’ minds the best chance to develop the right solutions and results. Note: For more questions, open question-sets in the addendum – Click here.
Facilitator Questions	Question
What one question, if answered, would solve the meeting’s purpose?
What if you question the assumptions underlying the meeting purpose?
What questions would meeting participants want answered?
What is one question that nobody has ever asked?
What questions have been asked in the past but not answered?
What if you were having this meeting 6 months in the future, would the questions change?
Think in reverse, what is one question NOT to ask?

HOME

Back

Find the right Facilitator Questions to ask qsets

keystep4returnrightsequence return

Why Use It

The #1 way to improve meeting effectiveness is by asking the right questions. The right questions give meeting participants the best chance of finding the right answers to achieve the meeting purpose.

How to Use It

The following 40 thinking tasks have facilitator questions. Click on the tasks that you may use for your meeting. Determine if any of those questions are critical to ask.

Forty Basic Thinking Tasks forty

1	Describe Situation or Problem	Describe the current situation, problem or opportunity.
	…
6	Problem Statement	Validate the real problem and write a problem statement.
7	Systems Think	Systems think the problem or situation in a broader context.
8	Transient Statement	Write a transient (change) statement on how the problem came about.
10	Goal Statement	Write a goal statement that clarifies the desired outcome.
	…
15	Define Facts	Define the current situation or problem state.
16	Analyze Causes	Analyze causes and find a root cause.
	…
17	Future Facts	Define future facts as they “should exist” in the goal state.
18	Obstacles	Identify obstacles that prevent reaching the goal state.
19	Solution Requirements	Define requirements for inclusion in any proposed idea/solution.
	…
36	Launch Solution	Develop a conversion plan and launch solution.
37	Feedback	Develop feedback to prevent recurrences.
38	Backup & Recovery	Determine backup and disaster recovery needs.
	…

HOME

Back

#	Tasks	Description and Key Questions
1 T1	Describe Situation or Problem	Write a short background description of the current situation. Determine if the situation is a problem, opportunity or issue. Who is involved with this problem? Who is the problem owner? Who is affected most by the situation/problem? What factors do you think have contributed most to the situation? What are the problem’s key assumptions? Where is the problem most (or least) noticeable? When will the problem get better (or worse)? Why hasn't the problem already been solved? How will you know when you have resolved the situation/problem?
	….
8 t8	Transient Statement	Write a transient statement that describes how the current situation came into existence. What are you doing differently now compared to what you were doing before? Have changes occurred recently for which there was no adjustment made? What standards, performance measures, policies or practices have been violated? What caused the problem? When did the problem start and where did it come from?
9 T10	Goal Statement	Write a goal statement that describes the desired outcome or what the problem will look like after it has been resolved. · Consider writing the goal statement starting with the words: “How can I/we …” or “In what way might I/we…” · Will accomplishment of this goal solve in part or in whole the stated problem? · If the goal is not measured, how will you know when you have reached it? · Is the scope of the goal sufficiently limited to make it solvable? · Are you sure that this is the final goal and not an intermediate objective? · What objectives need setting to show a clear path and progress toward reaching the goal?

HOME

Back

Write a transient statement on how the problem came aboutq8

Why Use It

Developing a statement that describes how the current problem came about will initiate identification of the driving forces impacting the problem. Knowing how the problem came about (changes) can significantly help find root causes. Note: This is sometimes called a ‘Transient Statement”.

What Changed	Answers
What events led up to the present situation?
What triggers the situation?
What change was made just before the problem or situation started?
What things are being done differently now than they were done before?
What successful actions stopped or dropped off?
When did the problem start and where did it come from?
What are the ‘constants’ about the situation that cannot change?
What is assumed to be true but isn’t?
What is assumed untrue but really is true?
Who/what was involved when the problem started that should not have been involved?
Who/what left the situation just before it started?
Have changes occurred that people have not yet adjusted to?
What person was hired or got involved just before things changed? Is someone making sweeping changes?
How has the workload shifted? Are priorities shifting?
…

HOME

Back