In my work, I want to fully understand the expectations of what work you want me to do as your facilitator. What do you need out of this meeting or this series of meetings? What does success look like for you? When I first start with a new client I’m scoping out the job. I determine how much preparation is needed, who’s doing the agenda, who’s taking the notes, what the roles are around supporting and implementing this meeting or this conversation. Did you know that there are really only three things we do in meetings? One, we share information, or we gather information in meetings. Two, we analyze information. We make sense of it. We look at the trends. We talk about what it means and what the implications are. Three, we make decisions.
How many of us have been to a meeting and somebody brought a flip chart. We spent hours talking, and we filled up all those flip charts with lists and ideas, and at the end of the day, the room is covered in flip charts. We’re exhausted. You walk out of the meeting, and I bet you that most of those times, you gathered information, and you might’ve talked information to death. You might have analyzed it a whole bunch, but if the purpose of that meeting was to make a decision, it’s like not finishing a good meal. You didn’t achieve the purpose. People will feel that disconnect where we were supposed to accomplish something, and we did a whole lot of work, and we didn’t get finished. We weren’t successful. So are you sharing information? Are you analyzing and making sense of information? Or are you making a decision?
Guess what? Meeting success goes right back to the three questions we used in the strategic planning meeting: What? So What? Now What? “What” is about information. “So what” is about making sense and analyzing information. “Now what” is about making decisions.
Facilitation is a survival skill in my family that I learned from my mother. When she was alive, for every client engagement or training session I had, she would call me and ask how it went. What she was really asking was our standard for success. What she was really asking was if I gave people something in terms of a tool or an approach or a successful meeting that would make their life better tomorrow than it was today. My work is my mother’s legacy. And what about tomorrow? Tomorrow is all about my three grandkids, her great-grandchildren. Whether I’m working in nuclear waste cleanup or banking or natural resources or youth sports, I’ve got three grandkids. A better tomorrow matters to me.
To learn more about Ruth and how she may be able to help you with your next meeting visit her website @ https://www.nicholsonfacilitation.com/home.html
