logo
episode-header-image
Aug 2022
33m 9s

218: Facilitate Effective and Inclusive ...

MAMIE KANFER STEWART
About this episode

Managers all over the world facilitate meetings every day, but how many managers facilitate meetings well? The goal of facilitating a meeting is to create a space so that everyone can participate effectively. This may not come naturally to some managers, but it’s a skill that anyone can master with the right tools.

Today’s guest is Rae Ringel. Rae is an executive coach, facilitator, author and founding President of The Ringel Group. She is a faculty member at the Georgetown University Institute for Transformational Leadership and founding director of their certificate program in the Art of Facilitation and Design. She is also a frequent columnist for Harvard Business Review.

Rae and I talk about meeting facilitation. What facilitation really is, how to do it well when meeting in person or virtually, and Rae shares a bunch of facilitation tricks and activities you can immediately use with your team to improve your meetings.

Members of the Modern Manager community get two articles Rae has authored and published in Harvard Business Review. “Please Stop Using These Phrases in Meetings” helps readers take control of their speech patterns by learning phrases that aren’t as helpful as you think. “When Do We Actually Need to Meet in Person?” helps leaders determine which factors of work can be kept virtual and which require being in-person. Get them when you join the Modern Manager community.

 

Subscribe to my newsletter to get episodes, articles and free mini-guides delivered to your inbox. 

 

Read the related blog article: How to Facilitate an Effective Meeting

 

KEEP UP WITH RAE

Twitter: @ringelgroup

LinkedIn: @rae-ringel

Instagram: @julieraeringel

 

Key Takeaways:

  • Facilitation is creating the space in a meeting where everyone can participate.
  • It’s important to start with a planned agenda and then be flexible enough to pivot when needed. Plan the activities ahead so you can prepare any materials, e.g. polls, Miro boards, etc.
  • Virtual meetings have the potential to be more inclusive and comfortable for people. Leverage the strengths of technology to create a more inclusive meeting by using different modalities of participation.
  • Consider how you can arrange the room, or ask people to arrange their physical space, to support effective engagement.
  • Overemphasize the importance of the remote participants in a hybrid meeting. By focusing on them, you’ll boost engagement for everyone.
  • Use collaborative online tools to support more equitable engagement, even if you’re fully meeting in person.
  • Use the HIIT approach of alternating between passive and activity activities in a meeting.
  • As a facilitator, your energy is contagious. People will remember how they feel when they leave more than your specific facilitation abilities.

mamie@mamieks.com

instagram.com/mamieks

Up next
Jul 8
365: What Happens When You Start Documenting Everything with Adrienne Bellehumeur
Documentation isn’t just a system—it’s a daily habit that you can master.When was the last time you actually enjoyed documenting a meeting or your thought process? For most of us, documentation feels tedious and intimidating. Just the idea of making things “official” can stir up ... Show More
29m 36s
Jul 1
364: Reclaim Your Power and Lead with Confidence with Dr. Sharon Melnick
Do you constantly feel overwhelmed by your leadership role? Are you always reacting to everyone else’s agenda instead of creating your own?What if you could reclaim your power and lead confidently through any situation? Today’s guest reveals exactly how to make that shift.Meet Dr ... Show More
31m 9s
Jun 24
363: The Surprising Science of Great Leadership Revealed with Margaret Moore and Jeffrey Hull
Leadership can feel overwhelming, especially when the world around you is constantly changing. But what if small, science-backed changes in how you lead could create a bigger impact than you ever imagined? This week’s guests will explore key findings from their research on the ni ... Show More
35m 47s
Recommended Episodes
Jan 2024
125. Making Meetings Meaningful Pt. 2: Key Ingredients for Effective Meetings
How can we make meetings more effective? How can we keep people engaged and interested? Whether it’s in person or on Zoom, here are a few techniques you can use to make your gatherings more meaningful, productive, and memorable.Get practical tools and actionable insights to actua ... Show More
24m 51s
Jan 2024
124. Making Meetings Meaningful Pt. 1: How to Structure and Organize More Effective Gatherings
Delve into why people hate meetings, explore what hinders their effectiveness, and how to change that. Karin Reed (Emmy Award winner) and Joe Allen (“The Meeting Doctor”) join Matt Abrahams in the first of a two-part series that aims to reshape your approach to meetings and help ... Show More
26m 41s
Nov 2019
Why Meetings Go Wrong (And How to Fix Them)
Steven Rogelberg, a professor at UNC Charlotte, has spent decades researching workplace meetings and reports that many of them are a waste of time. Why? Because the vast majority of managers aren't trained in or reviewed on effective meeting management. He explains how leaders ca ... Show More
27m 15s
Feb 2023
230. Five CEO Hacks to Take Your Time Back
In today's episode, Suneera shares her top five time-saving productivity hacks for every CEO. She talks about the importance of utilizing your calendar to the fullest by creating zones, this will ensure quality work. No more hour meetings, Suneera shares how shorter 20 or 40 minu ... Show More
23m 30s
Feb 2024
E 223 - Leadership and Executive Presence Secrets from Microsoft Exec
What a treat you’re in for! Learn from Laura’s chat with a scrappy farm girl Jane Boulware, to learn how she made it from the Iowan cornfields to become a marketing whiz at Kimberly-Clark and then to the top levels of leadership at Microsoft.Jane makes it so clear that being nice ... Show More
33m 28s
May 2023
How to finally make meetings productive with Master Fixer Claire Hughes Johnson
Anne and Frances are joined by their first “Master Fixer," author Claire Hughes Johnson, who’s here to help you fix your meetings! Her book Scaling People: Tactics for Management and Company Building draws on her executive experiences at Stripe and Google and reveals her techniqu ... Show More
29m 51s
Sep 2019
#101 How to master meetings
All of the data points to meetings being an increasingly ineffective way of us getting work done. In this week’s podcast, Helen and Sarah explore what’s going wrong with meetings, sharing their own experiences of the good and not so good and thoughts on common wisdom to make them ... Show More
48m 34s