How to Facilitate a Small Group Meeting

The role of the facilitator is to insure that decisions are made, plans are developed, and commitments are 
made, but in a manner that is enjoyable for all. A good facilitator is concerned about both a meeting's 
content and its style. 

Every meeting should have concrete, realistic, and measurable goals you want to accomplish. 

How to begin. The facilitator should find someone to take notes, someone to monitor time and pass around 
a sign-in sheet with space for names, addresses, phone numbers, and e-mail addresses.

Welcome Everyone. Welcome everyone who comes to the meeting. As facilitator you may wish to 
introduce your self and explain why you are facilitating this meeting.

Introduce People. Ask everyone to answer a question or tell something about them selves to provide 
useful information to the group. A sample question might be "What makes you most angry/hopeful about 
this problem?"

Review the Agenda. Go over what's going to happen in the meeting. 

Explain the Meeting Rules. Ask everyone to speak respectfully and listen with curiosity.

Encourage Participation. Everyone should be encouraged to speak and participate to get all points of 
view. Turn questions back to the group for their input. Ask people to comment on something just said. 
Compliment people on their ideas and thank them for their input. Ask open-ended questions.

Respect Everyone's Rights. You may need to ask the more quiet people for their thoughts, and tactfully 
interrupt the longwinded ones to move the discussion along. Try one of these phrases for dealing with 
domineering people: "We've heard a lot from this side of the room. Are there people with thoughts on the 
other side of the room?" Or, "Let's hear from someone who hasn't spoken yet."

If several people are trying to talk at once, ask them to take turns. Try to identify who was first, second, 
etc., and make sure to get back to everyone in his or her proper turn. You might want to agree to limit each 
speaker's time, or ask that no one can speak a second time until everyone has spoken once. If the discussion 
is getting off-topic, point this out and redirect it back on course.  If someone is getting hostile, 
argumentative, or needlessly negative, tactfully intervene and try to turn the discussion in a more 
constructive direction.

As facilitator don't impose your personal ideas on the group. Keep your own comments to a minimum; 
let others speak first. If you have strong feelings, step aside for a moment and let someone else facilitate 
that discussion. Avoid criticizing the ideas of others--your position gives your comments extra weight.

Don't be afraid of silence. It's a useful tool. It gives people a chance to consider and collect their thoughts.

Avoid Detailed Decision-Making. It is best to defer details to a smaller committee and to use the large 
group to come to larger ideas. Encourage the participants to join smaller decision-making committees.

Seek Commitments. You want people to commit to certain tasks for future involvement so make sure 
there is adequate time. The facilitator may ask each person directly how he or she wants to help. 
Discourage people from just "observing". Everyone should leave the meeting with something to do. Once 
people have agreed to a task write their names on newsprint next to the task.

Summarize the Meeting Results and Follow-Up. Before closing a meeting summarize what happened 
and what follow-up will occur. Thank people for coming.
Sources: Process/Groundrules, from the BiNet USA Newsletter, December 15, 1992; Antleader Guidelines #C2: Running Effective 
Meetings, published by the Student Activities Office at the University of California, Irvine; Organizing for Social Change