Effective Meeting Facilitation Skills

Effective meeting facilitation skills allow you to spend less time in meetings while improving your ability to achieve the meeting purpose.  Great meeting facilitators are a mix between scientist and artist; adept at facilitating excellent communication.  Learn the science behind the meeting facilitation process.  Better yet, learn when it is best to not hold a meeting at all.

This course is designed to give you a facilitation process that allows you to efficiently deliver the meeting purpose.  It focuses on preparing, welcoming, conducting, and follow up processes to get results.

  • PREPARE – Clearly understand the meeting purpose and roles, build the expected results and the most efficient path to them, and prepare others to be prepared in the meeting
  • WELCOME – Assure that your meeting achieves its purpose by starting our right.
  • CONDUCT – Learn how to keep the focus and energy in a meeting and reduce or remove distractions.
  • FOLLOW UP – Make sure the purpose is met and follow up is assigned and completed as needed.

The primary focus will be in the power of preparation for a meeting and efficiently obtaining the meeting purpose by following a step by step preparation process.

Get Started – Enroll Now

Clear

Duration

2-Day Format, 4-hours/day

Online Classroom-Delivered Course

Price

$299.00

Contact Us For Pricing

(Group discounts available. Contact Lee at 920.246.3434)

Instructor

Mark Swiderski, PMP, Lee Young, PMP
  • Target Audience
  • Student Job Aids
  • Prerequisite
  • Purpose & Objective
  • Benefits
  • Course Outline

The student will be performing or preparing for the following job activity:

  • Meeting Facilitator – Their main duties will include facilitating meetings needed to make decisions in the project process

The student will be provided with the following job aids and class materials:

  • Reference Guide – A complete reference providing process, roles, and job aids to explain key facilitation tools with examples
  • Facilitator Skill Facilitation Guide / RACI – A page describing facilitation processes, process steps, and the roles needed for each process.
  • Agenda Builder Template – A working template used to record key decisions make during the development of a meeting: Purpose Statement, Meeting Process, and Audience Preparation
  • Agenda Template – A typical meeting agenda that works in concert with the Agenda Builder Template.

Prior to the course, the student should have:

  • Reviewed the meeting facilitation roles and determine if there are any questions about them
  • Choose a meeting that they are currently working on

Students should bring to class:

  • A prepared agenda for their meeting

Purpose: To be able to demonstrate how to efficiently plan and deliver a meeting that achieves its intended meeting purpose every time.

Objective: Following this session students will be able to:

  • Describe meeting facilitation roles
  • Prepare Process:
    • Define a meeting purpose statement
    • Define items and processes to conduct a meeting
    • Determine the audience and prepare them for a meeting
  • Welcome Process:
    • State the meeting purpose
    • Set effective meeting ground rules
    • Ready a team to achieve the meeting purpose
  • Conduct Process:
    • Better manage the meeting
    • Handle meeting dysfunction
    • Keep the meeting participants energized
  • Follow up Process:
    • Close and follow up a meeting to assure the purpose was attained

Employing these new skills will result in:

  • A higher level of meeting purpose achievement
  • Less time spent in meetings
  • Better agenda and meeting participant preparation
  • Clarity of meeting purpose
  • A reduction in meeting conflicts and dysfunctions

The course outline is as follows:

  • Overview
    • Facilitation Roles
    • Facilitation Process Overview
    • Challenges
  • Prepare Process –
    • Define Meeting Purpose
    • Define Meeting Process
    • Determine & Prepare Audience
  • Welcome Process –
    • Open Meeting
    • Align Meeting Participants
    • Establish Ground Rules
  • Conduct Process –
    • Facilitate Meeting
    • Managing the Group
    • Assign Follow – up
  • Follow up Process –
    • Close Meeting
    • Publish Meeting Notes
    • Verify Follow–up
    • Confirm Purpose Attainment
  • Recap
    • Review Challenges
    • Course Feedback

Upcoming Classes

Course Dates

May 2022

Use the dropdown in the Enrollment box to see exact dates and times in the months listed above. 

Effective meeting facilitation skills allow you to spend less time in meetings while improving your ability to achieve the meeting purpose.  Great meeting facilitators are a mix between scientist and artist; adept at facilitating excellent communication.  Learn the science behind the meeting facilitation process.  Better yet, learn when it is best to not hold a meeting at all.

This course is designed to give you a facilitation process that allows you to efficiently deliver the meeting purpose.  It focuses on preparing, welcoming, conducting, and follow up processes to get results.

  • PREPARE – Clearly understand the meeting purpose and roles, build the expected results and the most efficient path to them, and prepare others to be prepared in the meeting
  • WELCOME – Assure that your meeting achieves its purpose by starting our right.
  • CONDUCT – Learn how to keep the focus and energy in a meeting and reduce or remove distractions.
  • FOLLOW UP – Make sure the purpose is met and follow up is assigned and completed as needed.

The primary focus will be in the power of preparation for a meeting and efficiently obtaining the meeting purpose by following a step by step preparation process.

Course Dates

May 2022