Meetings are either engines of clarity or black holes of productivity. As professional facilitators, we often focus on how to lead great conversations. But what if we took the opposite approach? What if we looked at everything that kills engagement, derails decision-making, and frustrates teams?
Welcome to the Anti-Guide to Great Facilitation—a crash course in what not to do.
#1: No Clear Purpose or Agenda
The Chaos Effect: When a meeting lacks structure, participants arrive confused and leave frustrated. It's like hosting a party with no music, no food, and no idea why everyone showed up.
What to do instead: Start strong. Clearly state the meeting's purpose and agenda upfront. Respect the timebox. Let people know what they’re walking into—and what they should walk out with.
#2: Let One Person Dominate
The Loudest Voice Wins (and Everyone Else Checks Out):
We've all been there—one voice takes over while valuable insights remain silent.
What to do instead: Use facilitation techniques like 1-2-4-All or Round Robin to ensure balanced participation. Facilitation is about curating space, not commanding it.
#3: Ignore the Energy in the Room
The Burnout Factor: When a meeting is emotionally flat or tense and no one addresses it, productivity nosedives.
What to do instead: Check the pulse of the room. Use icebreakers, check-ins, or even AI-driven sentiment analysis tools like Microsoft Viva or CultureAmp to detect engagement and morale.
#4: Obsess Over Problems, Ignore People
Analysis Paralysis: It’s easy to fall into the trap of dissecting problems instead of empowering people to solve them.
What to do instead: Facilitate with empathy. Ask powerful, open-ended questions. Shift the team from complaining mode to creating mode.
#5: No Notes, No Follow-up, No Impact
The Black Hole of Action Items: If no one knows what decisions were made—or who’s doing what—was the meeting even real?
What to do instead: Summarize key takeaways. Assign clear owners. Track action items. Use AI tools like Otter.ai or Fireflies.ai to record, transcribe, and summarize meetings automatically.
#6: Every Meeting Looks the Same
Template Fatigue:
When Sprint Planning feels like a Daily Scrum, and your retrospectives all blend into one, your team disengages.
What to do instead: Use the right structure for the right moment. To add fresh energy, explore tools like Liberating Structures, Lean Coffee, or AI-driven retrospective tools like Neatro or Miro AI.
How Not to Facilitate Meetings
What Great Facilitators Actually Do
They listen. They adapt. They read the room.
Great facilitators don’t just “run” meetings. They design experiences, ensure psychological safety, and amplify the collective intelligence of the group.
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