Marsha and Janie were in a special meeting recently with their web designer. For some time both of them were enthusiastically discussing new ideas for the website, when the web designer gently asked, "So, where are we?" Like magic, Janie and Marsha stopped, looked at the agenda and the clock, and recognized the need to start concluding the meeting and review the assigned action items. The web designer got the meeting back on track by using a simple, yet effective facilitation phrase.

As essential as meetings are to moving our businesses and projects forward, they often get off track or bogged down. Some meetings run long and don't accomplish much. Whether you are the designated leader or not, you can have more fruitful meetings by sharing your observations and making suggestions. These are called facilitation phrases - notice, suggest and ask.

Try using these gentle facilitation phrases to make your meetings more productive:

		When the meeting gets off topic or runs too long on a topic: "Where are we?" "I'm concerned about the time." "We seem to be drifting from the original topic."
		When members frequently interrupt each other or everyone is speaking at once: "I notice we keep interrupting each other." "I'm wondering if we could speak just one person at a time?"
		When someone brings up something that is not on the agenda: "If we talk about that at this meeting, how will that impact our time with the rest of the agenda?" "What if we put that item on the next meeting's agenda?"

		Contact Us:
		Janie Trainor: jtrainor@novaworks.org
		Marsha Austin: maustin@novaworks.org
		www.pepskills.org