How do I moderate an in-person meeting?

Erwin was just elected as the President of the Business Club! 👏🏻

A couple of meetings are coming up and Erwin isn't too confident about serving as moderator. He doesn't typically enjoy meetings and finds they often last way too long without much being accomplished. He wants to do better.

Moderating a meeting takes skills that many people have never learned to do

By learning to moderate a meeting successfully, you and your team can accomplish great things!

A moderator's job is to guide.

A strong moderator is able to maintain a balance between:

• allowing everyone a chance to participate vs. moving things along

• listening to all opinions vs. coming to a decision

In order to be an effective moderator, you need to brush up on your interpersonalandcommunicationskills.

These skills will help you build strong relationships. Good relationships lead to trust, and trust fosters open discussion.

• Take time to get to know each member individually

• Try to understand members' motivations and goals

• Practice active listening

• Consider team building activities to help the group gel

So how do you bring that balance and personal touch to the meeting process?

An agenda provides everyone with an outline of what will be discussed and helps keep the group on task.

• List the main points of discussion and any subpoints

• If decisions need to be made or voting will take place, include the question(s) to be answered on your agenda

• Provide the agenda in advance of the meeting so that everyone has a chance to review it

• Include time parameters for each discussion topic

Some members may want to grab all of the available discussion time, but one of your tasks as moderator is to make sure that everyone has the opportunity to weigh in.

• Unless the purpose of the meeting is to discuss a single project, limit project updates to 5 minutes

• As you review agenda items, ask each participant to state their opinion on each agenda item in 2 minutes or less

• Listen carefully

• Facilitate discussion by asking questions, if clarification is needed

• Check in with members who are quieter to see if they have anything to add

Erwin is settling into his duties as moderator of the Business Club's meetings.

He's noticed that one group member, Charley, tends to monopolize the conversations. What can Erwin do to help move things along and allow other members their time to speak?

As you complete your discussion of each agenda item, summarize the discussion along with any decisions that were made.

• Ask if there are any questions

• Make note of the next steps

• Request volunteers to complete additional tasks, if needed

• Thank everyone for their input

For example:

"Thank you, everyone, for a great discussion! Most of us are in agreement that we should hold our fundraiser on May 15. Is anyone available to work at the check-in table from 7-8 AM?"

"Jo, thanks for all of your work on that project! It sounds as if your team will be working hard over the next month and we look forward to your next report. Does anyone have any final questions before we move on?"

Moderating a meeting well takes time and practice.

As you become better at it, your group members will look forward to meetings that are goal-oriented and productive!