The basics of an impactful agenda: structure & timing (download)
Defining Facilitator
“At its core, I like to describe facilitation as supporting a body of people moving through a process.”
-Sage Crump, Culture Strategist & Facilitator
A facilitator guides the direction of a conversation without making decisions themselves about the outcome. A collaborative role, a facilitator holds space, deeply listens, and gently guides. They are the grease and mirror for the conversation.
– Yael Horowitz, educator. facilitator. archivist. artist. Doula.
“To ‘hold change’ or ‘hold space’ is to hold both the people in and the dynamic energy of, a room, a space, a meeting, an organization, a movement.”
-adrienne maree brown, Holding Change: The Way Of Emergent Strategy Facilitation And Mediation
Critical roles to be filled for supported facilitation
Primary facilitator (co-facilitating parts of the agenda with other is a great way to build collective ownership over the space. Generally, it’s helpful for there to be more than one facilitator in the space)
Note taker (if the meeting is longer than one hour, it is helpful to have 2 note takers)
Time keeper (if the meeting is longer than one hour, it is helpful to have 2 time keepers)
Ideally there is also:
De-escalators, safety team members or an accountability team who can help practice violence or harm intervention, and make space for folks who are activated or triggered
Strategies for reading the room:
Asking! Collaborate with the folks in the room, ask how they’re feeling, inquire if you’re noticing a dynamic that hasn’t been named, ask how they would like to move forward.
Based on the feedback, provide suggestions for moving forward
Temperature Checks (i.e. thumbs up, thumbs middle, thumbs down - inquiring if anyone would like to share how they’re feeling)
Notice who has participated a lot and who has not, inquire with the folks who have not participated much on if they’d like to share anything (no one is required to share, this is simply a soft invitation)
Keeping an eye on if folks unmute themselves or make gestures that they want to speak, especially if multiple folks do it at the same time
Strategies for encouraging folks to participate:
Have opportunities for folks to provide their thoughts verbally (small or large group discussions)
In writing (pen/paper, chat box, etc.)
Hand gestures/body language (i.e. thumbs up, thumbs down, signals for needing more time, nodding, shaking head, etc.)
Giving reminders that you want folks to participate and you want folks to share what’s on their mind
Giving space and pause after you open up the room for comments or questions so folks can have some time to process their thoughts and bring them forward
Writing “stack” in the chat and calling on folks to speak in order of when they put “stack” in the chat, starting with the first person
Share any proposals or discussion topics ahead of time (ideally a few days to a week before)
folks’ comments & questions may impact the agenda
This also gives folks time to formulate thoughts ahead of time, especially for bigger conversations.
Setting up small group discussions for success!
Clearly state the intention of the breakout rooms
Clearly state how long folks will have in the breakout rooms
If in person, give reminders for when folks should start wrapping up their conversations
Clearly state, repeat and have in writing or printed any exersies you will be doing, or questions or proposals folks will be discussing discussing
drop in chat if online, pass out if in person
A couple ways to structure rooms:
Pair folks together who are doing work together or share similar identities (idenity caucuses) to encourage collaboration and solidarity
Randomize it
Self selecting, have folks tell you who they want to be with
Pop in and out of breakout rooms to check in on folks and see if they need support
Pre-meeting logistics:
Share any proposals or discussion topics ahead of time (ideally a few days to a week before)
folks’ comments & questions may impact the agenda
This also gives folks time to formulate thoughts ahead of time, especially for bigger conversations.
Make sure folks know what to bring to the meeting (pen, paper, etc.)
Write out any instructions for breakout room activities to drop in chat or print out beforehand
Outline agenda with clear timing and who will be filling what roles, send via email ahead of time. If in person, print out and pass out at the beginning of the meeting as well.
Share accessibility info (captions, transcripts, interpreters, bathrooms, wheelchair accessible, covid-19 protocols, etc.)
Send out calendar invite with when, where, accessibility info, agenda, etc.
Post-meeting logistics:
Send out meeting minutes, recording, etc.
Follow up with any additional resources
Summary of important decisions that were made
Summary of follow up tasks and projects, who is doing them, and when they are aiming to be done by
Generally being available for follow up support, feedback, and accountability
Agenda Timing & Prep Tips
Reminder: Ultimately, there is no perfect agenda, or perfect agenda template. You cannot entirely predict the flow of a group, and each group’s needs and desires are different. Finding a structure that generally works for you and your people will take some experimentation and collaboration!
Your agenda will be a lot more detailed than the agenda the folks attending the meeting will see. Your agenda might show things like:
Minute-by-minute timing
Additional talking points and details of a larger agenda item
Instructions for how a breakout activity is going to work
Things to drop into the chat or pass out during the meeting
Reminders or yourself and/or the group
Whatever you need to feel comfortable and prepared
Are you starting right on time? If not, be sure to build that time into your agenda
Build in time for transitions in between small group discussions and breakouts for folks to come back and get settled - typically 1-2 minutes.
I.e. if there are 30 minutes for breakout room discussion, give folks a 5 minute heads up at 23 minutes, and keep folks in the group for 28 minutes
For large group consensus decisions, build in at least two hours per decision for introduction, discussion + decision making, breaks, and close out
If it’s looking like you won’t get through the entire agenda, ask the group if they'd like to stay for an extra 5, 10, 15 minutes, etc.
Small break out rooms:
2-3 people: at least 7 minutes
4-5 people: at least 10 minutes
Keep breakout rooms to 5 people or less if possible
Decisions may be multi-meeting processes. Depending on the decision that needs to be made, consider having multiple meetings
If the meeting is under two hours, provide snacks!
If the meeting is 3-4 hours, provide a meal or at least 15-30 minute break for folks to eat and take care of body stuff
If the meeting is a full day, ensure there is plenty of time for folks to rest and retain in between sessions, including time for lunch, typically 1 hour.
Agenda Structure Template
Pick and choose what makes most sense depending on the context of the meeting, length of meeting, type of meeting, and amount of people in the meeting.
Intro (~10%)
Context for meeting
What’s going to be happening in the meeting overall
Overview of previous meetings
Goals & intentions of meeting
Land/labor acknowledgments
Accessibility info (captions, transcript, bathrooms, covid-19 protocols, etc.)
Reminder if meeting is being recorded and that folks can be off camera if they do not want to be recorded. Or, if in person, how to identify that they don’t want their photo to be taken or to be recorded (i.e. folks who don’t want to be recorded where an orange sticker)
Intro to yourself & other folks participating in the facilitation (tech, note taker, time keeper, etc.)
Intro from other folks in the room
Example: How are you? + one fun question (if someone could narrate your life, who would you choose?
Instructions and guidelines for how conversation and engagement is going to work throughout the meeting
Community Invitations
How you want folks to be engaging in the space
Invite others to share ones they want
Go back to these in conflict / sticky moments
Grounding exercise
Agenda overview - including getting consensus on the agenda (i.e. asking folks if there’s anything missing or anything that they’d like to see changed and getting agreement from those in the room)
Content (~65-75%)
Reviewing proposals or other materials that would be helpful for discussions and/or decision making
Discussions
Identity caucuses (team based, race, gender identity, location, etc.)
Fishbowl discussion
Ladder (each person gets called on and has an opportunity to ask questions or provide thoughts throughout the meeting if they’d like, passing is always an option)
Small group discussions
Decisions
Check ins
Updates
Questions
Celebrations
Breaks (5-15%)
Depending on length of session, these can be reminding folks to breath, doing a short grounding exercise, or being a full full hour for lunch
For two hour meetings or less:
3-5 minute break for every 2 hours
Reminders for breathing, drinking water, stretching, etc. every 20-30 minutes
3-4 hour meetings
10-15 minute break in the middle
Reminders for breathing, drinking water, stretching, etc. every 20-30 minutes
5-6 hour meetings
1 hour break for lunch
Other 3-5 minute breaks every two hours
Reminders for breathing, drinking water, stretching, etc. every 20-30 minutes
Closing (10%)
Summary of meeting, discussion, and/or decisions
Next steps: who is doing what and by when
Feedback
Acknowledgement of unanswered questions or things that weren’t addressed
Checkout question
Gratitude
Decision Making
To make decisions, there needs to be clarity on what decisions are being made, and who is making them. See this example of a decision making proposal written by Dean Spade and check out the spectrum of decision making power created by Laila Makled.
Consensus based or ranked choice voting decision using identity caucuses - timing & structure
Forming identity caucuses helps ensure various viewpoints are heard and are contributing to decisions that may impact them.
Here’s how it works:
Facilitator identifies & gives overview of proposal or discussion topic (3 minutes)
Facilitator overviews how consensus decision making works and allows for questions (5-7 minutes)
Form small groups based on identity (3-5 minutes)
Caucuses can form as workplace teams, race, gender identity, physical location, etc. There can also be a combination of caucuses, or be random.
For example, you may have a LGBTQ+ caucus and a marketing team caucus and LGBTQ+ folks from the marketing team can choose which caucus they’d like to be in
If needed, ask group if there are certain identify caucuses that they want to be in or that they want to be represented (i.e. you can ask folks if they’d like to have causes based on gender identity or location)
Small groups discuss their feelings or ideas regarding the discussion topic or proposal. (15-30 minutes)
At the end of the discussion (~3-5 minutes before), each group chooses a “spoke” (i.e. one person to report back what was said in the smaller group.
If at any point someone in the smaller group wants to say something to the larger group, they do so through the spoke
Each group reports back while notes are being taken by the note taker (10-20 minutes)
Facilitator inquires if there is any feedback or thoughts about what has been reported back
Further discussion is had through the spokes until all small groups feel complete
The facilitator summarizes what has been said & makes new proposals based on feedback. (5 minutes)
Facilitator inquires if further discussion is desired or if folks feel good about the summarized new proposal, this can be done with a temperature check (thumbs up, thumbs middle, thumbs down) (2 minutes)
If facilitator receives middle or down thumbs, space is made to discuss thoughts or concerns (10 minutes)
This process repeats until everyone feels good enough to move forward
If needed, folks go back into caucuses to discuss amended proposal or next discussion topic (10-15 minutes)
This entire process continues until each caucuses gives their approval on the proposal or all discussion topics have been worked through
Alternatively, a ranked choice vote could be had to make a final decision
You may also choose not to move forward with a decision if certain identities that the decision will impact are not present