FREE online courses on Effective Meeting Facilitation - Other Techniques To
Make Meetings More Effective - Flip Charts
Flip charts are an essential tool. The facilitator can use
chart writing to:
Create a record of the work product. Participants can see the
notes and make corrections or ask for clarification as the conversation
progresses.
Organize thinking i.e., draft wording, pose options, connect
ideas, depict consequences, narrow choices, summarize decisions, organize tasks.
Keep the participants on track by referring to the topic on
the flip chart, or specific agenda items.
The information on the flip chart must be "user friendly."
Use large letters, space between concepts (so ideas can be added), alternating
colors, and make sure the paper can be posted rather than just flipped over.
Bin Issues. A useful tool
for moving participants through the agenda is to create a separate flip chart
page for issues raised, important, but either tangential or too complex to deal
with during the meeting. Noting these issues on a separate sheet, also referred
to as the "parking lot," respects participants' concerns and assures them that
the issues will be addressed. (Make sure they are addressed eventually, or that
participants no longer want to address them; otherwise the bin issue sheet soon
will lose its efficacy.
Next Steps. The facilitator
should have a good sense of what is going to happen in meeting #2 when planning
meeting #1. That sense is confirmed by taking about 15 minutes at the end of the
meeting to ask "Where do we go from here?" or, "What do you need to do so that
you can move forward in this process?" There may be a number of tasks
participants must accomplish before the next meeting convenes. Make sure to
summarize who is going to do what, with whom, and by when. Rough-out major
agenda items for the next meeting before adjourning.
When participants reach decisions, the facilitator will need
to devote time to how they will implement those decisions. Thinking they are
done, euphoria sets in, and participants fail to convert the decision to an
action plan (see action planning worksheet in the attachments). Before
participants leave the meeting, the facilitator should pin down action steps:
Who is responsible for taking what action by when?
