I am really enjoying being hired to facilitate meetings. Sometimes clients will create the whole agenda and their only ask of me is to make sure they stay on course to achieve their intended results. Facilitation is an underrated and under-utilized skill set.

Recently I’ve been facilitating meetings for a brand-new collaborative network. At our last meeting, I facilitated a conversation about what language they wanted to use to tell others about their work. I asked them to lift up aspects of their network they struggle to explain to others – an example from the meeting is their mission. I asked them what words are important to include when talking about their work – what are aspects of their network that they don’t want people to misunderstand? They asked each other what those words mean and clarified the different activities of the events and milestones they were planning.

Here are a few things that I took away from the conversation that can apply to any organization:

• Be intentional with your words. Know why you’re using those words or taking that stance.

• Sometimes you may be introducing new or radical ideas through your mission, vision, and work. Be prepared for others not to know or understand fully.

• Sometimes your mission can’t be watered down and requires directness. It’s okay to teach others what some of your words mean.

• If you don’t have impacts to demonstrate, paint pictures of the problem. Sometimes your elevator pitch is a quick question that gets someone to notice something or think about things differently.

• If transparency is important, be clear and consistent about what you’re doing and why you’re doing it.

• For collaborative groups, how will you refer to each other? This network landed on partners because they want to be partners in the work of the network. <3

I’m so excited for this network and the work they will do together. They’re choosing to invest in their work now by taking the time to build the infrastructure that will create the future they aspire to, with special attention to culture, belonging, and equity.

If you’re looking for facilitation support, reach out to my team at The Spark Mill – we’d love to help you make that change happen. We’d also be happy to offer a training in facilitation!