As facilitators, we have to go with the flow, and often some of the most memorable group meetings occur when the leader is willing to scrap the plan for the meeting and address a specific need, or do something fun and spontaneous. Likewise, we have all been in a situation in which a member consistently overtakes or dominates the discussion without allowing others to voice their opinions.
One major role of the facilitator is managing that balance of encouraging everyone to take part in the discussion, but assuring that everyone has the opportunity to do so if they like. This is not always as easy as it seems!
Here are some tips to help foster group conversation that is all-inclusive:
- At your next meeting, remind everyone in the group guidelines that this is an equal participation group. So if you have 10 people in the group, you want each person to contribute their 10 percent to the discussion if they so choose.
- When the situation arises, the facilitator needs to step in and cut off individuals who take far more than their share of time. One gentle way to bring the discussion back to the entire group is to state:
“(Name of member), you are bringing up some great points that are worthy of more discussion, but there are other points of view that need to be heard, so in the interest of time, I need to see if others want to weigh in on this topic.” Then call on the next person interested in contributing to the discussion. - It is also a good idea to let that person know that you would like to hear more about this after the meeting, or that you will circle back to it near the end of the meeting if there is time. This lets them know you feel their opinion is valuable, but lets them know you are going to hold them to the rules of the meeting.
- If the problem continues, talk to the person outside of group, either personally or via email. Assure them that you appreciate and value their input, and ask for their help in getting some of the other people in the group to open up and share. Sometimes you can go as far as to ask them to commit to not being the first person to answer a question, or to only answer when you call on them—or to even work out a subtle signal you can give them when they are talking too much. Sometimes a member will feel so strongly about a topic that they may not even realize how much time they have been talking to the group about their experience or opinion.