Meeting Facilitation
Meetings are a tool we all use. We know what a bad meeting can feel like; these tools will give you resources on how to design more effective meetings from a general standpoint, specifically for facilitation, and from a behavior management standpoint. Tools within this section go over in-person and virtual meeting facilitation. Each category lists the most broad resource first and then lists more detailed resources.
General meeting resources
Meeting Engagement Tool Suite from NOAA
This comprehensive web-based suite of tools from NOAA provides resources around meeting planning, facilitation, and activities. We have pulled out some of the resources individually in links throughout this portion of the site.
Applying the Science of Learning to Your Meetings
This two page hand-out will help increase the long-term effectiveness of your meeting planning and facilitation by describing how to set up meetings in a way that matches how adults learn.
Stakeholder Mapping
This handout describes techniques for stakeholder mapping, which is a collaborative process to identify key stakeholders using research and discussion.
Facilitation resources
Facilitation Best Practices
This two-page handout will help improve meeting facilitation with the workflow and questions that go into what to do before and during a meeting.
Facilitation Techniques
This two page handout details a variety of techniques meeting facilitators can use to assist groups in accomplishing their objectives.
Facilitation Agenda Development
This handout goes through how to design a meeting agenda that facilitators can use to run effective meetings and provides an example template.
Facilitating Virtual Meetings
This four page handout goes through what to think about as you are planning a virtual meeting. It also goes into design techniques and considerations for running virtual meetings.
Tips and Tricks for Planning a Virtual Meeting
This handout details virtual meeting planning considerations, common virtual meeting tools, engagement techniques, and troubleshooting for issues with virtual meetings.
Group dynamics
Managing Group Dynamics
This three page handout guides the facilitator through the phases of problem solving they can bring a group through to reach a decision.
Pre-Meeting Assessments
This three page handout details how to hold a pre-meeting assessment to air concerns before the meeting so the meeting itself can be more effective.
Managing conflict
Dealing with Disruptive Behaviors Interactive Tool
This tool walks the user through different types of disruptive behaviors that can show up in meetings and walks them through different levels on interventions that they could take to deal with the behaviors.
Dealing with Disruptive Behaviors Handout
This handout goes over various types of disruptive behaviors that can show up in meetings and how to approach them.
Designing the Meeting to Manage Conflict
This two-page handout overviews how to develop a meeting process to reach defined objectives using techniques that allow participants to share perspectives without triggering disruptive conflict.