A good facilitator watches who isn't talking. Pay attention to body language, facial expressions, and whether people are on their phones or laptops. These cues tell you if someone is bored, frustrated, or checked out, so you can adjust and keep the meeting on track.
Chapters
How to facilitate a meeting, tip number 9: Pay attention to the people who aren't talking. When you're in a meeting, it's easy to listen to and focus on the person who is speaking at the time. But as the facilitator, your job is to have a successful meeting. This means you need to look at the people who aren't talking as well as the person who is. Now, if you don't do this, if you don't pay attention to the people who aren't talking, how will you know if everybody else in the room is frustrated or bored or checked out, or whether they agree or disagree with the points that are being made. When you pay attention to and observe the other people in the room who aren't speaking, you'll pick up on cues that tell you whether the meeting is being successful. So how do you do this? Well, pay attention to their body language, facial expressions. Are they looking at their phones? Are their eyes closed because they've just checked out or that they're thinking about something else? Are they working on their laptop, not just taking notes, but are they just working on their laptop and clearly not paying attention? By paying attention to those cues and by looking at the other people in the room, you'll be able to see whether you're successfully moving the group towards the outcome and the purpose of the meeting.
