Chris Fenning explains why facilitators should learn participants' names and faces before a meeting. Prepare a participant list, use seating charts or video name displays, and call people by name during the meeting to boost engagement and your credibility as a facilitator.
Chapters
How to facilitate a meeting, tip number 2: Know people's names and faces. As the facilitator, your job is to bring the group together to achieve a specific goal, purpose, or outcome. You're better able to do that if you can recognize the names and the faces of the people involved. It will make for smoother transitions in the discussions. You'll be able to call on people by name. You could recognize who is talking. Now, if you don't do this, you can end up calling people by the wrong names, which isn't disastrous, but it does make people feel like you don't really know who they are and may not be the best person to lead the discussion. So when you join the session, take a look at who's on the call. You should already have the list of participants, particularly if you set up the meeting. Right, make sure you have that list to hand. And then when you're in the meeting, take note of where people are sitting if you're in the room. Or if you're using a video, Zoom, or some other online tool, make sure you can see people's names next to their faces. Paying that little bit of extra attention, using someone's name when they're talking or when you want to call on them, can make a real difference to how people perceive you and also how connected the group feels in the meeting.
