How to Facilitate a Discussion.

A particular communications challenge is being a facilitator. It's not being a keynote speaker, it's not being the pundit, it's not being the guest on a talk show. It's more like you're the host of a talk show. If you've been asked to be a facilitator, realize what your job is. Your job is to put a spotlight on other people's ideas, have the ideas come up, let everyone have a fair hearing, keep things running on time, be the gatekeeper, and if possible, without seeming biased, try to synthesize the best ideas so people have a sense of what was accomplished during the panel discussion or the conference. Part of what you have to do as a panelist is introduce. Excuse me, as a facilitator is introduce. The panelists do it in a way that whets the appetite of the audience, makes them realize why this person was invited to be here, why they are uniquely qualified and credentialed to be a great panelist. So introduce people succinctly, let them speak. You've got to watch the time so they don't go way over. At times, it may be appropriate to do a quick summary of what was said, introduce the next person, and keep it going. One person I find that does a good job of facilitating is the moderator of the TV debate show Intelligence Squared. It's not like a typical cable news show. It's more of a traditional debate where you have a moderator. And it's really very similar to being a facilitator. Facilitation can be a great way of bringing together varying parties who have different views. Sometimes you have to stop a fight. Sometimes you have to let someone know when they have stepped out of bounds. But the main thing is you want to create an atmosphere where other people's ideas come out. If you're the facilitator, nobody wants to hear your ideas. It's your job to put spotlight on others, occasionally summarize, occasionally synthesize and create the greatest number of new ideas put out for the whole group, for everyone to think about and digest.