Rediscovering Meeting Facilitation

Grace Huang 

1. Before this course, how familiar were you with meeting design or facilitation?

Before taking the course, I had already been working in meeting facilitation for around seven years. Although I had gained a fair amount of experience, I was also starting to feel a little tired. I seemed to have reached a point where I was doing reasonably well, but not bringing much that felt new or fresh to my work.

2. What made you sign up?

This course had actually been on my list for a long time. I had even considered flying to Europe to take it, so when the opportunity came up to attend it in Taiwan, I felt it was a truly rare chance. I knew I had to seize the opportunity.

3. Three words for the experience?

Insightful, practical, engaging

4. Biggest aha moment? (if any)

At one point, the trainer gave us a topic to brainstorm around. I honestly cannot remember what the topic was now, but at the time I kept thinking, “This is simply impossible,” and I found myself completely stuck.

Then the trainer said, “Imagine if it could work, what would have to happen?”

That moment really opened something up for me. I realised that, very often, when we feel stuck, it is because we have already set limits for ourselves.

5. Top 3 takeaways?

First, the teaching style was not centred on explanation. Instead, we were guided to experience the process for ourselves.

Second, there was a lot of interaction among participants, because the entire process was built around learning by doing.

Third, it led to an important reflection of my own: meeting facilitation does not require a great deal of talking. What matters most is enabling people to take part directly and experience the process for themselves.

6. What made the learning effective?

The refresher course really made me feel recharged. It was extremely helpful, and it helped me rediscover my passion for facilitation.

Mike is truly an excellent and very thoughtful trainer. The way he led the course was, in itself, a demonstration of facilitation.

I began using different methods to facilitate meetings. Around the same time, the pandemic began, and the facilitation work I had been doing with long-standing clients moved online. Because I had already learned these methods, I started using a range of interactive approaches to facilitate online meetings.

Later, I also had more facilitation opportunities in Taiwan. Each time, I felt grateful for the opportunity and truly appreciated it. I was also thankful to my past self for choosing to take this course.

7. What do you do differently now?

The change after the course was not only reflected in my actual meeting facilitation work. It also made a clear difference to my speaking and teaching, because I became more attentive to interaction with the audience and more natural in weaving it into the session.

8. Who should take this course and why?

I would highly recommend this course to anyone who needs to lead people in settings where groups come together.

Whether it is a meeting, a class, or any other kind of gathering, it is extremely useful whenever there is a need to encourage interaction and exchange.

9. Anything else to add?

In essence, Meeting Facilitation is about the thoughtful design and arrangement that take place before people come together, so that participants can engage in deeper exchange and interaction with one another.

This concept applies not only to formal international conferences. It can also be used in gatherings with friends, classroom discussions, and various internal company settings. When time together is intentionally designed, it becomes more interesting and more meaningful.

A Meeting Designer is rather like an architect, responsible for creating the overall blueprint. A Meeting Facilitator, on the other hand, is like the engineering team on site, turning those ideas into reality.

I have always felt that translating Meeting Design into Mandarin Chinese as “會議設計” can be a little limiting. A meeting is not only a formal meeting. It is more like time spent coming together.

Whether it is a forum, a class, or a gathering, it can be designed and facilitated in a way that helps people build connections, gain inspiration, and even leave with a clear next step.

Beyond my work, during the pandemic, I also taught online English classes for my daughter’s kindergarten classmates. I used many meeting facilitation techniques in those classes, helping the children become more willing to participate, interact, and engage.

One small “side effect” is that you may develop a bit of an occupational habit. Even when organising a birthday party for my child, I found myself thinking about how to design the interaction and help everyone become more engaged. Fortunately, in the end, I decided to relax and did not actually go that far.