A Key to Great Facilitation

Once again, we're sharing some of the valuable insights offered by communications expert, Jane Praeger.the founder/president of Ovid, Inc.  Jane provides strategic communications services, and helps individuals and organizations with speech, presentation, and media training.

Moderating a panel is easy, right? You just come up with a list of questions and let everyone else do the talking.

Well, no, as anyone who has ever sat through a deadly boring panel knows only too well.

As moderator, your most important job is "Surrogate for the Audience." You are the voice of the people in the room, their sole representative on the panel. As such, you need to make sure you understand-and clearly articulate-their unspoken questions, expectations, and concerns.

You need to do this from the moment you start to plan the panel, to the moment you ask your final question. You are always thinking, "What does the audience want to know not?" not "What am I going to say next?" In fact, the litmus test for an effective panel is if an audience members comes up to you afterwards and says, "Every time I had a question, you asked it!"

Since no audience wants to be bored, make sure you ask the audience's questions in a way that elicits clear, passionate, responses-not long, rambling recitations of information. Questions that ask about 'best' or 'worst' experiences and force panelists to focus on one specific moment in time generally work best; i.e., "What accomplishments were you most proud of this year?" "What quality is most important in a new hire?"

Feed your audience well, and they'll leave energized and inspired and wanting more.