Online Facilitation

Date: March 31, 2020

Slide deck template, in editable form. This link will ask you to copy into your own account: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1nhERf_Y2qjQjGrMV5ojXoVOmwtngFZFHT0JBXL9GLgc/copy

Please, please, please feel free to reproduce this workshop or share these materials to others. The deck is made to be sharable. I am also readily available to train, give tips, or be an audience as you practice your facilitation. A guest of this session put it best: "you have to learn by doing." Good luck!

Contact: [email protected]
wire @trinhi
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Tips for better facilitation (online and in-person)

Meetings (whether online or in person) are a necessary part of working in any group. Far too often, meetings can drag on and on, people talking over each other, and few to no decisions are made. Bad meetings leave you wondering why you bothered turning up. This is even more compounded as we find ourselves more online than in-person. You can easily turn around the style of meetings to make it enjoyable, fun, inclusive, and productive. Below are some tips and things to think about when you plan your next meetings, online and IRL.

These tips are also applicable for those who are thinking about hosting workshops or webinars.

Always have an agenda or meeting purpose
Be realistic about what the meeting can achieve. Set time limits and tackle all points. Even for short, standing team meetings, it is important that your members know the purpose / agenda of the meeting. A guide I like to use to create agendas is POP (purpose, outcome, process): https://facilitationfirst.com/make-your-meetings-pop-setting-your-meeting-up-for-success/

Desired outcome(s)
When thinking about your agenda, envision what makes a successful meeting for you. Is it to get clarity on a number of operational tasks? Is it to brainstorm ideas for fundraising? Is your desired outcome to have 100% of your team fully trained on x thing?

Who take notes? How are decisions / ideas / questions being documented?
Even in standing team meetings, it can be easy to forget notes. Documentation is especially important, for those who are not able to be present during the meeting. Create a culture of note-taking that does not rely on just the womxn in your group. Take turns.

Be inclusive
Inclusivity is not just about making sure those who need to be in the meeting is there, but also making sure they have the correct tools or ability to access the meeting. Global teams often mean juggling a lot of difficult timezones.

On video conferencing platforms that allow for chat, you can ask people to put their preferred gender pronouns and or locations next to their names. It's a good way to "see" who is all in the group.

Check-in & Check-Out questions
Make sure to allow time for Check-in activities or exercises. It allows participants to be present, seen, and heard. Check-out allows for reflection. Check up these activities every so often if you're in standing meetings.

Co-facilitate / co-host for tech inclusion
Allowing for a co-host is especially crucial if you're using an online video or voice platform. Make sure that not just one person is hosting an event. If their internet disconnects, you don't want the entire room to be closed. This especially happens for platforms like Zoom.

Especially for larger groups, a co-facilitator can help jump in when dealing with a difficult participant who always dominates the conversation or interrupting unnecessarily. A buddy will help you mitigate these participants so you can keep on track. For tech platforms, you can consider banning a person's ability to chat.

Silence is not consent. Take note of who is and is not speaking.
It can be especially daunting during a webinar when no one else among the group is speaking after a prompted question. Silence is not a bad thing; just like in a classroom setting, silence can often mean people are thinking or working their fingers to answer via chat.

Be active! Incorporate icebreakers / exercises / build (virtual) meeting culture
For those working mostly remotely/online these days, sitting in meetings after meetings can be very boring and soul-crushing. Make sure to make time for play.

Teach technology over time
Rolling out a "new" tech tool can be daunting and laborious, if not considering the time it takes to build in practice and guidance. Don't just introduce a new tool without going over the security and privacy features.

For a webinar:

• Use the first 2-5 minutes to show/remind people how the function works
• Open your webinar 15 minutes to allow for folks to test out their settings
• Include an image/slide/or text at the beginning of your webinar or send beforehand the settings or buttons you want people to use
• Keep in mind that not everyone is on the same operating system so your advice may need to cover all the systems

And other things to keep in mind......

Be prepared...

• For technology to break. Sometimes Wifi will not work, browsers WILL freeze. Have patience and make sure you don't get frazzled if that happens. For a webinar, assign one person to give technical assistance so the presenter does not have to stop.
• To change your tools settings for the relevant meeting style or webinar. Make sure to enable/disable chat, video, audio functions. Make sure you know how to lock, kick-out, or even restart a session if you have to.
• To adapt for low bandwidth. This make sense for both online and in-person. In real life, this could mean the actual bandwidth/tiredness of everyone to be able to absorb information. Online, access is key. If you know that your audience have less bandwidth, be prepared to be creative about your platform for delivery of information.
• To use different tech. This could mean promoting or using different browsers in order to access your conference tools. For example, Chromium (instead of Firefox) works best for Jitsi fickle audio/video features. (If you don't want to use Chrome, Brave is good alternative).
• To practice your tools. If running a public-facing or large webinar, run through your entire session/agenda. Just like you would practice your speech, practice screen sharing, showing your video/audio, etc.

The Tech You Use Matters

There are just too many platforms out there. How do you know which one (is best, safe, secure) to use?

Don’t take my word for it, try it out yourself.
After taking into consideration the cost, setup, feasibility, make sure

Tech is only useful if your team actually uses it.
Don't let tech be a hinderance for your team / group.

Low tech may sometimes be better than fancy tools.
For your group, it may work better if folks just do voice-only Jitsi calls with a shared Etherpad / Crytpad.

Aim for privacy and security enhancing tools Admin and user settings Encryption / advanced security / 2FA Don’t let tech hinder!

A note about "end-to-end encryption" of the video conference tools We've all read the articles about Zoom. It's pretty scary to think

Extra reading

EFF: What You Should Know About Online Tools During the COVID-19 Crisis https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/03/what-you-should-know-about-online-tools-during-covid-19-crisis

How to Keep Uninvited Guests Out of Your Zoom Event (Zoom blog post) https://blog.zoom.us/wordpress/2020/03/20/keep-uninvited-guests-out-of-your-zoom-event/

Resources

350.org – Online Facilitation Resources https://trainings.350.org/topics/online-facilitation/

Training for Change: Online Facilitation Resources (including ice breakers and other activities) https://trainings.350.org/topics/online-facilitation/

HANDOUT: Stories about Facilitating Remote Meetings (google doc)

Hyper Island Toolbox (check out tools for remote teams)

Cryptpad (google suite alternative. Includes whiteboard, pad, kanban, etc) Etherpad (hosted by riseup.net. google docs alternative)