Being a moderator is nowhere near as easy as many people think.
This article is meant to support you
in becoming a great moderator.
Everyone has at some point in their working lives come out of a
meeting feeling that it was a big
waste of time. People get frustrated, bored, lazy or just plain
cynical when meetings don’t
accomplish much and there’s little to inspire or motivate. So, we
need to do something to break the
pattern of boring or unproductive meetings!
Seminars and workshops should be dynamic, entertaining, funny and
brave. If you treat your seminar
like a lecture, your audience will act like bored students. But
treat your seminar like a performance
and your audience will be grateful. They will notice the difference!
Believe it or not, the success of a meeting comes down to the
moderator.
Whenever groups of people get together, two things are usually
true:
1. Everyone sees the world differently, no matter how similar
their points of view may be
2. Everyone thinks their view is the right one
When there is a spirit of cooperation and a willingness to arrive
at a mutually agreed outcome,
disparate points of view can work together, and people go away
satisfied that their point of view has
been taken into consideration and utilised in some way. That is
the role of the moderator.
So being a moderator is about being a calming and pragmatic
influence that can make a significant
difference to the outcome of any kind of meeting, workshop, event,
forum, etc. A good moderation
means to make things easier, to smooth the progress of and to
assist in making things happen.
Moderation takes practice, so here are 10 things to remember which
will help you become a
seriously good moderator:
1. Be neutral and objective: as a moderator you are not
supposed to participate in the
discussion or share your own views, but to be an objective,
impartial voice. If you have a lot
of things to say, then you should be part of the panel, and not
the moderator. You have every
right to have an opinion. If you put it on the table, however, you
would be taking sides. In the
role of the moderator, your personal opinions and feelings should
remain unspoken.
Imagine yourself being slightly distanced (physically) from what’s
going on; sitting just
outside the group so you can observe the dynamic of what’s going
on. You may still be sitting
right in the middle, but part of you is outside looking in.
Often when people come together with widely differing points of
view, it’s very hard to hear
the other side’s arguments. What you are demonstrating by being
objective and keeping an
open mind is that you hear both sides. By keeping an open mind
yourself, you actually model
effective behaviour from your audience. In my experience, when
this happens, it does calm
people down and helps them see that there is more than one way to
do things.
Being objective and neutral also entails having the ability to
craft how a meeting goes, rather
than imposing your will and your point of view. As the moderator,
it is not your job to answer
questions but to raise questions for your audience to reflect
upon.
2. Create a nice environment: since the idea is to ease the
way for people, it’s important not to
put anyone on the spot, embarrass or humiliate them. If anyone at
the meeting puts a
colleague on the spot, you can take the spotlight yourself or
manoeuvre it onto someone
else who won’t mind being centre-stage for a while. It's about
creating a non-judgemental,
objective environment where people feel they can air their opinions
without getting shot
down or humiliated.
3. Be clear: Your job is to visibly and audibly keep the
panelists (people who will hold a
presentation) on track, thus helping the audience feel safe and
secure. So be clear about
telling people why they're there, what's going to happen, and when
it's going to end. Let
there be no uncertainty that you're in charge and going to make
this worthwhile. Ask short
questions and make clear statements.
4. Keep it simple: Clarify! Simplify! Sometimes a
facilitator acts as a translator, not only
reflecting back what they’ve heard, but also interpreting it in a
way that other people can
understand. A good facilitator is practiced in understanding the
differing nuances, jargon and
meanings in what various people are saying and being able to
explain that difference to
others. A useful phrase is “So what you’re saying is….”. This is
because what people mean
and say will often be very different from how they are heard. Try
to use analogies to help
people understand each other.
5. Be prepared: You will need to have a general
understanding of the subject in order to be able
to steer the discussion. Have ready a set of topic-organised
possible questions, provocative
statements, quotes from documents, or whatever conversation starters
you think will work.
Be prepared, of course, to abandon all of them if the discussion
takes an unexpected and
interesting turn.
6. Encourage conversation: This should be obvious, but so
often it’s not. Too many seminars
divide the time up into a few little presentations. Instead of a
dynamic conversation, the
audience gets a series of slideshows. Instead, you should
encourage the panellists to respond
to each other. When one panellist makes a point, ask the other
what they think. If you know
that one of them disagrees, point that out. Don’t be afraid of
disagreement! Smart people
disagree all the time. Get the presentations going as quickly as
possible, so that you leave
enough room for discussion. People will often mention something
that is confusing or
controversial, but will just continue as if it’s common knowledge.
Don’t let this happen, as it
leaves a huge gap in the discussion. If the question popped in
your head, it has probably
popped in the head of everyone else in the room. Ask the question
that’s on everybody’s
mind but nobody dares asking!
7. Be able to think about more than two things at once: You
will need to be listening to the
current discussion, while thinking about the overall planned
discussion, the time, how long
the current discussion has gone on, and about where you want to go
next on your way to
closing the workshop.
8. Be focused: As a rule you'll never get through more than
three broad issues in a single
workshop or panel, so be careful not to over-stuff the thing
trying to cover too many issues
at once. Sum up, when it looks as though there may be too many
ideas floating around that
need clarification from people with differing points of view.
9. Be timely: This is very important. Get the workshop
started on time, keep it moving, and
finish on time. Let people see you confidently check your watch.
Let people know when there
is "only five minutes left". So if a panellist is going
on too long, interrupt them. If someone is
boring you, they’re probably boring the audience too, so summarise
and turn the attention
to someone else. If an audience member asks an uniformed question,
rephrase it into
something more relevant for your panel. Interventions can take the
shape of interrupting
someone, even when they’re in mid-flow, A good, gentle way to do
that is to say, “I’m going
to interrupt you for a moment.”
10. Be fun: There are enough funereal, unsmiling,
self-important, and over-serious workshop
moderators. If you don't have fun, your panel won't have fun, and
your audience won't have
fun. If you created a relaxed and fun atmosphere people will be
willing to share and learn
and your workshop will more likely be a success.
Drafted by Sonia Herrero, inProgress Director
inProgress is a dynamic
social enterprise offering training and
consultancy services to
non-governmental, non-profit organisations
at info@inprogressweb.com
by phone at + 49 30555771180, or visit us on the web at
www.inprogressweb.com
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