I’ve been pulled in last minute to help facilitate a two-day offsite conference with senior leaders this week. While it’s both a blessing and a curse that I’ve done this so many times that I’m not half bad at it, I do know that it is a major stress for other people. That’s just the shiny side and the dull side of my coin I suppose. Today, though, I decided to write down some words of “inspiration” for my facilitator brethren which I plan to deliver to them tomorrow night before it all goes down in case it will calm their nerves.
And so I present to you, the 6 truths of all conferences:
- The room is always too small, too big, too hot, too cold, has horrible food, doesn’t have enough food (and on and on and on, you get it – just accept that this will happen and it is outside of your control)
- 60% of the people in the room are just there because they’re supposed to be there; 20% will poo-poo anything you say/suggest/do; 20% will help corral the herd and energetically support/get everyone back on course (Which faction will you join? Only you can decide that)
- No matter how much you prepare, there is 1 topic that you will overprepare for that is breezed through (Don’t sweat it, consider this a blessing from the Conference Gods)
- No matter how much you prepare, there is 1 topic that you ultimately underprepare for; this topic will take twice as long as you allocate and you still won’t “solve the problem” (Figure out a time and place to regroup, this is not the last you’ll hear on this one)
- There is always 20% of the material that gets washed away by the tide of time management; you should know ahead of time what these topics are so you can rearrange the schedule on the fly and de-prioritize these sections/remove from the agenda to pick up time (Know what’s important and make good decisions)
- If you do not have a consolidated recap of what was discussed/decided, and next steps, you may as well not have even met; you will point back to this information for years to come – so you better make sure you like what you get (Remind everyone what you did and create a documentation trail)
Til Next Time,
Michael