Essential: Appoint a Facilitator – the following is for them:

Be clear about your objectives.

Take 2 minutes’ thought to complete this sentence. You will discover what you are aiming to achieve:

“By the end of the meeting, participants will….”

Now think about how this can be done, bearing in mind the individuals in your group:

• What do we need to learn? Write this down as a list.
• Who has the knowledge / expertise we need?
• Remember the members of the group themselves have huge collective experience.
• If inviting an Expert, give them a list of what you need to learn either before the meeting or [if they agree] at the start of the meeting.
• Ensure that they stick to your list, and if they wander off into their favourite but irrelevant research project, interrupt them kindly but firmly.
• Vary the pace. No one can listen to a speaker and take it in for longer than 30 mins. This is an evidence-based fact. Both teachers and learners repeatedly ignore this. Try: “Shall we stop there for a spot of Q&A?”
• Involve the learners – the more it is a dialogue, the more people learn. You do this all the time in consultations – summarise, consolidate, ask for more depth if needed.
• Evaluate at the end by asking simple free-text questions, eg: What went well? What could have been done better? Collect their answers and study them later – you will feel a glow, but use this to refine what you do.

On the day of the meeting, remember that you as Facilitator are at the helm. However clever, learned and articulate the Consultant, only you know what the group needs to learn. If in doubt, be like John Humphries. (OK maybe Evan Davis.)