How to Meeting Facilitation

Step1
Have an Agenda: Know what you are going to cover in your meeting. Plan ahead! Keep track of items throughout week or month depending how often you have meetings so you can add them to the agenda.
Step2
Stick to the Agenda: This sounds very simple but you'd be surprised by how many people take the time to create an agenda but don't follow it. The attendees will respect you more as a facilitator if you follow the agenda. If attendees try and deter from the agenda then table the discussion for a later time.
Step3
Keep the Agenda to Three Points or Less: Ask yourself, "What are the three most important things we need to cover in the meeting?" Limit the agenda to these three points. The rest of the things you wanted to cover, by definition, weren't really that important anyway, so why waste everyone's time?
Step4
Set a Time Limit: I would suggest setting the time limit for the meeting to be no longer than 30-minutes. In future meetings, shorten the time by five minutes until the time limit is 15-minutes or less. The leader of the meeting will become much more efficient , and the participants will become much more focused as well. When the time limit is up, end the meeting. You may not get to cover every single thing that you wanted to the first couple of times you try this, but within a short time, you will find that the major information points are being discussed and decisions are being made very efficiently.
Step5 Encourage Participation from Everyone, but don't Force Them: Instead of going around the table and asking for opinions or input, just ask a question and let people volunteer their answers. There will be times during any meeting that each person will "phase out". If we call on every person, it wastes time, and puts people on the spot. Other ways of encouraging participation is to just ask a question, and after someone answers, say something like, "Good, let's hear from someone else." If there are people in your meeting who rarely speak, instead of calling on them directly, you might say something like, "I value the opinion of each of you, does anyone else have something to add." Then, just look at the person you want to hear from. If he or she has something to say, he or she will say it if encouraged in this way. If he or she doesn't, then you haven't embarrassed the person.

Tips & Warnings

• It is important to engage your staff so it may a good idea to ask for participation prior to the meeting. Give them an agenda item could be a way of doing so.
• The time frame will not work in all organizations so adapt step 4 to what works best for your company.