Successful meetings through professional moderation
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Moderation
Productive meetings through professional moderation
Tips for successful moderation of meetings and conferences
Many meetings and conferences are not successful. One reason for this is often a lack of or inadequate moderation of the event.
What are the tasks of the moderator and how can they increase their effectiveness as a facilitator?
- Promote the exchange of ideas between all participants.
- Structuring processes.
- Activate and motivate participants.
- Define rules and objectives and ensure that they are adhered to and achieved.
- Promote transparency and encourage openness.
- Utilise the existing potential of all participants.
- Ensure consistent time management.
- Summarise and document results.
- Define a binding further procedure
Which characteristics and behaviours support successful moderation?
1. organisational talent: The moderator is the playmaker, the pacemaker and ultimately responsible for the success of the meeting. He is the master of the agenda and holds the strings in his hand. They immediately address possible disruptions and ensure a productive feedback culture.
2. neutrality: The moderator's personal opinion is irrelevant; they do not take sides. Contributions are not evaluated. He ensures that as many opinions as possible are heard.
3. assertiveness: The moderator assumes the leadership role during the meeting and ensures productivity through their natural authority and ability to mediate any conflicts that arise.
4. empathy: A moderator should be a master of empathy in order to understand the sometimes controversial points of view, recognise them neutrally and enable contributions from all participants.
5. ability to concentrate: Successful moderation requires full concentration and consistent determination to achieve the meeting objectives.
Rules for meetings:
- Let your colleague finish speaking.
- Allow all participants to actively participate.
- Tolerate other opinions.
- Accept objective and fair criticism (feedback culture).
- Participants act "at eye level".
- Keep an eye on time, i.e. each participant keeps it short.
"Make your meetings and conferences a success and utilise the structure provided by professional moderation! We will be happy to support you in training your moderator, selecting an external moderator or taking over the moderation yourself."
Martin Eckhardt