How can you ensure everyone is working towards the same goal in a facilitated discussion?

If you want to agree on a common goal, it is important that all participants can take part in defining the goal. Formulating so-called "How might we" questions helps here. Workshop participants write these on sticky notes while a presenter talks about problems and challenges. In this way, the participants make the challenges their own and immediately begin to take the first step towards solving the problem.

When defining the "why", the "whats" and the "nots" I always consider 3 things: 1. Inspire people. Write some kind of mission statement, by answering the question "Why are we here today, together?" Write it in caps on a board or print it and place it somewhere in the room. 2. Let people decide. Share the "whats" and the "nots" with potential participants beforehand. If someone doesn't agree with the scope, that's ok. Maybe they fit best in a different discussion. 3. Introduce an out-of-scope practice. Whenever something "out" comes along during the discussion, make a pause, ask the group how they think it fits the scope, and if it's out, park it on a “OoS” board. Simple, respectful and effective. Let me know how it works for you!

In my workshops, I like to do an exercise where I state a known problem, such as the need to improve communication in the workplace. Then I ask the individuals to write three ways to do so. Next, I break the group into teams of 3-5 people. They have to share their individual ideas, then as a group agree on the top 3 ideas they will work on to meet the goal of improving communication in the workplace. Often, people are saying the same thing in different ways. This exercise forces them to listen to one another, deal with conflict, and find consensus on the best solutions. After hearing and discussing the top solutions, I encourage people to take action on their suggestions.

Guide discussions by varying communication styles naturally. Observe cues—some prefer facts, others stories. Ensure everyone's voice is heard; invite quieter participants to share thoughts. Flex your approach, adapting to different preferences subtly. Regularly check in on participants’ understanding and alignment with the overarching objective to maintain focus and unity.

When facilitating a discussion, one important technique to ensure that everyone is working towards achieving the same goal is to tell people to put away their phones and computers! Some very bad habits have developed as a result of WFH. People are constantly “multi-tasking” and forget that they are actually live and sitting with other people who are trying to have a constructive meeting! These distractions lead to the multi-taskers only partially engaging in the discussion…and often times their contributions are irrelevant because they simply weren’t paying attention.

Group discussions can be challenging, as they may require letting go of long-held beliefs or practices, even those that have brought some participants success- even defined their self-worth. Activities designed for open dialogues not only ideate but also critically evaluate and prioritize, and some participants will take this personally. Words like streamlined, efficiency, innovation, and growth can leave some questioning their value and feeling threatened. So, balancing this with a growth mindset, where they can see a future potential is key. In complex multi-day sessions I leave space in the evenings for individual coaching- and we always follow big disruptions with individual work, that help people incorporate changes successfully.