Our Level 10 Meeting™ facilitator is exhausting themselves trying to police the clock, redirect tangents, and manage the board, while the rest of the leadership team sits back like passive participants in a classroom. How do we shift the burden of keeping the meeting on track from the facilitator to the entire leadership team?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

When a facilitator is the only person fighting to keep the meeting on track, the leadership team becomes passive observers. This dynamic destroys the collaborative nature of the weekly pulse and leads to facilitator burnout.

To fix this, you must build a culture of shared accountability for the meeting quality. Every leader in the room must own the clock and the agenda, not just the facilitator. The facilitator is there to guide the process, but the team must self police their behavior.

Start by reviewing the meeting rules as a team. Agree that anyone has the right and the responsibility to call out tangents or rabbit holes. Introduce a simple phrase that anyone can use, such as, are we IDSing, or is this a tangent. When someone says this phrase, the team must instantly pause and evaluate if they have drifted from the issue at hand.

Additionally, use the meeting rating at the end of the ninety minutes to hold everyone accountable. If the meeting was a struggle because people kept interrupting or going off track, do not rate it an eight. Rate it honestly and explain that the score is low because the team did not help the facilitator manage the meeting. When the entire team shares the responsibility, the facilitator can focus on guiding the team to great decisions.