• Welcome people and give them a few moments to say their name and organization.
• Review the participant roles and let them know your role and what you help you need to do this well.
• Assist the group to identify presenters, recorders and other roles
• Reiterate the question/topic you are working on and check everyone is clear on what that means.

• Help people to stay to task and within time, balancing this with creative divergences and interesting process.
• Ensure everyone has the opportunity to participate…and please be especially attentive to language and cultural differences
• if jargon, slang or acronyms are used check whether everyone knows the meaning
• if the discussion becomes too fast paced you might want to slow it down to allocate some time for people who haven’t spoken to speak if they want
  • summarize and reflect to help people catch up, keep the conversation focused.
  • Remind people to share the time if need be.
• If the conversation gets stuck in disagreement or debate, help people to acknowledge differences and delve underneath to explore underlying assumptions, differing perspectives beliefs, values, etc.
• Sometimes it helps to pause and notice what is happening in the process and ask people to reflect on how this may be indicative of roles/ issues playing out in the wider environment.
• Feel free to contribute your own opinion into the discussion…but clearly separate this from your role as host and be mindful that you opinion may have more impact than others in the group purely because of your dual role.

• Allocate a little time at the end to summarise, write up notes, prepare a presentation (if that’s been asked for) and thank each other for their time and energy.

If you think you may be hosting a session here are some hints and tips to make your time be as graceful and effective as possible.

• Begin by welcoming people and giving them a few moments to briefly introduce themselves, if there is time ask what their interest is in this particular session. (At least make sure that people know each others name)
• Reiterate your topic and let everyone know what you mean by this..it may not be self evident. (You may want to briefly state why you choose this topic)
• Describe your role and the nature of your session: are you presenting information? Are you facilitating a conversation? Are you asking for information?

• Ensure everyone has the opportunity to participate and be especially attentive to language differences
• if jargon, slang or acronyms are used check whether everyone knows the meaning
• if the discussion is too fast paced you might want to slow it down and allocate some time for people who haven’t spoken to speak if they want
• summarize and reflect to help people catch up, and keep the conversation focused.
• Remind people to share the time if need be and ensure you are doing the same.
• If the conversation gets stuck in disagreement or debate, acknowledge differences and delve underneath to explore underlying assumptions, differing perspectives beliefs, values, etc.
• Sometimes it helps to pause and notice what is happening in the process and ask people to reflect on how this may be indicative of roles/ issues playing out in the wider environment.

• make a brief summary of your discussion, thank people for time and give a few moments for final words from anyone.