These 4 facilitation tricks will make your meetings more productive

Sometimes it can be difficult to keep people engaged in meetings.

It is possible to turn mediocre meetings around, it is possible.
We have compiled a few tips for meeting facilitation to make your project meetings more productive and less stressful. These 4 tips will help you get rid of meeting mehs.
1. Gatekeeping is a way to ensure that every voice is heard
Do you remember when everyone had a turn in kindergarten?
Adulthood may not always be fair. You can make sure that all attendees have a chance to weigh-in on the decisions made at your meetings.
This facilitation technique allows the gate to swing both ways, giving every voice equal footing. Here’s how it works.
Gate opening: Invite quiet voices in
While everyone brings value to a meeting and some people aren’t vocal enough, others can be. This tactic is used to get team members involved even if they aren’t speaking up, but still have ideas or opinions that can impact decisions.
Ask direct questions if you want to get quiet participants talking. It might be necessary to put someone on the spot. You can be confident that everyone was a part of the discussion.
Gate closing: Rein in dominant voices
Everybody who attends a meeting should feel that it was worth their time. ItaEUR(tm),s that’s why itaEUR[tm]s important to ensure that one voice doesnaEUR[tm]t dominate the entire conversation.
If this happens, the best thing to do is interrupt your chatty chum and ask, Does anyone have any perspective to share?
This approach can feel awkward. It may feel awkward.
2. Make meetings more interactive by bringing props
Don’t be afraid: You donaEUR ™,t have to perform a ridiculous improv routine just to grab people’s attention. A few simple materials can help people get off their screens and engage in decision-making.
Even the most tech-savvy teams still use paper to generate ideas, and to reach consensus. These basics will help you engage and align your team at any meeting.
Flip-chart and whiteboard
Pens and/or markers
Sticky notes
Are you looking for ways to get more out of your meetings? Gamestorming: A Playbook For Innovators, Rulebreakers and Changemakers is a great book to read. This book contains 80 games that can help you achieve a variety meeting goals.
3. Establish ground rules for brainstorming
Brainstorming is often criticized for being a Wild West where ideas are free to fly wherever they please.
But brainstorming doesn’t have to be a waste of time. It all depends on how you structure it.
TeamGantt is a big fan of creating ground rules for brainstorming meetings. These guidelines will help you keep your brainstorms focused and productive.

There is no such thing as bad ideas.
Everyone has great ideas.
Our goal is to generate many ideas.
This will require a group effort.
Some ideas may not be successful.
There are no hard feelings.
We will leave with at least one final thought.
Tip: Have attendees jot down any ideas they have before the meeting. This will allow you to share, organize, prioritize and prioritize ideas as a group, which will increase your chances of finding a winner.
You can see why Wistia makes it a point to brainstorm in their projects by watching the video below.
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4. Keep an eye on actions and decisions
This is a great way to keep people interested and build consensus. ItaEUR(tm),s especially useful if you want accurate meeting notes and takeaways.
It’s simple. If an action item or a group decision is made, you should stop the conversation and confirm it with the group. This will ensure that everyone is paying attention and ready to move on to the next steps.
Let’s say, for example, that a group decides to push out a deadline. This might be how checking in looks like:
It was an action I just took.