How to get people to talk? And to shut up?

This blog is one of a series of Facilitation Thoughts which look at various aspects of facilitation. 

I have a memory of facing an assembly of children . The children were very well behaved and polite. I was given an hour to talk about domestic violence (I thought I had 15 minutes). I thought of asking questions and inviting responses. Every question was greeted with polite smiling faces. I moved into lecture mode and delivered a 'talk' which received polite applause at the end.

The organisers asked for a review meeting that evening 'to find out what had gone wrong'...

A facilitator has to create the environment for equal participation from all the persons - through talking or other forms of expression. One common thread of positive evaluation is when the participants felt that they had good interactions and their contributions were valued.

Some of the ways to create an environment for good interaction are :-

• Establishing a participation contract at the beginning of the session. Some of 'terms' in the contract would include things like confidentiality, allow others to speak, feel free to talk, etc. 
• Setting a time limit on contributions since some persons tend to talk a lot .
• Providing opportunities for people to use small groups to express their views. Some persons do not like to talk in open groups.
• Using language or varieties of language so that persons do not feel the need to  'hold their back straight and project their voices and speak proper English'. 
• Asking open ended questions to persons - some persons would wait for permission to speak .  
• Recognising all contributions - through reporting, clarifying, challenging if necessary and acknowledging different perspectives. 
•  Organising the room so that it is easy for persons to talk to each other.  Some persons like the horse shoe or circle. However, if there are more than 20 persons, there is a great space in the middle of room which is wasted.  If space allows, the "cabaret" seating arrangement is very effective .

• Checking in with the silent persons  during the breaks and other appropriate times. I remember one time when a teenager told me her abusive father was in the same workshop on domestic violence prevention and she wanted to scream every time he spoke and the session was proving to be stressful for her.

Diane Cummins cautions that "... we need to be careful about pressuring people who do not want to talk or who do not feel comfortable talking in front of people to talk... sometimes we just have to accept that participation and talking are not synonymous."

A question was asked about ways of participating other than talking.

The small group discussions are important. Buzz Groups are groups of about two or three persons who would work on a brief issue - for example looking at definitions or getting opinions on value statements.

Some persons may prefer to write or draw. I believe that being present in the space is the major part of participating. Some persons might reflect and give feedback later. In violence prevention sessions, there is a powerful poem which was written by a survivor of child sexual abuse. She wrote  and sent to the facilitator the night after the workshop ended.

You could encourage persons to write questions and hand them up or put in a box. This helps participants who want to ask questions which might seem controversial.

I have recently used vignettes as a way of jump starting discussions when there is a short time and a large audience.

Click here to download some vignettes for using in domestic violence prevention sessions.

The discussion around the vignettes help to generate some of the messages related to the topic.

Other group work includes case study analysis

The facilitator should encourage different persons to speak on behalf of the small groups.



Silencing people who are not giving others a chance..
I attended two sessions recently and they became tedious . In one session - there was an interaction between two or three persons in a group of about 20, and in another there were one or two persons who kept talking in a group of about 60 persons.

I was also in another session in which I had been vocal. The moderator asked 'Any more questions' and when he saw my hand up, he quickly said "Time is running out,  and you should probably talk individually to the panellists.  We will close now"

Some ways of managing the vocal are :-

• The participants in a group could decide how to limit contributions. The time limit per contribution is usually a good idea.  I learned from Moray House Trust that when the time comes for Questions to the panel to remind the audience that they should  ASK a question; Ask A question; Ask a QUESTION. (And so I have asked persons who wanted to make presentations from the audience to 'please get to the question' )
• The facilitator can quietly ask persons who keep talking and interrupting others to give others a chance
• Some participants can volunteer to be monitors and there could be a kind of peer monitoring of the time spent speaking.

Facilitation in a virtual environment

Encourage people to indicate when they would like to make a contribution. There are 'raise hand' features which should be monitored

I have found in many virtual sessions, that people prefer to wait until their names are called to make their contributions. Be open to reaching out and checking with people if they are hearing the content and if they want to talk. Some persons might prefer to use the chat window.

Hopefully, you will never have to use the 'mute' button to stop persons from talking. Remind people of the time limits, and to make sure their contributions are short and to the point. The good thing about the chat window is that people can share additional information there. 

 

 

What other ways would you recommend to get people to talk? And to shut up?

Author : Vidyaratha Kissoon  contact : vidyak1 (at) gmail (dot) com


Have a look at the other Facilitation blogs