Managing a group of people with different thoughts and approaches is always challenging. I’m sure that in more than one occasion you were in a team where things did not move forward; either nobody took the lead or everybody talked, and you ended up going in circles.

 

To avoid lengthy and inefficient meetings it is helpful to keep the following 4 words in mind: road-mapping, consent-seeking, fencing, synthesizing.

 

Let’s dig deeper into each of them below.

 

 

1. Road-mapping

 

Often times why group discussions go nowhere is because nobody sets a clear roadmap on how to tackle the goal.

 

Though this step seems complicated, it is by far the most important skill you must master to carry your team forward. Without a clear direction, it is easy to lose your team’s motivation. It’s like being in a marathon but not knowing where you are in the race. If you don’t have visibility into where you are and how far you are away from your goal, most people will slack off.

 

So, how would road-mapping look in action? Let’s say your goal is to “identify and make a solution plan for North Korean defectors facing discrimination in South Korea”, the first thing you must do as a leader should be to quickly break the goal into smaller digestible pieces and then build a roadmap to tackle each part.

 

For the goal mentioned above, your road-mapping could look something like this:

 

“Hey guys! To tackle this problem, I suggest we take the following approach: First, let’s begin by defining what kind of discrimination North Korean defectors face in South Korea. Once we have a list of the difficulties they face due to discrimination, let’s move to the second step and identify which one of those problem are most severe. We can use the ‘impact + feasibility’ framework to prioritize which issues to focus on: [Impact] what problem, if solved, is going to make the biggest difference in the lives of the North Korean defectors affected by discrimination in South Korea? And, [Feasibility] which one of those solutions would be most realistic to put in practice, considering existing programs or regulations? Lastly, we can choose one or two solution plans and dig deeper into them, summarize our findings and present.”

 

“So, in conclusion: First, we identify a list of all discriminations faced by North Korean defectors in South Korea. Second, we select the top 2 or 3 most critical issues as defined by the ‘impact + feasibility’ framework. Third, build a solution plan, hammering down the details to go from ideas to action items.”

 

Some people are naturally inclined to take the leading role in group discussions, but for most people this takes practice. If you want to get better at this skill, I would recommend that you make hypothetical group discussion situations and practice building road-maps. Write down what you want to say in bullet points, and then imagine you are talking to an imaginary audience. You can even record what you say and listen back to the track to find areas that you could improve. Always aim for conciseness and try to keep your road-mapping in less than 2 minutes because normally people will tune out if you carry on for too long.

 

 

2. Consent-seeking

 

Another very important concept to understand is consent-seeking.

 

It is essential for you as discussion leader to be on top of what is being discussed and making the decision to steer the group towards the goal; however, you cannot behave as an autocratic bulldozer and push your thought even though your group disagrees.

 

For example, there may be times when it might seem to you that your team members are going off tangent from the goal, but the group think they are on track. In this case, you cannot simply complain and insist that the group should listen to you.

 

You must find an approach that can get the consent of at least 80% of the group. To do this, present your case logically: why it would make sense for the group to focus on the direction you suggest, why taking their approach might not lead to the goal as efficiently as they suggest etc.

 

When you make your argument, make sure to connect your logic with the group’s goal. You want to convince the group that taking your approach is beneficial for the group, not your ego.

 

As you see here, being a good discussion leader not only means that you have to be attentive of all key points discussed and steering the conversation, so the group can adhere to the road-map, but also making sure that everybody feels comfortable with the approach by getting their consent.

 

 

3. Fencing

 

I’m not sure if ‘fencing’ is a word that exists, but that’s what I call it. Fencing is the ability to put a fence around the group discussion so the team stays focused on sticks to the agreed road-map. The objective is to save time and get more done.

 

As a discussion leader, it is your job to have the discussion stay focused on the goal. As a leader, you need to be attentive of all that is being said by the team and make split second judgement whether what is being said is relevant or off-topic. If it is off-topic, then you must decide whether it would be beneficial for the group to go off tangent for a while and entertain the thought, or softly guide the discussion back to the road-map.

 

You cannot let yourself drift away with whatever conversation that is ongoing at the time, and you can do that by placing a fence around what should or should not be discussed in a way that everybody understands and agrees to.

 

There are many ways you can apply fencing. Before beginning the discussion, you could mention to the group something like: “If everybody is ok, I will guide the direction of our meeting so that we tackle roadmap items ABC. The first item is A so let’s limit the scope of our discussion on A. If I think the discussion is going off tangent, then we can do 2 things: one is to go with the flow or two is to guide the conversation back to our road-map item. When the situation arises, I will ask you what road to take. If you have any questions, please let me know!”

 

 

4. Synthesizing

 

Another core skill you must build to facilitate group meetings is the ability to synthesize.

 

If the word synthesize is not familiar to you, you can use summarize instead. Synthesizing is like summarizing, but adding your own evaluation or interpretation of what was said.

 

Synthesizing is so important because it helps you scrape together the core ideas that have been discussed in an orderly way. This allows you to double-check that you didn’t miss any important information, and also helps lay the ground for how the discussion should evolve in later stages.

 

So, occasionally as discussion leader, you should pause the group from further discussion and take time to synthesize the key points that you understood. Then, based on your judgement, you can suggest how the discussion show follow. Depending on the situation, you can suggest delving in deeper into a topic or guide the discussion towards a completely different topic. Whatever the direction you choose, please keep in mind that you should set a path that will help you and your team move closer to the goal.

 

The ability to synthesize is one of the most important skills you can develop as a discussion leader. If you can’t keep track of the key ideas discussed, you cannot understand where the group stands now, which won’t help guide future discussions because there is no clear agreement on where the group should be heading.

 

5. TLDR,

 

Being a good discussion leader is a tough job, but once you get into the practice of road-mapping, consent-seeking, fencing and synthesizing, you will be able to plow through even the most challenging meetings.

 

So, let’s go over the 4 skills you should master to make people work well together:

 

1. Road-mapping: make the goal clear and build an actionable road-map that all your team members agrees with.
2. Consent-seeking: always have in the back of your mind that group discussion is a team effort and having your team’s consent is as important as having a clear direction.
3. Fencing: keep the discussion focused towards achieving the goal by limiting the scope of discussion to specific road-map items.
4. Synthesizing: regularly pause to synthesize the key points discussed and suggest a way forward that will fine tune the discussion direction to better achieve the goal.