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In this video Craig explains the “round robin” facilitation technique — giving everyone a chance to speak, one at a time — and he offers some tips on when and how to use this technique in a meeting.

This video has captions. To see them, click CC on the video screen.

Here’s what Craig says in the video

Hi everybody! Hey it’s Craig Freshley here. I just finished up a day-long meeting right here in this room. I want take a minute and talk about a specific facilitation technique, sometimes called Round Robin.

It’s basically where you give every single person in the room a chance to say something and you deliberately go one at a time. I find that using this works best when the group is stuck; when it’s not clear how the issue should be resolved; when it’s not clear what the next steps should be. I have found over and over again when I am stumped as the facilitator — when I really don’t know what the sense of the group is or how something should be resolved or what we should do next — I turn to this technique and often times resolution happens magically.

I think it works best if you apply a few things here.

First of all, be really clear on what you are asking each person to respond to. Write it on the wall, type it onto the screen, or just say it in really simple terms like, “Okay we’re going to go around the room, each person one at a time, and I would like to hear from each of you: “What do you think we should do as an immediate next step? Everybody got that? One at a time: What do you think we should do as an immediate next step?” I’m crystal clear about what I’m asking them to respond to.

Number two. Call for a volunteer to go first. Do not point to somebody randomly or to the person on either end and ask them to go first. You have a much better chance of success if the person who goes first actually wants to go first. That person is already prepared with a response, they don’t mind going first, and because of those two things they are likely to model good behavior for everyone else. If you just point to somebody randomly you might get somebody who is embarrassed because they don’t have a response, or somebody who goes on way too long and then after that everybody else thinks they’re supposed to talk for that long. All kinds of bad things could happen. Call for a volunteer. Like, “Okay who’s ready with an answer and would like to start?” Look for a hand.

When that hand goes up, number three. Say something like this, “Okay thanks for putting a hand up. Before you give your answer let me just point out how we’re going to do this. We’re going to start there and we’re going to go around the room like this [point or signal s direction left or right]. You can pass if you want but I am going to call on each of you one at a time.” This way I’m letting everybody know when their place in the lineup is going to happen. That’s really helpful to people; they know what to expect. If I just call on one person and then I wait for another hand and then I wait for another hand,  now the people have to not only think about their response, they have to think about when they want to say their response. I can actually clear their mind and help their creative thinking if I take that responsibility away from them and I just say what the order is going to be.

Maybe I’m up to number four. Let people pass if they want to. I look at them in the eye and if I see that somebody’s not quite comfortable with the response, I will say to them, “You can pass if you want. No problem. We’ll come back to you if you would like to say more later.” And I might move on and then come back to those people that passed. Not everyone is able to come up with a response as fast as others.

Number five. As I take the comments from each person I’m writing them down on a clipboard or maybe I’m writing them on the wall or somebody else is writing; but I am looking for themes. I am looking for the resolution. I am looking for the sense of the group and after everyone has gone, I either reveal on the screen what I think are the themes — the general sense of the group — the commonalities — or I simply say it out loud based on my clipboard.

I am often surprised at how well this simple technique works in moving a group forward.

For one thing, we get to hear all of the ideas. In a conversation where I’m calling on those who most want to speak, it’s remarkable how many ideas get left unspoken. With the Round Robin we really hear what is most top of mind from every single person.

Second, we all get to see what everybody thinks and what the themes are. They tend to emerge and become self-evident.

I’m not saying that this technique should be used all the time and there’s a danger of overusing it, but I am saying that I think it’s generally underutilized and underrated as a technique for moving a group forward; if done well, keeping in mind the five things that I just pointed out.

Thanks for listening everybody. I hope that you help your group make good decisions!