Effective meetings have a clear purpose and outcomes. These are best defined by the person with the most at stake from the outcome.

Facilitators use the desired outcomes to design the meeting flow, a series of activities that help the group achieve their desired outcomes. 

Neutrality is the facilitator’s ability to focus on the group process and suspend judgments on the meeting’s content. Collaborative spaces create connections, foster trust, allow for silence, and welcome differing points of view. Great ideas come when all team members are involved, engaged, and all ideas are freely shared. Facilitated meetings are well structured and organized to provide consistency to the participants. It’sIt’s common for conversations to be mediocre – improving conversation quality leads to better understanding, fuller collaboration, and remarkable results. Being able to come to decisions is a critical function for a team, frequently problematic, and essential for moving teams to action.

The connection between an Agile ceremony’s purpose and the underlying principles/values it expresses must be made explicit so that Agile ceremonies do not become empty rituals.

Retrospectives are one of the essential practices to ensure the team inspects and adapts its behavior and process. Retrospectives can either help the team continuously improve or can create team dysfunctions.

Stand-ups are the heartbeat of the team’s cadence, providing cohesion and commitment. Stand-ups can either launch the team into their work or become an empty, depleting ritual.

The ability to neutrally facilitate a session cannot be gained by reading or lectures alone, but only by doing it. It’s essential to change one’s facilitation style based on the group’s maturity and needs.