Purpose of this article
For people with ASD traits, or people who find it difficult to improvise while reading the room, facilitating a meeting can be a highly demanding role.
However, meeting facilitation is not necessarily something only “good speakers” can do.
In fact, in an ambiguous meeting, the ability to confirm unresolved points is more important than the ability to make the discussion lively.
This article explains how people with ASD traits can facilitate meetings by acting as a question machine.
A facilitator is not “the person who talks” but “the person who confirms”
When you think of meeting facilitation, you may imagine keeping the room moving, reading the atmosphere, getting everyone to speak, and wrapping things up neatly.
But in work meetings, something else is even more important.
It is confirming the following points:
- What are we doing this for?
- Who is it for?
- What must be included?
- Who will provide the materials?
- Who will give final approval?
- When is the final deadline?
- When is the revision deadline?
Meetings that do not settle these points are more likely to create rework later.
Become a question machine
Trying to speak smoothly on the spot is exhausting.
Instead, prepare your questions in advance.
Useful questions include the following:
Who will make the final decision?
Is this something that must be included, or something we should include only if there is room?
Who will prepare this material?
What should we set as the deadline for sending the materials?
What should we set as the deadline for checking revisions?
Is my understanding correct that the purpose this time is XX?
Simply asking these questions in order can move a meeting forward considerably.
Prepare your opening lines
The beginning of a meeting can be especially stressful, so it helps to prepare what you will say in advance.
Example:
Thank you for your time.
Since we have only a limited number of days left, today I would like to confirm the direction, what needs to be included, who is responsible for the materials, who will review them, and the deadlines.
My current understanding is that the target is XX, the use case is XX, and the length will be about X minutes.
Today, I would like to fill in the remaining points on that basis.
If you can read the first 30 seconds, you can move on to your prepared questions afterward.
Ask the person with the most authority first
When several people are participating in a meeting, start by asking the person who appears to have the most decision-making authority.
First, I would like to confirm the overall direction with Department Manager XX.
Is it all right to proceed with the understanding that the direction this time is XX?
This gives the meeting a central axis.
If you ask everyone for their opinion one by one, the discussion is more likely to scatter.
How to respond to interruptions and extra suggestions
When various opinions come up during the meeting, respond like this:
Thank you.
I would like to separate what must be included this time from what we can include if there is room.
Should we treat that suggestion as mandatory, or as something to include if there is room?
With this one sentence, you can turn an interruption into a priority decision.
The facilitator does not have to decide everything
When you are put in charge of facilitation, you may feel as though you have to decide everything yourself.
But if you do not have decision-making authority, you do not need to make the decision.
What you need to do is confirm who will decide.
If I make the decision here, there is a risk that our understanding will differ later, so I would like to designate the final reviewer.
Send a confirmation memo after the meeting
After the meeting, you do not need to write lengthy minutes.
At minimum, it is enough to send the following:
Here is what we confirmed today.
Purpose:
Target:
Structure:
Person responsible for materials:
Materials deadline:
Final reviewer:
Revision deadline:
I will proceed based on this understanding.
Even this short memo reduces the risk of someone later saying, “That is not what we discussed.”
Summary
When a person with ASD traits is asked to facilitate a meeting, there is no need to try too hard to speak smoothly.
Your job is to use questions to fill in unresolved points.
A facilitator is not the person who decides everything.
They are the person who makes the decisions that need to be made visible and confirms who will make them.
If you become a question machine, the burden of meetings can drop substantially.
