8Participants
Figure 8.1 Who are the right people for the session?
Bring the right people into your session to ensure you can make the decisions according to your purpose (Figure 8.1). But don't bring everyone – only ask the ones you need to succeed with your purpose. Also it's important to be aware of who's present in the session to be able to design a good process for them. In essence, it's not about getting a lot of people in the room, it's about getting the right people in the room who will support the purpose.
All too often, we see sessions where the organiser just hasn't thought about it. They've invited people from a staple list, rather than creating a contributor list. If you're inviting participants from a staple list then we suggest you revisit the purpose to make sure it's the right one for your session. At this stage you could consider stakeholder mapping to decide who should actually participate.
Who should participate?
Before you start making a list of participants, look at your purpose. Given that purpose, who is critical to support you in reaching that purpose? If the purpose is about taking a position on something, who needs to be involved in the discussions and decision? If the purpose is to get the latest knowledge on a topic, who will share that knowledge and who needs to hear it? If the purpose is to share knowledge across different teams, is it relevant ...
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