Virtual Facilitation

21Follow Up

Following up with the participants in your session is important to ensure that your session has the desired impact and effect. You always need to remember that even if you had a great meeting, it doesn't end when you hit the ‘End meeting’ button. To really succeed with a project, change people's behaviour or encourage them to take action, you need to give them friendly reminders and make this follow-up visual and easy. As the facilitator, this is part of your job.

You probably have a plan in your head about what you want people to do next, but if you don't communicate that to your participants or follow up with them, this will be like a black box. They won't know what's going on inside. Following up is a way to open that black box, to help make sense of what you're asking of them and to encourage them to act, contribute or whatever else you need them to do.

Design for follow-up

Following up is a big part of the design and is something you should think through from the start. We've seen the most successful workshops and meetings, but then afterwards nothing changes or people don't follow through on what they committed to. Usually this is because the facilitator hasn't planned to follow up. As a facilitator, it's your job to design a relevant follow-up where you engage the right people, at the right level, after the session.

What does a good follow-up look like?

A good follow-up should be visual, short, should recommend action and be a way of creating clarity ...