80% of the laboring people is daily chaired by the other 20%. A good chairman works as a facilitator. Otherwise he has to take a step back. Five tips.

1. First aid for Ownership

If the facilitator is always boss the others become lazy. Tip: involve everyone from the first second. ‘Who spoke to a customer today?’

2. Freeriders out of their chairs

Passive seat stickers are bad for productivity. Tip: make everyone present responsible for a part of the meeting. Who adds nothing can stay home.

3. Aimed interaction

Never say: ‘who wants to add something?’ That’s random interaction and most will remain silent. Tip: Address with concrete questions – ‘what do you suggest to tackle this problem?’

4. Continuous cross-fertilization

A lot of knowledge is lost if one person keeps speaking and everyone else listens. Tip: stimulate exchanging ideas. Assign tasks in groups of 2 or 3. More energy = more production.

5. We don’t take anything…

If the chairman says ‘We’ll take that with us’ it’s a recipe for half-hearted decisions. Tip: everything ends with ‘who does what when’.