The most important thing in communication is hearing what isn’t said.
Peter Drucker, interview with Bill Moyers A World of Ideas
At a frontal event with presentations, your audience is(n’t) telling you that they are more interested in their smartphone.
During a sensitive business workshop, your peers from another cultural region are(n’t) telling you that they are only being polite and would prefer to have some time out to think about real decisions.
And those two colleagues from a different discipline are(n’t) telling you that their concerns don’t feel appreciated during a value stream analysis workshop.
The contribution of a good moderator to an event must be large enough to let participants be heard and engaged, but small enough to not actively influence the outcome.
My approach
Whether during a large scale event with several hundred listeners or a strategic workshop with 20 specialists of diverse operative and technical fields, my approach to moderation is to
- be well prepared, exploiting my diverse background and interest in cultures
- convey enthusiasm and openness, a fortunate personality trait
- „read the room“, a central social concept in Japan
Benefit from the impartial facilitation of your event by an intercultural and interdisciplinary catalyst!