Issue

Suggestion

Winding up a conversation and getting ready to move on to the next one

“We’ll spend another 2 minutes on this and then move on to the next topic.  If anyone hasn’t managed to get their point down on the flipchart/Jamboard/ a post-it etc then I would encourage you to do that to make sure your thoughts are recorded

 

OR

 

Has everyone managed to get their points down on the post-its/flipchart/Jamboard?  If not, you’ve got a couple more minutes and then we’re going to move on.

 

People are talking but no one’s recording any points

“Can I remind everyone to record their points on the post-its/flipchart/Jamboard etc.  The conversations aren’t being recorded so it’s important that the post-its (or however you’re recording the comments) reflect what you think.

 

People are only writing basic info on the post-its/flipchart/Jamboard

Can I remind you to make sure that your comments are recorded on the post-its/flipchart/Jamboard?  If you only write the subject e.g. “Equalities”, when the comments are submitted, no one will know what it was you were saying about Equalities.

 

Someone’s dominating the conversation and you need to encourage others to express their opinion.

Thanks for that (insert name).  I’m conscious that some people have been quite quiet and that’s okay if you don’t want to speak out, but I’m just wondering whether anyone else has a different perspective, or contribution they’d like to share with the group.

 

2 people are getting into a head-to-head disagreement about a suggestion/opinion

There’s a lot of passion about this subject but I’m conscious of time and wary that if we get stuck in this one conversation, we could miss the opportunity to comment on the other questions so I’m going to move things on.  If anyone still has thoughts or comments on this topic, please make sure you record them on the flipchart/post-its/Jamboard etc.

 

There’s an unrelated local issue diverting people’s attention and taking the conversation off-track

I think this is an important issue, but it’s not something that this session covers.  What I’m going to do just now is put it in the parking bay (see above note) and come back to it at the end.   For the time being, I’m going to bring us back to the discussion.

 

Keeping things positive – things to say when people list complaints

What do you think could help make the situation better?

 

How could communities be more involved?

 

Good point – so let’s look at that as an example.  What if things were different?  What would you like to see that look like?

 

We’ve spent some time looking at some of the problems, so now let’s look at  what we want that to be like instead.  We can move on to how we think we can get there, but let’s start by looking at what’s the outcome we want to see?

 

Some phrases to encourage people to think a bit deeper

Is that something that everyone would participate in, or are there some people in the community who would find it difficult to take part.  What could be potential barriers and is there anything we could do to help people get involved?

 

What would be the benefits of that way of doing things?

 

How do we make sure a wide range of people in the community take part in that?

 

Are there any challenges we would need to think about when planning this?