As moderator of a meeting or discussion you have one important task: moderation. This sounds logical but it isn’t easy. Especially if you are familiar with the discussion topic, if you are an expert in this topic or when the discussion result is directly used in your project.

In such circumstances it is not easy to stay in the moderator role. So if you know you want participate on the discussion, you have to define another moderator in advance.

 
General principles

As moderator you should always follow these main principles:

• The moderator is not a decision maker.
• The moderator will not make decision but he has to lead the discussion methodologically in a way to support the participants to make their decisions.

Tips and hints

The following list contains some tips and hints for moderating:

• Be a methodologists and caring for a constructive meeting
• Do not act as expert for thematic issues or questions
• Questions from the group must always be answered by the group (and not by moderator)
• Questions from the moderator must be asked to the group and not to individual participants
• Selects proper steps and milestones for the discussion and ensure their execution
• Involve all participants
• Note and visualize every input
• Do not grade inputs
• No input is right or wrong
• Give communication and interaction assistance
• Establish a group consensus
• Visualize results