The Art and Science of Moderating Discussions - a16z Podcast  ## Metadata - Author: **a16z Podcast** - Full Title: The Art and Science of Moderating Discussions - Category: #podcasts - URL: https://share.snipd.com/episode/e0e5bee0-1397-4726-87cf-d3e8b8e31fd4 ## Highlights - How to Prepare for and Succeed in Communication Interactions Key takeaways: • Communication is a process that starts before people actually enter into it. • The main skills for a smooth interaction are listening, paraphrasing, and linking ideas. Transcript: Speaker 1 As somebody planning a communication inter action, be it on line or in person, you need to think about the things you do in advance of it happening, what you do during and what you do after. So in terms of which odo in advance, you're figuring out who your audience is, what's important to them, what themes do you want to get across as part of this communication? What's your goal? And to me, a goal is very specific. A goal is about information, emotion and action. What do you want people to know? How do you want them to feel? What o you want them to do? Are there ground rules you want to establish in the midst of moderation, when it's actually going on? Your biggest skill sets are your ability to listen, your ability to paraphrase and link and bridge ideas. That's what helps a smooth interaction take place. If the back end, when it's over, you know, just because the interaction is ended, the meeting is over, the presentations over, whatever, you then have to think about, how do i follow That up, and how do i make sure the information is acted upon, and set myself up and the others for success for the next interaction? So it is a process that starts way before people ever enter into the call or the room, and it continues long after they've left. Speaker 2 So what's the difference then, between sort of planned meetings, like presentations in panels, versus spontaneous, more organic cessions? Speaker 1 The preparation piece, i think, is the same. But as it's going on, if it is a free flowing activity, may be a brain storming meeting, a feedback session, your job as a moderator is really to just guide and steer it in the direction That the participants are taking it. ([Time 0:03:15](https://share.snipd.com/snip/c9c70493-ecad-4097-abe6-d97021909bb2)) - The Moderator's Role in Facilitating a Brainstorming Meeting Key takeaways: (* It is important to be aware of the psychological component of moderating an interaction., * It is important to be direct when necessary to keep the discussion on track.) Transcript: Speaker 1 The preparation piece, i think, is the same. But as it's going on, if it is a free flowing activity, may be a brain storming meeting, a feedback session, your job as a moderator is really to just guide and steer it in the direction that the participants are taking it. In a more formal situation, like a panel or a decision making meeting, you have to be much more direct ifyou have to keep things on track. You have to be monitoring the agenda and the time ind the different types of contribution. There might be power dynamics at play. It may be the case that somebody is acting away. They're acting because they have additional information that they can't share. It may be that the person had a bad interaction before they came into the situation. So it's also very important to, while moderating, while facilitating, to take a step back and try to understand at a meada level, what's going on in the interaction, and perhaps decide to act on it, give some direct feedback or guidance, or perhaps pull back and do some of that, either on the side. Speaker 2 Or it's so fascinating because there's a psychological component here, which is, it's the difference between whether you go into an interaction any kind, whether one on one, a group, whatever, seeking to understand or seeking to be understood. That's where i see the fundamental dynamic, or where many communications break down, is when both people have very different, flicting agendas. So i get segway to one of the questions i wanted to ask you, which is, how do you manage in this one of the most topehine things in this environment, to day, on line, virtil in person. ([Time 0:04:37](https://share.snipd.com/snip/509eeec1-d821-4a8c-acd6-87eeb41c5535)) - How to Use Paraphrasing to Facilitate Better Conversations Key takeaways: • Preparation is key when facilitating a conversation. Anything you can do to set yourself up for success will be helpful. • Paraphrasing is an important tool for facilitators, as it allows them to hear the bot line and extract the critical gist of what is being said. Transcript: Speaker 1 Sure. So in all those tricky situations, again, pre work matters. Anything you can do to set yourself up for success. Talking to people in advance so you set their expectations, giving some ground rules for what you expect if it gets unruly. Your biggest friend is paraphrasing. I really think the ability to paraphrase is the most essential tool a facilitator needs to have in his or her back pocket. Let me explain first what i mean by paraphrasing, and then give you some examples of how to use it. So when i'm speaking about paraphrasing, i'm talking about listening to hear what is the bot line, the critical gist of what somebody is saying. And this requires a very different type of listening. Most of the time when we listen, we're just listening to get a vague idea of what someone's saying, and then we begin formulating our response or rehearsing it. But when you're listening to paraphrase, you're really trying to figure out what's the bottom and here's how paraphrasing can really help you, if somebody is going off on a tangent, Or if somebody is just loviating, or they're trying to figure out what it is they want to contribute, extract something of value to you or to the conversation that you're trying to facilitate, Highlight it, then link or bridge to a different topic. So imagine that you're about to take us further on a tangent. I can simply say, h that point you just made about x, that's really important, and in fact, it ties nicely to and all of a sudden, i've taken control back. ([Time 0:06:34](https://share.snipd.com/snip/f5b70a94-cace-4424-8624-1e5b2f06e1a9))