How to moderate a panel discussion

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back on February 19, 2020 I posted on the topic of Excellent articles about moderating a panel discussion from Kristin Arnold. There are many other discussions about this topic. A vintage one is a brief article by Guy Kawasaki on March 7, 2006 titled How to Be a Great Moderator. Another by David Meerman Scott on September 6, 2022 is titled Don’t Be Boring! Top 10 Ways to Effectively Moderate a Panel Discussion.

 

There also are a couple brief recent articles in Toastmaster magazine. One is by Joel Schwartzberg in the June 2023 issue, on pages 18 and 19, titled A Panel Moderator’s Guide to Success. His ten tips are:

 

Know the topic.

Know the panelists.

Prepare your questions wisely.

Introduce yourself and the panelists.

Convey the objective.

Contextualize the questions.

Respond to answers when it adds value.

Spread the wealth.

Watch your time.

Wrap it up.

 

Another article by Kristin Arnold in the June 2020 issue, on pages 22 to 24, is titled How to Moderate a Panel Discussion Virtually. Her twelve tips are:

 

Prepare.

Know your platform.

Select, invite, and confirm interesting panelists.

Craft great questions.

Select the Q&A format.

Practice.

Start strong.

Keep the conversation moving.

Shift gears.

Be positive.

Put a bow on it.

Have a backup plan.

 

There also is a fifteen-page pdf whitepaper at Mandel in 2021 titled How to Facilitate Great Panel Discussions. And there is also a thirteen-page page pdf article from May 2021 by the Association of Food and Drug Officials (AFDO) titled Creating, Coordinating, and Moderating a Successful Panel Discussion.

 

And, of course, at YouTube there is a fifteen-minute video by Kristin Arnold on December 8, 2023 titled How to Moderate A Panel Like A Pro.

 

The image was rotated and cropped from this one at Wikimedia Commons.

 

 

Bikablo – using visual dictionaries to make serious cartoons for getting your ideas across

Over a decade ago a German consulting group in Cologne produced a visual dictionary book for training people in how to do graphic facilitation. In my last blog post titled Getting your big ideas across by using simple cartoons – learning from graphic or visual facilitators I noted that an introductory web page from Brandy Agerbeck defined:

“Graphic facilitation is the practice of using words and images to create a conceptual map of a conversation. A graphic facilitator is the visual, usually silent partner to the traditional, verbal facilitator, drawing a large scale image at the front of the room in real-time.”

As is shown above, that visual dictionary was a spiral-bound block of picture cards (a bild karten block). A typical German description would be to string together those three words into a long compound one. Instead they mercifully just took the first few letters from each, and trademarked the word bikablo.

A three-minute YouTube video titled Frank Wesseler’s quick demo of the bikablo method shows how bikablo works.

It contains an example of how to represent an idea, solution or inspiration by drawing a light bulb - which you can easily remember via the letters U, Z, M, and O, as shown above. That’s excellent for making flip charts of putting into PowerPoint.

There is a web page describing the first book (Bikablo 1), a downloadable 21-page pdf description (with a keyword index), and a German YouTube video whose description translates to:

“Bikablo® 1 is your ticket to the world of visualization: Martin Haussmann has put together hundreds of successful pictograms and keyframes and sorted them into 120 pages. This visual dictionary is specifically tailored to the needs of visualizing trainers, facilitators and consultants. The drawings are so simple that you can easily mark them with felt markers, vary them and recombine them on the flip chart. In the latest edition, we have completely revised our bestseller and adapted to the current, once again simplified drawing technique.”

There also is another web page describing their second book (Bikablo 2.0), a downloadable 16-page pdf description (with a keyword index), and another German YouTube video whose description translates to:

“The successor to bikablo® 1 continues the success story and expands the visual vocabulary with new image motifs. It starts with tips and tricks for quick visualization, followed by the most popular figures, graphics, pictograms and poster layouts. The main part consists of keyframes on dialogue methods, situations in team and leadership, personality and organizational development up to project management and IT. So if you are looking for simple yet sophisticated image ideas, bikablo® 2.0 should not be missing in your moderation case.”

There is yet another web page describing their third book (Bikablo Emotions), a downloadable 11-page pdf description, and yet another German YouTube video.

I had not heard of Bikablo before I found a web article at The Illinois Model by Lou Hayes, jr. on March 2, 2019 titled Presentation Hack: Death by Bikablo.

Getting your big ideas across by using simple cartoons – learning from graphic or visual facilitators

An introductory web page from Brandy Agerbeck defines that:

“Graphic facilitation is the practice of using words and images to create a conceptual map of a conversation. A graphic facilitator is the visual, usually silent partner to the traditional, verbal facilitator, drawing a large scale image at the front of the room in real-time.”

In 2012 she published a 306 page book titled The Graphic Facilitator’s Guide: how to use your listening, thinking & drawing skills to make meaning. You can find an excerpt.

Simple cartoons like Doug Savage’s Savage Chickens can convey lots of information. For an example, see this 2013 one about those nasty interview questions on your greatest weakness. Cartoons can wind up either on flip charts or in PowerPoint presentations.  

As shown above, how to draw is demonstrated in a 4-1/2 minute YouTube video titled Learning Graphic Facilitation – 7 Elements by Bigger Picture. Two follow ups are a three-minute video titled Learning Graphic Facilitation – Tools by Bigger Picture and a four-minute video titled Learning Graphic Facilitation – 8th Element by Bigger Picture.

How can you begin learning this pared-down style of drawing without attending a training course? There is a free 89-page Visual Facilitation Cookbook from 2016 by Torben Grocholl, Deniss Jershov and Kati Orav which is described in a web page and can be downloaded. Pages 31 to 35 are very useful illustrations of visual vocabulary for concepts. Goodreads has a web page with a list of 42 Popular Graphic Facilitation Books.

Ideas for props and visual aids from BusinessBalls

I found a very useful web page from the English firm BusinessBalls Ltd. titled Visual Aids and Props Ideas. It lists and discusses almost 70 ideas for props, including the use of an oilcan for the role of facilitator:

“…The concept of lubricating and liberating, without actually becoming part of the machinery or structure, enabling people and teams to work better – enabling them to do it, not doing it for them.”

The cartoon was modified from a February 1, 1911 Puck magazine at the Library of Congess. An image of an oilcan by Wammes Waggel is from Wikimedia Commons.