You're navigating communication breakdowns in a diverse workshop. How can you ensure everyone stays engaged?

Acknowledge everyone’s perspectives - which requires active listening so you can articulate back what people have said correctly so they feel heard. Let people speak but if there are things said that cross the line with regards to professionalism they must be addressed as such or you risk loosing the whole room. Remain as impartial as possible and role model respect in inviting everyone into the conversation. Move on if things get too heated and have one-to-one follow ups where appropriate.

Eye contact, nodding, and paraphrasing are great things to do, but there is a shortcut to active listening: Be genuinely interested in what the other person is saying. When I am genuinely trying to understand, I do all these active listening techniques and more without having to put a lot of thought into it. If I'm not genuinely interested, if I've already made assumptions, or if I'm just waiting for my turn to speak, then all these techniques will fall short in the end.

I've found that clear objectives are one of the most important aspects of any productive communication breakthrough. When the objectives are murky, assumed, or glossed over, one party or another misunderstands something and this leads to more confusion. As annoying as it can be, it is also important for me to frequently and consistently repeat the objective(s) to keep everyone moving toward the same goal. I have seen many meetings, teams, and even organizations fall apart because the objectives became assumed and eventually forgotten.

Including everyone can be tricky. I have found that it means I need to be paying attention to who is contributing in a meeting and be proactive in asking the more thoughtful members to share what they are mulling over. This requires me to be more observant, watching for nonverbal cues in the faces and body language of participants to see when they have something the rest of the group may need to hear.

When I'm navigating the conflict between others, it's important for me to maintain a neutral position, regardless of where I stand on the issue. The goal is mediation and resolution, not me "winning" as the mediator.

I have found no particular rules to what makes the best breakout session, and I've often seen it vary depending on the group. Some groups need to break out into smaller groups of 5, while other groups may need one-on-one breakout sessions. Some groups need at least 10-20 minutes to discuss and work through the session, while others only need a few minutes to reach a breakthrough. It's more important to remain flexible to the needs of the particular group and it's needs at that time.