Have you ever left a meeting thinking, “That was pointless”? A key reason many meetings fail is the lack of clear roles and responsibilities. By assigning three core roles, Facilitator, Timekeeper, and Decision Director, you provide structure, accountability, and focus to your sessions. This simple shift can make your meetings more engaging, efficient, and outcome-oriented.
Let’s examine the roles that will make your meeting more effective: the facilitator, timekeeper, and decision-maker.
Why should you assign roles?
Why assign roles in meetings? Clear role assignment helps meetings by improving focus, boosting engagement, and increasing accountability. When everyone knows what they’re responsible for, discussions stay on track, decisions get made, and follow-ups happen. Especially in hybrid or remote settings, roles provide structure and ensure your meeting time drives value rather than wastes time.
What key roles will energise your meeting?
The three main roles during a meeting are facilitator, decision director, and time keeper.
Facilitator: Guides the Process & Engagement
This key person plays an important role in running a good meeting. They have to adapt their behaviour and their methods based on the group dynamics.
Are the participants falling asleep? The facilitator can kick off an interactive activity to get everyone re-engaged (like a Word cloud or a company tree).
Is one participant monopolising the discussion? The facilitator can change the meeting format and introduce an activity that enables everyone in the group to express their thoughts. For example, they can expand the discussion with a brainstorming session or take the group’s temperature with an ROTI activity).
The facilitator has to make sure:
- All attendees actively participate in the meeting
- Participants are will to share their viewpoints even when they’re opposing
- Participants listen to each other
- Debate doesn’t get bogged down
- Participants keep the goals in mind throughout the meeting
- Notes are taken throughout the meeting
To be successful in their role, here are the key things the facilitator should and shouldn’t do.
What to do:
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Restate meeting goals and remind participants throughout.
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Observe group dynamics and call on quieter participants.
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Stay neutral on content, guide the process, and ensure all viewpoints are shared.
What not to do:
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Imposing your own viewpoint or controlling the substance.
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Ignoring silences or speaking only to some participants.
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Focusing on content instead of managing the flow.
Decision Director: Drives Decisions and Action Steps
This role consists of effectively supporting participants through the process of making decisions. This task can sometimes be done by the facilitator but it should most often be assigned to someone who can then take responsibility for the decision.
Should the decision be taken through consensus or a majority vote? Are the decisions the group is getting ready to take realistic and applicable? Who will take responsibility for implementing the actions related to the decision?
There are lots of responsibilities to assign to decision directors!
To play this role successfully, here’s what the decision director should and shouldn’t do.
What to do:
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Decide the decision-making method (consensus, majority, directive).
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Ensure the group has the right info/skills to decide.
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Assign responsibility and deadlines for implementing decisions.
What not to do:
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Influence the decision by showing your preference.
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Allow unrealistic decisions or leave actions unassigned.
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Treat decision-making as an afterthought.
Timekeeper: Keeps the Meeting On Track
To accomplish a meeting’s goals, facilitators and decision directors have a tendency to go deeper into discussions, which can make the meeting run long. You need a time keeper to counterbalance this natural tendency and keep the meeting to a reasonable length.
Their role is just as important before the meeting as during. Before it starts, the time keeper makes sure the time allotted for each activity is realistic. For example, a 10-minute brainstorming activity on a topic that’s critical for the group is unlikely to end on time.
To play this role successfully, here’s what the time keeper[K.1] should and shouldn’t do.
What to do:
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Pre-set realistic time blocks for each agenda item.
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Remind participants of time remaining during the meeting.
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Coordinate with the Facilitator and Decision Director to adjust pace if discussion runs long.
What not to do:
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Simply announce “time’s up” without facilitating transition.
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Let one topic over-run and push out the rest of the agenda.
What other roles can to take your meetings to the next level?
- The scribe is responsible for taking notes and creating the meeting report. Ideally, the scribe will share the notes they take live.
- The graphic designer creates a visual representation of what is discussed. Their illustration will ideally be shared in real time. This practice improves comprehension and helps people look at things from a new perspective.
- The illustrator supports the meeting through illustrations, usually in caricature form, to help participants get a new perspective. Their drawings are shared at the end of the meeting.
- The improv actor acts out a few skits during the meeting to help participants analyse a situation.