We’re trying something new! We’re going to be highlighting a card every month so you can get to know the deck one process at a time. First up? One of our all-time favorite processes in the Facilitator Cards deck: HOT SEAT.
Looking for a way to contain a q&a session, ask an expert, or even liven up the energy of a clarifying discussion? 🔥Hot Seat🔥 is the card for you!
Discussion not going the way you thought it would? Run a Hot Seat!
Got a participant with a ton of knowledge to share? Put ‘em in the Hot Seat!
Want to purposefully shift the dynamics of the group? Hot Seat, Hot Seat «chanting intensifies» Hot Seat!
Here’s how to do it
A lot of times in a facilitated session the conversation is happening in the full group and we’re all contributing thoughts and opinions of equal value. Hot Seat flips that script and explicitly says that someone is the expert.
In person, we do this by literally putting that person at the front of the room. During virtual sessions, we replicate that by spotlighting them (or highlighting them in some way on the platform).
Once they’re up there, have the group ask questions of that person specifically. They can ask clarifying questions, follow-up questions, etc. This conversation can be highly facilitated, or a more hands-off approach.
Hot Seat is an activity that is so simple it can feel like it’s not a process or activity at all. At its core, it’s just asking questions. But naming that structure changes the very nature of a Q&A. We always refer to Hot Seat as Hot Seat when we’re doing it. We’re not trying to smoke & mirror our way through it. We’re naming the steps the whole time!
Facilitation usually assumes that there’s a lot of dispersed knowledge throughout the group. Hot Seat is great for the times that that knowledge is concentrated in just a few beings and we as the group are going to surface it together.
When it’s useful
We find Hot Seat especially useful when it would be helpful to center one person’s voice. That might be because they have a unique experience, more exposure to certain content, higher levels of expertise, or a standout stance or opinion that you and the group want to dig into.
A lot of times in facilitation we’re trying to bring the group together and aspiring to hear from everyone in order to gain as much perspective as possible. What’s great about Hot Seat is that it breaks all of those norms explicitly, which allows it to feel and operate very differently.
Hot Seat works great as a pre-planned part of an agenda and works just as well on the fly. We often run a sudden Hot Seat if a participant’s comment or question has clearly sparked curiosity from others and we want to honor the specific traits that they can bring into the convo.
Hot Seat will add variety and structure to generic share-outs. Say you’re at an all-hands meeting. Rather than Go-Around Sharing what each department has been up to, highlight a department rep to put in the Hot Seat, and have the rest of the departments ask them questions. The conversation is suddenly much more relevant to the things those other departments care about/need to know!
Now it’s your turn
Never run a Hot Seat before? Give it a try! This is our friendly challenge to try one in an upcoming meeting or workshop (mega bonus points if you email us at hello@facilitator.card to tell us how it went!!).