Taming the Talkers: How to Manage Dominant Participants Without Crushing Energy

Practical ways to balance airtime, manage strong voices, and make space for every participant.

Balancing airtime in a group is one of the hardest jobs for a facilitator. If one or two voices dominate, you lose diversity, creativity, and group ownership. Yet, shutting people down too abruptly risks killing the very energy you’re trying to harness.

I once ran a strategy workshop where one enthusiastic participant spoke for almost half the time. The …