The facilitator can help the group leadership maximize the benefit of interactions with high-value resource people outside the group (i.e., technical experts) by considering targeted and strategic questions like these in advance:

• What kinds of information do you want the guest resource person to provide to this group to help it accomplish its work?
• What questions would you pose to trigger discussion on these points?
• What does this group have to offer this resource person?
• What do you want to have gotten out of this by the time the conversation is over (by way of agreements, commitments of support, financial assistance, invitations, access to research or data)?
• How might you distribute questions across the working group to give more members the opportunity to interact directly with the resource person? Who is the best group member to raise each question (presuming it can be tied to a particular group member’s expertise or interest)?
• In what ways might this resource person assist in the implementation of the report recommendations?