The facilitator also needs to know how much time is available for the meeting, and get a sense of priority for the items and how much time they are likely to take. Many facilitators quietly make their own working assessment of priorities and times and tackle items accordingly, leaving room for objection, and reassessing along the way. Handling agenda items Generally, you should begin addressing an item by having someone speak to it. The facilitator can speak to items, but generally shouldn't speak to too many. It's helpful to recognize that each item on an agenda is either just informational, something needing some discussion, or something needing discussion and a decision.
Informational items are easy.
Most items are decision-making items. See Working through decisions below. After a decision is made it's critical to cover any implementation matters, like who is going to do what and how is it to be done. Sometimes, often in the euphoria of achieving a consensual decision, the group moves on without figuring out and assigning the tasks needed to put it into action. The facilitator can take agenda items in order, or use some other approach.