Facilitation Skills

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Facilitation Skills
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Understanding Facilitation
Facilitation is a way of providing leadership
without taking the reins. As a facilitator your
job is to get others to assume responsibility and
to take the lead. Facilitators believe that two
heads are better than one. In order to do my
job, I need all the brains I have and all I can
borrow. Harry Truman
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Understanding Facilitation

• Facilitators make their contribution by
• Helping the group define its overall goals and
  its specific objectives
• Help members assess their needs and create plans
  to meet them.
• Provide processes that help members use their
  time effectively to make high-quality decisions.
• Guide group discussion to keep it on track.

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The Functions of a Facilitator
The facilitators job is to support everyone to
do their best thinking. To do this, the
facilitator has several important roles to
fulfill.

• The facilitator encourages full participation
• The facilitator promotes mutual understanding
• The facilitator fosters inclusive solutions
• The facilitator teaches new thinking skills

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Listening Skills

• Encouraging others to speak up
• Balancing viewpoints
• Making space
• Effectively using silence
• Listening for common ground

• Recognizing diverse communication styles
• Paraphrasing
• Drawing people out
• Mirroring
• Stacking
• Tracking

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Asking Questions

• There are two basic types of questions Open and
  Closed.
• Closed questions are those that can be answered
  by either yes or no or with a specific bit of
  data.
• Open questions, on the other hand, encourage
  people to talk.

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Questioning Dos and Donts
Do Dont
Ask clear, concise questions covering a single issue. Ask challenging questions that will stimulate thought. Ask reasonable questions based on what people know. Ask honest and relevant questions. Ask rambling ambiguous questions that cover multiple issues. Ask questions that dont provide an opportunity for thought. Ask questions that most people cant answer. Ask trick questions designed to fool them.
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Common Techniques

• Stay neutral on content
• Listen actively
• Ask questions
• Paraphrase to clarify
• Synthesize ideas
• Stay on track

• Give and receive feedback
• Test assumptions
• Collect ideas
• Summarize clearly
• Label sidetracks
• Park it
• Use the spell-check button

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Giving and Receiving Feedback

• Feedback can be about
• How the meeting is going
• How members are conducting themselves
• Whether or not the goal is being achieved
• How decisions are being made
• How the facilitator is doing

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Giving and Receiving Feedback

• Be descriptive rather than evaluative
• Be specific instead of general
• Solicit feedback rather than impose it
• Time it
• Focus on what can be changed
• Check the feedback
• Demonstrate caring

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The Eight-Step Feedback Process
Step 1 Ask permission to offer feedback Step 2
Describe specifically what you are observing Step
3 Tell them about the direct impact of their
actions Step 4 Give the other person(s) an
opportunity to explain Step 5 Draw out ideas
from the others Step 6 Offer specific
suggestions for improvement Step 7 Summarize
and express your support Step 8 Follow up

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Understanding Team Stages

1. Forming
2. Storming
3. Norming
4. Performing

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Performing teams have

• A clear team goal
• Established ground rules or norms
• Detailed work plans
• Clearly defined empowerment
• Clear and open communication
• Well-defined decision-making procedures
• Beneficial team behaviours
• Balanced participation
• Awareness of group process
• Well-planned and executed meetings with detailed
  agendas

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Facilitation at a Glance Chart

• To start a facilitation
• welcome participants
• introduce members
• explain your role
• clarify session goal
• ratify agenda
• explain the process
• set time frames
• appoint time keeper and minute taker
• start the discussion

• During a facilitation
• ask Hows this going?
• check the pace too fast, too slow?
• check whether the techniques are working
• take the pulse of members
• summarize periodically and at end of session

• To end a facilitation
• help members make a clear statement of what was
  decided
• develop clear text steps with dates and names
• round up leftover items
• help create next agenda
• clarify follow-up process
• evaluate the session

• Manage Conflict by
• Venting feelings
• Listen
• Empathize
• Clarify
• Resolving the issue
• Take a problem solving approach and end with
  clear action steps

Tool Kit Voting Questioning Brainstorming Idea Building
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Thank You!

• Thank you very much for your participation in
  todays event.
• Questions?
• Contact
• Lisa Lewis LL_at_beyond-excellence.ca