Document Actions
Top Ten Tips for Skilled Facilitation
Top Ten Tips for Skilled Facilitation
Credit to Julian Griggs of Dovetail Consulting
1. Manage Time Carefully: Drawn-out and unproductive conversations frustrate everyone – but heavy-handedness is rarely well received either. Instead, try the following: appoint a time keeper (to share the responsibility with a group member); clarify the time available for each agenda item at the start of the discussion; and remind people of the time in a low key manner.
2. Draw People Out and Encourage Creativity: Group members are often fearful of introducing ideas that are not well developed, or that run counter to current wisdom. But it is important to draw those ideas out, to encourage innovation and creativity. To do this, you can: ask questions that solicit new ideas; make an explicit appeal to suspend judgement for a specified portion of discussion; use a discussion format that encourages creative thinking; and change group structure (e.g. break into small groups to create a less threatening environment for expressing new ideas).
3. Paraphrase: After hearing someone speak, it is often helpful to sum up what they have said. Facilitators need to be able to listen to a complex or lengthy statement and boil it down to something succinct for the benefit of the group. Paraphrasing also reassures speakers that they have been heard, and helps them know whether they have communicated clearly.
4. Clarify and Probe (with caution): This technique can help the speaker to be clearer as they articulate their idea. Tools for clarifying include: gently revealing apparent ambiguity in the speaker’s comments; asking for examples or elaboration; and gently checking out what you think you hear people implying. Do be careful when probing that you aren’t trying to subtly control group discussion, especially when it is important for you to remain non-interventionist.
5. Summarize Key Points: This can be challenging, and you need to strike a good balance between completeness and clarity. You can check whether your summary is correct with a statement like “Here’s a quick take on what I think has been said… Have I captured most of the key points accurately? Is there anything I have missed or misconstrued?” Be careful not to open up the discussion again once it has been closed, though.
6. Use Graphics to Summarize Ideas: They can be a valuable tool for framing discussions and can provide a map to guide discussions that follows. Facilitators should develop advanced skills in using graphics to convey ideas. Don’t be afraid to experiment, but back off if the diagram doesn’t seem to be helping!
7. Use the Flipchart: This can fulfil several functions: it signals to the speaker that their ideas have been acknowledged; it helps to ensure that ideas are communicated and received clearly; it helps group members follow the thread of the conversation and frees them to concentrate on the present; it can help moderate the pace of discussion; and it serves as a record of the group’s discussion.
8. Even Out Participation: The facilitator’s role is to make sure that there are opportunities for all to participate, while acknowledging that different group members generally need different amounts of air time. You can do this by: reinforcing ground rules (ie., reminding the group if they agreed to try to hear from everyone); clarifying how much time is available for this topic; encouraging those who haven’t spoken; and changing the format for discussion (ie., using a go-round, or breaking into sub-groups.)
9. Manage the Sequence of Speakers: The most common way to do this is with a list; however, simple lists don’t work well in large groups and complex discussions. Sometimes a facilitator can strike a balance by allowing people not on the list to jump in when their comments follow directly on the previous one. Another creative option is to establish signals – for instance, a group can agree that holding up a red card indicates new ideas to be voiced, while a blue card indicates a comment that links directly to the previous speaker.
10. Name the Process: This is an important step towards helping groups become more effective. Ways to do this include: making observations on the fly about how the discussion is progressing; doing quick evaluations of process along the way; and doing an evaluation at the end (“How did we do today? What did we do well? What could we improve?”)
Top Ten Screw-Ups for Facilitators
The following list has been adapted from the work of Robert Gass.
1. Death Grip: Getting tight and controlling like an insecure substitute teacher, and watching the group rebel like unruly school kids as you get more and more tight.
2. Bystander: Letting the group go on and on, getting nowhere, and painfully watching the life, energy and commitment drain from out of the group… and just letting it drag on, dying in front of your eyes, and you watch.
3. Focus Point: Allowing the interaction to become all hub and spoke with you at the centre. You try to fix it. There’s a question. You answer it. There’s a suggestion. You evaluate it.
4. Fear of Being Disliked: Being unwilling to make the tough confrontations because you want to be liked.
5. Process Hole: Engaging in long, long, long discussions about which process to use.
6. Arrogant Reprimand: Arrogantly scolding the group for not doing it right (like you had no part in it), making them feel badly, then criticizing them for getting defensive.
7. Blind to Power: Never clarifying where the power to decide really lies in the group, and watching everything unravel.
8. Disconnection from Real Issues: You join the group in descending into a bottomless pit of internal process, while all connection with the larger organization and external reality is lost.
9. Losing Neutrality: Subtly (or not so subtly) pushing your own point of view and agenda, while pretending to be facilitating.
10. Drifting on Agenda: Allowing time to be completely eaten up in the first two agenda items and never getting to the most important challenge facing the group.
Credit to Julian Griggs of Dovetail Consulting
1. Manage Time Carefully: Drawn-out and unproductive conversations frustrate everyone – but heavy-handedness is rarely well received either. Instead, try the following: appoint a time keeper (to share the responsibility with a group member); clarify the time available for each agenda item at the start of the discussion; and remind people of the time in a low key manner.
2. Draw People Out and Encourage Creativity: Group members are often fearful of introducing ideas that are not well developed, or that run counter to current wisdom. But it is important to draw those ideas out, to encourage innovation and creativity. To do this, you can: ask questions that solicit new ideas; make an explicit appeal to suspend judgement for a specified portion of discussion; use a discussion format that encourages creative thinking; and change group structure (e.g. break into small groups to create a less threatening environment for expressing new ideas).
3. Paraphrase: After hearing someone speak, it is often helpful to sum up what they have said. Facilitators need to be able to listen to a complex or lengthy statement and boil it down to something succinct for the benefit of the group. Paraphrasing also reassures speakers that they have been heard, and helps them know whether they have communicated clearly.
4. Clarify and Probe (with caution): This technique can help the speaker to be clearer as they articulate their idea. Tools for clarifying include: gently revealing apparent ambiguity in the speaker’s comments; asking for examples or elaboration; and gently checking out what you think you hear people implying. Do be careful when probing that you aren’t trying to subtly control group discussion, especially when it is important for you to remain non-interventionist.
5. Summarize Key Points: This can be challenging, and you need to strike a good balance between completeness and clarity. You can check whether your summary is correct with a statement like “Here’s a quick take on what I think has been said… Have I captured most of the key points accurately? Is there anything I have missed or misconstrued?” Be careful not to open up the discussion again once it has been closed, though.
6. Use Graphics to Summarize Ideas: They can be a valuable tool for framing discussions and can provide a map to guide discussions that follows. Facilitators should develop advanced skills in using graphics to convey ideas. Don’t be afraid to experiment, but back off if the diagram doesn’t seem to be helping!
7. Use the Flipchart: This can fulfil several functions: it signals to the speaker that their ideas have been acknowledged; it helps to ensure that ideas are communicated and received clearly; it helps group members follow the thread of the conversation and frees them to concentrate on the present; it can help moderate the pace of discussion; and it serves as a record of the group’s discussion.
8. Even Out Participation: The facilitator’s role is to make sure that there are opportunities for all to participate, while acknowledging that different group members generally need different amounts of air time. You can do this by: reinforcing ground rules (ie., reminding the group if they agreed to try to hear from everyone); clarifying how much time is available for this topic; encouraging those who haven’t spoken; and changing the format for discussion (ie., using a go-round, or breaking into sub-groups.)
9. Manage the Sequence of Speakers: The most common way to do this is with a list; however, simple lists don’t work well in large groups and complex discussions. Sometimes a facilitator can strike a balance by allowing people not on the list to jump in when their comments follow directly on the previous one. Another creative option is to establish signals – for instance, a group can agree that holding up a red card indicates new ideas to be voiced, while a blue card indicates a comment that links directly to the previous speaker.
10. Name the Process: This is an important step towards helping groups become more effective. Ways to do this include: making observations on the fly about how the discussion is progressing; doing quick evaluations of process along the way; and doing an evaluation at the end (“How did we do today? What did we do well? What could we improve?”)
Top Ten Screw-Ups for Facilitators
The following list has been adapted from the work of Robert Gass.
1. Death Grip: Getting tight and controlling like an insecure substitute teacher, and watching the group rebel like unruly school kids as you get more and more tight.
2. Bystander: Letting the group go on and on, getting nowhere, and painfully watching the life, energy and commitment drain from out of the group… and just letting it drag on, dying in front of your eyes, and you watch.
3. Focus Point: Allowing the interaction to become all hub and spoke with you at the centre. You try to fix it. There’s a question. You answer it. There’s a suggestion. You evaluate it.
4. Fear of Being Disliked: Being unwilling to make the tough confrontations because you want to be liked.
5. Process Hole: Engaging in long, long, long discussions about which process to use.
6. Arrogant Reprimand: Arrogantly scolding the group for not doing it right (like you had no part in it), making them feel badly, then criticizing them for getting defensive.
7. Blind to Power: Never clarifying where the power to decide really lies in the group, and watching everything unravel.
8. Disconnection from Real Issues: You join the group in descending into a bottomless pit of internal process, while all connection with the larger organization and external reality is lost.
9. Losing Neutrality: Subtly (or not so subtly) pushing your own point of view and agenda, while pretending to be facilitating.
10. Drifting on Agenda: Allowing time to be completely eaten up in the first two agenda items and never getting to the most important challenge facing the group.
