Facilitation (business) Facilitation in business, organizational development (OD), and in consensus decision-making refers to the process of designing and running a successful meeting.
The role of the facilitator (see below) Setting ground rules Often disregarded by those untrained in facilitation, setting ground rules is a key component of the facilitation process especially in meetings convened to discuss difficult problems or for training. These rules are usually reiterated in some form at the outset of a facilitated meeting or workshop to ensure participants understand the various roles being employed and the responsibilities accorded to each.
Consulting with the client A facilitator will work with a client who is someone in an organisation, or diverse group, who is calling them and has invited the facilitator to assist. Making arrangements for the meeting The practical arrangements will be arranged or managed by the facilitator. Understanding group dynamics Same time same place Same time different place. Meeting. Divergent Thinking. Visual Thinking.
1. 1-2-4-All. Engage Everyone Simultaneously in Generating Questions, Ideas, and Suggestions (12 min.)
What is made possible? You can immediately include everyone regardless of how large the group is. You can generate better ideas and more of them faster than ever before. You can tap the know-how and imagination that is distributed widely in places not known in advance. Open, generative conversation unfolds. Five Structural Elements – Min Specs 1. Ask a question in response to the presentation of an issue, or about a problem to resolve or a proposal put forward (e.g., What opportunities do YOU see for making progress on this challenge?
2. Unlimited number of groupsSpace for participants to work face-to-face in pairs and foursomesChairs and tables optionalPaper for participants to record observations and insights 3. Everyone in the group is included (often not the facilitator)Everyone has an equal opportunity to contribute 4. Start alone, then in pairs, then foursomes, and finally as a whole group 5. 2. Impromptu Networking. Impromptu Networking Rapidly Share Challenges and Expectations, Build New Connections (20 min.)
What is made possible? You can tap a deep well of curiosity and talent by helping a group focus attention on problems they want to solve. A productive pattern of engagement is established if used at the beginning of a working session. Loose yet powerful connections are formed in 20 minutes by asking engaging questions. Five Structural Elements – Min Specs 1. Ask, “What big challenge do you bring to this gathering? 3. Nine Whys. Nine Whys Make the Purpose of Your Work Together Clear (20 min.)
If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea. Antoine de Saint-Exupery What is made possible? With breathtaking simplicity, you can rapidly clarify for individuals and a group what is essentially important in their work. Five Structural Elements – Min Specs 1. Ask, “What do you do when working on ______ (the subject matter or challenge at hand)? 15. Improv Prototyping. Improv Prototyping Develop Effective Solutions to Chronic Challenges While Having Serious Fun (20 min. per round) To be playful is not to be trivial or frivolous, or to act as if nothing of consequence will happen.
On the contrary, when we are playful with one another, we relate as free persons, and the relationship is open to surprise; everything that happens is of consequence, for seriousness is a dread of the unpredictable outcomes of open possibility. 17. Conversation Café. Conversation Café Engage Everyone in Making Sense of Profound Challenges (35-60 min.)
What is made possible? You can include and engage any number of people in making sense of confusing or shocking events and laying the ground for new strategies to emerge. The format of the Conversation Café helps people have calm and profound conversations in which there is less debating and arguing, and more listening. 19. Heard, Seen, Respected (HSR) Heard, Seen, Respected (HSR) Practice Deeper Listening and Empathy with Colleagues (35 min.)
Empathy removes the blocks to action in a way that is inclusive. It creates power through partnership and cocreation, resolving what appears to be knotted and bound. – Dominic Barter. 20. Drawing Together. Drawing Together Reveal Insights and Paths Forward Through Nonverbal Expression (40 min.)
A vivid imagination compels the whole body to obey. – Aristotle What is made possible? You can help people access hidden knowledge such as feelings, attitudes, and patterns that are difficult to express with words. When people are tired, their brains are full, and they have reached the limits of logical thinking, you can help them evoke ideas that lie outside logical, step-by-step understanding of what is possible. Five Structural Elements – Min Specs 1. Invite participants to tell a story about a challenge they face, or a common challenge, using only five symbols and no words 2. An open wall with tapestry paper or easels with blank pages in flip chartsWater-based markers; soft pastels if you are feeling colorful 3.
Everyone is included since the five symbols are easy for everyone to drawAll participants make their individual drawings simultaneously.
Conversation. Collective Intelligence.