Meetings: facilitation

As a facilitator you may be invited to manage a discussion, a meeting, a training program or one of a variety of other events where people come together to learn, assess, decide, or plan. These tips are useful across the board.

1. Know Your Role

A facilitator is NOT a motivator, innovator, leader, expert, negotiator, mediator, partisan participant, influencer or promoter of positions or maker of decisions.  A facilitator IS a catalyst, a coach and neutral when it comes to views.  Overall your role is to clarify points, progress a discussion, and help a group achieve its goals. 

• As a catalyst, bring people into the process, keep up the flow, and draw it to a conclusion.  Keep people talking, interacting, reacting, sharing information, exchanging ideas, resolving dilemmas, settling differences, competing, cooperating, taking decisions, agreeing to disagree or coming to agreement and action plan. 
• As coach help people identify problems and clarify perspectives, solve problems and make plans to put ideas into practice.  Discourage prejudice, welcome views, keep people on track toward the goal. 

Identify your own strong opinions in advance and set them aside.  Keep a neutral face during discussion even if someone champions your pet position. Watch out for the 'halo effect' that drives you to encourage or champion views similar to your own or ignore people with whom you disagree.  

2. Be Prepared

• Be conversant with the topic.  If it is training, become familiar with the interactive elements and what you will be expected to do. 
• Learn the agenda, aims, purposes and intended outcomes. 
• Ask for background on the balance of views in the group.
• If the topic is provocative, controversial, or otherwise potentially divisive, consider the variety of ways people might see the problem or respond to the issue.  Prepare some responses to bold or aggressive statements.  Prepare questions that encourage reluctant or resistant people to participate. 
• Write out an introduction that is balanced, captures the issues, and sets the tone.  Practice your delivery; aim to appear neutral yet interested and engaged.

3. Prepare to Keep Everyone Involved

Prepare to manage people who press prematurely for conclusion, force points of view, delay decision or take side roads in discussion. Know the theory and practice of Team Roles. They apply to types in discussion settings. Prepare open questions aiming to involve people in each category and also responses that divert or redirect people in these categories.

4. Arrange the Setting

• Get the room shape right.
• Provide pencil and paper for all, including for you.
• Prepare extra copies of all handouts.
• Have an abundant supply of flip chart paper. Ideally the type that has semi-adhesive backing on each sheet - or have plenty of Blu Tack.  Flips charts are  invaluable for brainstorming, notes, record keeping and sharing work easily among small groups.  .
• Check that the room lighting is bright and clear.  Dim bulbs and cloudy illumination make people restless. 
• Make sure the heating / air conditioning is under your control.  Stuffy rooms put people to sleep and cold rooms are distracting.  Make sure there is sufficient ventilation.
• Check that equipment is in good working order.  Know where the light switches are. Keep most of the equipment out of the way but ensure it moves easily .
• Plan breaks and opportunities for people to walk around.
• If the organizers don’t provide lunch, prepare a list of restaurants nearby. 
• If the discussion is formal, arrange for someone to minute the meeting.

5. Set the stage

• Present your introduction and explain your role and its boundaries. 
• Remind the group that individuals are responsible for behavior and ultimately for the extent of participation.
• Establish equal participation as desirable.
• Agree …
• aims, goals, hoped-for outcomes, the agenda, roles, rules and procedures.
• a time limit on individual commentary and who will enforce it.
• the use of politically correct language. 

6. Keep the Discussion Moving Ahead

• Brainstorm
• Brainstorming pulls down barriers and unleashes creativity.  Ask people to brainstorm anything from an agenda to key issues, from options to an action plan.  Stick flip chart sheets to the wall.
• Recap 
• When the group seems stuck, draw people in by reviewing where you are, where you want to go and how to get there.
• Echo
• If someone asks you a question, turn it back to the group.  Betty turns to you and says, “Why aren’t we getting anywhere?” You ask the group “Betty is right.  We seem to be stuck.  What do you think is keeping us from moving ahead?”
• Restate
• If people seem confused, rephrase the point.  Ben says, “It’s society’s fault.  No one lives near anyone any more.”  You might say, “So, Ben, you think there’s a rise in crime because the notion of traditional family has changed?”
• Be frank
• If you notice a problem, state it openly.  If you sense anxiety, you may say, “I sense a lot of anxiety.  Am I right?” or “Many people seem anxious.  What do you think is causing this anxiety?” 
• Repeat
• If people breach agreements, remind the group of decisions they made.  “We decided to open out the discussion and examine options.  It seems we are moving instead toward making a decision.  Let’s return to considering options, as we agreed, and then we’ll look at deciding which option we choose.”
• Track
• Keep track of the discussion threads.  Keep notes and refer to them.  If the discussion wanders off course, remind the group about where they’d been going and ask them to return to the topic.
• Acknowledge
• Acknowledge and respond to all comments.  If one is not appropriate at the time, agree to return to it and say when you will do that.  “Steve, I know you have been waiting to explain that technique.  I will ask you to do that when we are considering the scenario planning option.”

Read further.

7. Be Proactive

Silence can be useful as people think, reflect, consider and plan.  Nevertheless if an individual isn’t participating, don’t ask the person a direct question while in a large group.  Talk with that person during a break and try to find out why.  Or, break the large group into groups of two.  That usually reduces the shyness and provides confidence.  If you have several reluctant participants, break into groups of two and then merge into groups of four followed by groups of six.  As people gain confidence most will open up when the full group resumes.

Too much talking, insistence, sulking, and whispering infringe on the group’s agreements.  Approach the problem indirectly.  “Your point of view is interesting, and you’ve explained it well, Mary.  Stephen, what do you think is the way ahead?”  Or, approach the problem directly.  “We agreed that equal participation is a goal for us all.  Let’s remember to give everyone a voice.”

8. Use Icebreakers With Caution

Icebreakers are activities that may reduce shyness and help people feel at ease with one another.  Choose clever, meaningful, surprising, interesting icebreakers. Consider activities that inspire and enlighten.  Always choose activities that are dignified.  Once a trainer asked a group, including me, to form pairs.  One of us was an animal and the other the animal’s owner.  The animal was to make sounds that let the owner know what the animal needs.  It was supposed to improve communication.  We rolled our collective eyes and went through it, though for the rest of the morning no one paid the trainer any attention. 

• If the group is composed of strangers, gain agreement for using an icebreaker, or ask each person to introduce him- or herself.  People often don’t like the latter but it can reveal common ground on which they eventually build.
• If the people know one another but don’t work together, watch the interactions and decide whether an icebreaker or other introductory exercise would be useful. 
• If they work in the same unit but on different or competing teams, always use a short icebreaker activity. 
• If they are on the same team, you won’t need an icebreaker in order to open the lines of communication. 

9. Use Training Games to Promote Participation

Improve participation and outcomes by using experiential activities and interactive training games.  They reveal different types of thinking, feeling and analysis patterns. 

• Choose games that call on the experiential mind and the rational mind. 
• Choose games that require practical, creative and analytic abilities. 
• Choose games that tap into the Gardner Seven intelligence types:  linguistic, logical-mathematical, kinesthetic (physical), spatial, musical, interpersonal and intrapersonal (understanding yourself).  Take the time to search carefully.

Use a training game after lunch when people are sleepy or prone to boredom.  Use one to revive a sense of fun and reintroduce people to one another.  Use a training game after lunch if the morning discussion was acrimonious or fraught.

10. Debrief Feelings First

Before discussing the practical outcomes, ask people how they feel about the event and the results.  Most people will have strong feelings that will distract from objective examination and analysis unless expressed.  Let people know that they may not include personal attack.  After debriefing feelings and reactions, review the accomplishments.  The flip chart sheets and your notes may be useful. 

Take a look at these:

• Working together profile
• Open and closed questions exercise
• Role of the facilitator
• Styles of facilitation
• Facilitation skills and tips
• Emotion
• Politics in organisations
• Listening
• Bad behaviour